PH for anemones?

[POLARBEAR0871]

I went to the LFS yesterday and got my water checked and they said my PH was low and that's why my nems have been dying my PH was in the 7.8-7.9 range. What's it supposed to be at???


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[BigRedsReefs10]

Your nems have been dying because you haven't had (still don't) a strong enough light, chasing a perfect ph is a waste of time and money. I haven't ever checked the ph in my nano and my BTAs doubled in size in the last 2 months, but I have a light strong enough to support it...


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[Sniperhank]

I'm going to have to agree. We've been talking about your light for a long time now. Ph chasing is always a bad idea and leads to issues. That said, your ph isn't even in any 'danger' range and is in good shape.

[POLARBEAR0871]

Now you see I had a nem for close to 8 months running on a normal 14 watt t8 light. The only reason it does is from a chocolate chip star rating it. I've had several successes with t8 lighting systems for nems now my big problem started happening when I sold close to 5 pounds of rock. When that happened I lost 4 clowns to a random disease lost my corals and have lost about 2-3 nems. I have since then fixed the disease in the tank have not had anymore corals and have bought LEDs. I did research and this LED system I have can support SPS corals. I did more research to find out that nems need similar lighting to those corals. My LED is completely maxed out giving as much power as it possibly can (8,000k-12,00k white) now I also have that mixed with the blue (445nm/460nm blue) the daylight is a dual daylight and the blue is a dual actinic. Please tell me how I'm not getting enough light for a single nem? It doesn't make sense because a t8 can support two at once and this LED can't?


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[PB_Smith]

Originally Posted by POLARBEAR0871

Now you see I had a nem for close to 8 months running on a normal 14 watt t8 light. The only reason it does is from a chocolate chip star rating it. I've had several successes with t8 lighting systems for nems now my big problem started happening when I sold close to 5 pounds of rock. When that happened I lost 4 clowns to a random disease lost my corals and have lost about 2-3 nems. I have since then fixed the disease in the tank have not had anymore corals and have bought LEDs. I did research and this LED system I have can support SPS corals. I did more research to find out that nems need similar lighting to those corals. My LED is completely maxed out giving as much power as it possibly can (8,000k-12,00k white) now I also have that mixed with the blue (445nm/460nm blue) the daylight is a dual daylight and the blue is a dual actinic. Please tell me how I'm not getting enough light for a single nem? It doesn't make sense because a t8 can support two at once and this LED can't?


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something else must be going on.
I can't think of any reason removing rock would instigate such issues unless it had a drastic impact on the biological filtration capacity of the system and your water quality suffered.

when you say "random disease" what were the symptoms?

while your ph isn't in a danger zone, it ideally should be 8.0 or a bit higher, but as was mentioned, trying to adjust ph is wrought with issues and is more risky than leaving it be.
You could add some aragonite rock/sand to help buffer it more, but definitely don't attempt to adjust it with chemicals or additives.

[POLARBEAR0871]

The clowns had a weird disease there weren't really any symptoms except this clear slim that covered them it started with my damsel and then progressed onto four clowns one being a Picasso (I was not happy) I later found out it was a disease that usually only clowns and damsels get I forgot the name of it. My tank is completely all natural I have no filter in the tank at all I use just rock as my filter in the tank and a power head for current everything else I leave to the rock to do.


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[PB_Smith]

Originally Posted by POLARBEAR0871

The clowns had a weird disease there weren't really any symptoms except this clear slim that covered them it started with my damsel and then progressed onto four clowns one being a Picasso (I was not happy) I later found out it was a disease that usually only clowns and damsels get I forgot the name of it. My tank is completely all natural I have no filter in the tank at all I use just rock as my filter in the tank and a power head for current everything else I leave to the rock to do.


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it was probably brookinella disease.

if all you rely on for filtration is the live rock, well there is 85% of your problem right there, especially if you removed some.
Regardless of all the Swiss/German hoopla, an enclosed ecosystem like your tank needs more than just some rock with bacteria in it, unless you keep the bio-load very, very light, IMHO.

if you have no skimmer or filtration than you are not removing enough waste from your system and I have real doubts about just how much of a bio-load your system can maintain.
The problem with running a system as you are is you only have a razors thin margin of error before things go south.

I would venture a guess that your removing some of the live rock initiated a cascade of poor water quality, stressed the fish and suppressed their immune system and they succumbed to disease.

I always go with a filtration scheme that can manage double the bio-load I intend to have.