sudden anemone shriveling

[newtoreefs]

I just "inherited" a saltwater reef aquarium from a friend who has been transferred to Japan with the military. She gave me ample instructions and set it up for me in my house. Everything has been fine for two weeks and I changed the water at 1.5 weeks so that the water changes will happen on the weekend. It's a 55 gallon tank with a 15 gallon sump. The protein skimmer appears to be fine. I have the daylight on for 8 hours and blue lights on for 2 hours. There is live rock, 2 tangs, one pseudochromis, one unknown fish type, a mated pair of clown fish, one brittlestar, at least one peppermint shrimp (there should be two), a bunch of crabs, snails, a brain coral, a branch coral, some stony corals, a bunch of mushrooms, and two anemone. Yesterday, the female clown fish laid eggs (I think). Today, I got home during "moonlight" and the upper anemone was shriveled beyond belief. It looks dead. Definitely not a "night time" look. The rest of the aquarium looks pristine. Everything is bouncing along just fine. The pH just measured 8.0, the alkalinity is 3.0 mE/L, the calcium yesterday was 495 mg/L, the specific gravity is 1.024, and the temp is 79. What could cause the sudden shriveling? My husband said the anemone looked really good (better than usual) earlier today. I introduced the pseudochromis, one very small stony coral, and a soft coral last weekend. All appear to be fine. I added a Reef builder to raise the alkalinity and correct the pH. I also added salt water to raise the specific gravity.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Welcome to the hobby and this forum! Fun fun fun

How did you mix the saltwater?
What was the need to fix the PH and Alk if did the water change?
Where are the nitrates and ammonia at?

 

[mmkeeper]

Welcome to RF. Welcome to the world of keeping anemones. They can go thru all kinds of shapes and look like death then look health as can be. Something most likely bothered it. Water, temp, flow, light, another tank inhabitant.

 

[newtoreefs]

Welcome to the hobby and this forum! Fun fun fun

How did you mix the saltwater?
What was the need to fix the PH and Alk if did the water change?
Where are the nitrates and ammonia at?

The anemone seems to have bounced back. THanks for replying, though. I'm extremely nervous after reading all the horror stories that things go badly in saltwater aquarium at the slightest hint of something wrong.

I am curious about your questions, though. The pH was at 8.0 after the water change. I had read that a reef aquarium should be 8.1 to 8.3 so I went to a saltwater aquarium store and suggested that I fix the pH by adding Reef Builder. I've looked for guidelines on nitrates and couldn't find any clear "this is what nitrates should be". My tank measures at 10 mg/Liter. I don't have an ammonia test. And I mixed the Instant Ocean salt into my RO water cup as I added it to the tank to make up for evaporation.

 

[bbehring]

Sounds like all was existing and doing well while at your friends house? Have you added anything new since you set the tank up? Are you target feeding your anemones? Might try and feed some thawed mysis or silversides one to two times per week.

 

[mmkeeper]

Make up water should be RO not saltwater. You use saltwater for water changes. If you use saltwater for makeup water you will increase the salinity of your tank water because salt does not evaporate.