Rose anemone losing tenacles

[fishwonder]

My rose anemone 's losing tenacles. Is it having problem? Is it dying? 55 galon tank and 55 galon sum, refugium, 4 PC light 260 watts. 2 Krolia# 3 and 2. Water: 76F, 12 dkh, 8.1 PH. Amonia, Nitrade 0. Feed everyday with small piece of shrimp or salmon. Last week I dosed dKh to 19. Salifert Alkility test kid gave wrong reading: 2, instead of 12. What should I do the save the rose ? So many thanks in advance.

[atwinparadox2]

water change, water change, water change, that alk way way to high for sure. That could be your problem right there. It's probably very stressed.

How long have you had the tank setup, it's generally a good rule of thumb to wait six months or even longer before you add an anemone. What is your salinity at? You are probably over feeding it too. They don't need to be fed everyday.

[fishwonder]

Pump. Thanks

[fishwonder]

Salinity is 1.02 and I did 20% water change 3 days ago and Dkh back to 12 now. I scale back feeding every other day now. The tank is 5 months old.

[flyhigh123]

1.02??? that sounds low...

[mille239]

DkH still too high... shoot for 8-10
Salinity... Way too low.... shoot for 1.025
Water... a little too cold... bump it up to 78 or so.

These parameter should be in check and stable before introducing an anemone. I would do a couple more water changes to get that salinity up first of all... that is probably the most likely factor in it being so stressed.

I would keep doing water changes until these levels are correct. What are you using to measure salinity?

[briangg57]

My RBTA occasionally loses a tentacle or two from time to time but it is as healthy as can be. Is it just a couple or is it a lot???

[flyhigh123]

if you have a clown in the tank, clowns sometimes will bite the tentacles off too...

[fishwonder]

Sorry my error. The salinity is 1.023 and I use Instant Ocean salt. The dKh is 12. What should I do to bring it down to 8 or 9 without reducing PH. The rose lost 1 the day before yesterday, 2 yesterday, and 1 today. My friend came over to check and said the color looked OK. I skip feeding today. I will do water change this weekend. Thanks all for helping.

[atwinparadox2]

I would definitely get your salinity up to 1.026, what kind of water do you use? RO/DI? if you use tap water some tap waters already have a high water hardness so this can be adding to your alk problems...I think.

[BigJay]

Your DKH is fine, Instant Ocean and Reef Crystals mix at 12 DKH out of the box. There's not much you can do about that unless you have stony corals constantly pulling that down. My system runs between 11 and 12, my two BTA are perfectly fine.

Raise salinity to 1.025 slowly.

Make sure the flow near your BTA is gentle and steady. Mine started losing tentacles when the vortech was turned up too high.

Make sure that nitrates are undetectable and phosphates are really low.

Watch the clowns to make sure they aren't pulling any tentacles.

Feed the BTA once or twice per week. Mine started looking a ton better when I cut it's feeding down to once every Sunday night.

Keep the temp steady and around 78-80. BTA hate big temp swings.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15366676#post15366676 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fishwonder
Sorry my error. The salinity is 1.023 and I use Instant Ocean salt. The dKh is 12. What should I do to bring it down to 8 or 9 without reducing PH. The rose lost 1 the day before yesterday, 2 yesterday, and 1 today. My friend came over to check and said the color looked OK. I skip feeding today. I will do water change this weekend. Thanks all for helping.