Declining Anemone

Mine do the same thing.  I've tried feeding them, petting them, calling them names, letting them find their own spot, making them stay where I want them, with and without anenomefish, and still they shrink!

Maybe I should just get a bunch of aptasia!

Beware, please keep us informed as to what you find.

Regarding the water changes, does doubling mean to do 10% a month twice during the month (5% each time) or does it mean to do 10% twice a month (20% total)?

What kind of anenomes are they?

Doubling means instead of my normal 10% a month I am doing 10% every two weeks. My tank is 50 gal with a 20 gal SUMP. I keep it at 77º and it doesnt ever stray more than .2 of a degree.  I have to top off 1 gallon a day most of the time occasionally it might be 2.  I have 4 Green Chromis, 2 Clarkii Clowns, 1 Yellow Tang, and two Bubble Tip Anemones.  I got ohh about 70lbs of Live Rock, 2-3 inch sandbed.  Its under 10Ks for 11 hours and Actinics for the same.

Beware wrote: The only noticeable bacterial change I have seen is all of my Cyano finally disappeared.  I always thought that wa a good thing.

Wow, my cyano has recently disappeared also!  About the same time my anenome starting shrinking.

Do they need cyano in the system somewhere?  Or is it just a coincidence?

Mark, your thoughts?

salinity might be a problem as reptoreef suggested how often do you replace evaportion I'd do it at least daily.  Also my BTA likes warmer water around 80.  At least he's doing better now than he was before with colder water.  IMO

Mark Peterson wrote: Alternatively, I would use carbon. Place a fist sized bag in an area of good water flow, like hang it around a pump inlet. Carbon will remove chemicals from the water that you cannot easily test for and will also remove a few that skimming cannot.

Just wanted to add a bit of explanation to ensure that people use it properly. Activated carbon is a variety of orcanics that have been burnt. It could be husks, crushed bone, crushed coconut shell, whatever. The burning process causes it to have many fractures, cracks and voids.

Water flows through the filter BED of AC. contaminants are then ADsorbed or ABsorbed by the AC. Generally, carbon utilizes ADsorbtion which basically means that particulates of contaminants get caught by the media (AC).

A couple of important points: 1.) just sticking a bag of AC media into a volume of water provides very little benefit. Water must flow through the media for it to be effective. 2.) AC can be "Backflushed" which means that the water flow can be reversed flushing the ADsorbed contaminants off of or out of the media and back into the wastestream. Be cautious when removing or placing the AC media in systems since one can easily send a concentration of contaminants back into the system.

Different "formulas" of AC are available to target different varieties of contaminants. Most (too general?) are designed to remove suspended particulate and light metals.

I guess I am a filtration

Carbon does not have a useable life per say. It really depends on the levels of the contaminants in the wastestream. Once the AC media is impacted (it cannot adsorb or absorb anymore) it is no longer useful. When that is... who knows. I would look at the flow through the media and perform a calculation of how many times your total water volume would have passed through. The more total passes, the better.

Personally, I don't run AC. I guess if I did I would run it a week (depending on the size of the media bed I use) and flush it out really well. If you want to just leave it in the system, it won't leach or permeate anything bad except what was already in your system. You could make it a habit to flush it out really well every couple of weeks to a month with a water change. Most of what you will remove will be organics or particulates. I would say that after 3 or so uses it is spent.

Of course one could place it into a vessel and monitor the fluid pressure through. When the fluid pressure gets to X-psi, it's time to backflush. If backflushing fails to lower the pressure, it's time to replace the media. But, that sure does sound like alot of work!

As a side note, did you know that AC removes chlorides  . And you wondered why your SG dropped when you ran AC! Honestly, it absorbs a trace amount... don't worry.

Would my floss bag be the best place for the carbon if it were in a sock or something?