Need help with water chemistry

Hello, need some advice on my system, I have 120 gallon main tank with two overflows and one return and a 40 gallon sump with some caulerpa. I have two 175watt and 4 110 vho lighting, the 175 are 14,000k and vho 2 are actinic & 2 are 10000k. Have large skimmer in sump and a quiet one 4000 pump for return to main tank. Have two koralia pumps inside one on each side of tank. My lights are one 9 hours and sump light on 24/7 with 55 watt 6500 bulb. I use ro/di water only, here are my water specs.

Calcium 355ppm
Alk 4mg/l or 11.2 dkh
Salinity 1.025
Temp 76'
PH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Phosphate 0.01
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10

Now my problem is very time a put a anemone in tank it dies in one week, but my other corals are doing fine, leather corals, yellow polyps, duncan coral, mushrooms, some others.

Please can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong and need to fix. If you want pics I can send...

Thanks Les

I agree the water parameters are fine and the lighting sounds adequate to me, so we need some more information on the anemone and your tank itself. What other livestock do you have in the tank? I would be particularly interested in how you are acclimating the anemone and how it behaves in the first couple days after introducing it to the tank. Anemones will usually hide for a little while and then roam around till they find a spot that they like. A full tank shot would also help.

It sounds like you know what you are doing, and I'll bet that includes acclimation too. Anemones are very hardy. I'll bet it's the tank itself. Some combination's of organisms just seem to make trouble for other organisms. What kind of anemones and how many?

Yes, pics please, especially a full tank pic

Since you live so far from the LFS, you might consider transporting things differently than just in a bag of water. We can help you devise a method.

$80   What kind of anemone?

What about the livestock that have a bigger impact on an anemone, like coral, LR and LS? And is there a Refugium on this tank? What kind of algae in the Refugium?
Pics of everything would really help here.

I doubt it was anything you did wrong.
I used to have a job that sent me often to the mines at Carlin.
Since you evidently drive to SLC (or Reno?)to buy stuff, I suggest you get a home grown anemone next time. There must be at least 10 hobbyists here in SLC that have a field of cloned GBTA's and RBTA's (Green and Red Bubble Tip Anemones) in their tanks. Among friends here they usually sell for ~$30. 

The transport is as simple as a bucket 1/2 full of your tank water with a 1/2" layer of your LS, a peice of LR and some of that Caulerpa. The water is kept moving and aerated with a small air pump plugged into a power inverter which are only ~$30 the last time I saw one at Walmart. If you set up the bucket a few days before the trip, moving the LS and LR into the bucket submerged there will be little pollution to deal with and leaving the bucket open will allow enough light in to help the algae eat any N compounds. Place the bucket on the seat with you or on the floor so that it can be kept at least above 65 degrees. No need for a heater.

When you get the anemone, coral and/or fish, consider the bucket as your aquarium, which it is sort of. Acclimate them to the bucket by mixing a little water in the bags or by using another container the way I suggest in the Tips section of the Reefkeeping Tips below. Look in the tip "Secrets of adding new fish, fish training and the Miracle of Garlic Oil" I believe somewhere in there is where we discuss that a simple quick acclimation is generally best. If the bucket water is a bit colder than the bag, just let the bag sit for a while to slowly reach closer to the bucket temperature. More stress occurs when animals are set into colder water than when they are placed in warmer water.

Let us know.

Well one thing comes to mind and that's the huge Cinnamon clown. I had a large maroon clown that nearly killed my RBTA because it was to aggressive with it when hosting. The RBTA started out about the size of a softball and was only about the size of a golf ball before I took it out of the tank. It continued to shrink but is starting to make a comeback but it's only about the size of a quarter now.

My clown wasn't really picking on it, more like loved it to death. Do the cinnamons host in the anemone. If not that's probably not the cause.

I would place my bet on chemical warfare are you running carbon to soak up toxins? I have always had issues with leathers and my other corals

Hello Doug,
Yes I hace a small filter bag with some carbon in it next to my skimmer in sump, maybe 3 cups of carbon total. I change it out every month with new carbon. Is this wrong to use? let me know.

thanks Les

IMO I think 2 hours is to long of a acclimation period for a anemone. Especially after a 4 hour drive.