It Moved!

Ugh. After participating on several anemone threads over the last week and stating more than once that happy anemones don't move mine did just that this weekend. I feel like such and idiot and I have been humbled.

I've had this BTA for about 16 months. I watched it decline gradually under inadequate PC lighting and high nitrates. I got my nitrates to 0 in November or December and upgraded to 6x54W T5s in December just before Christmas. The anemone grew from a shrunken two inch diameter to about eight inches now.

Friday night I watched in disbelief as my anemone moved about three inches down from the spot it has inhabited for the last five months. On Saturday morning it was still in that spot but a few hours later, to my surprise, it moved back to its normal spot. Unfortunately, Saturday night it started climbing up and over my rock wall. It probably moved about two feet. It's higher in the tank all the way at the back and kind of underneath a ledge. It was moving uncomfortably close to a Koralia so I turned it off. I reached in the tank to make sure it was off and the water felt cool. Sure enough the temperature was 76 deg F. When I performed my usual set of Saturday morning tests the tank temp was at its normal 80 deg F. So, I wonder if the tank temp has been fluctuating without me realizing it.

This morning I played around with the heater and realized that the the heater was generating stray voltage in my tank too. I would occasionally feel a slight tingle if my arm touched my light fixture while my hand was in the water. It was a 250W Stealth heater. I can no longer recommend this. My sump was just big enough to house this heater on a diagonal. Nothing larger would fit and of course everything else at the store was larger. So, I decided to go with two 200W Hydor heaters which fit nicely. And, with these heaters I don't feel any electrical tingle!

I must've had some bas Karma heading my way because after I got the heaters installed the power went out. We got several inches of heart attack snow last night and trees were snapping everywhere today. So my tank sat with lights out and no current or heat for several hours. So, if my anemone was unhappy before it must've been really upset at this point. After a few hours I hooked up an inverter to one of our vehicles to get some flow in the tank again. The inverter I had couldn't power a heater. After several more hours and power wasn't restored I went out and bought a 750W inverter from Lowes. This allowed me to turn on some lights and one of the heaters. Power came back at 6:30 this evening after about 5 1/2 hours.

The only other thing that changed was that in the past week I started dosing alkalinity made with baking soda instead of the mix from Bulk Reef Supply. Perhaps this BTA only likes the more expensive stuff.

Here are my parameters:
Nitrate 0.0
pH 8.1
Alkalinity 3-3.5 meq/l (jumped from 2 meq/l last week)
SG 1.026
Calcium 460 ppm
Magnesium 1260 ppm
Temp 79F (now)
Phosphate 0

With the exception of alkalinity, my tank has pretty much had the same parameters for the last 4 months or so. Alkalinity is the only thing that jumped. Anybody think this is what made the BTA unhappy? Anybody else dosing with baked out baking soda?

I'm hoping the anemone moves back to the front. It is barely in view now. My tomato clown looks freaked too. He stayed with it the whole time it moved.

Edit 11:30 pm : It has now moved completly out of view. I can't find the anemone or the tomato clown hosting it.

Long post. I needed to vent.

 

karma your way to negate the bad stuff

if it stayed where you put it for four months, and then decided to move, I dont believe this is related to Alk/ baking soda issue - Im more inclined to think its movement in an initially upward direction was due to heat issue - moving towards the sun so to speak

also having kept a BTA for that amount of time, is a credit to you, so dont let this experience get you down

maybe in your situation, if you can get the set up back to how it was, you might be able to encourage the nem to return home - maybe Pack Leaders ice cube on foot technique would work out for you

those of us that do sometimes indicate these things move, dont want that to be the case , if they could not move, I would want one, thats for sure, as you stated in previous posts on another thread - clowns hosting in a nem is a prize sight in a nice aquarium

 

sorry to hear the string of bad luck. hope everything else handle the winter storm alright and your BTA shows itself again without hurting anything else.

 

hey - sorry to hear about your bta - you'd given some feedback to my thread about losing a group of them a few days ago.

one common theme - i had just recently dosed baking soda to restore a drop in alkalinity, and had driven alk from 7 up to 11 over a course of 2 weeks.

wonder if this might be related...

http://www.3reef.com/forums/inverts/3-dead-btas-61642.html

 

Thanks all. I found him last night. It basically crawled all the way down the back side of the rock wall and wedged itself between some rocks at the bottom of the wall. It's essentially at the same height it started at. It's almost as if it hiding like it is anticipating rough water or a hurricane/typhoon. I remember reading once that they will sometimes hide before splitting. Maybe that's what is happening. I'll keep ya posted.

 

my father in law has three nems and they are almost constantly on the move but look very healthy