Sorry for the wall of text, but I figure more details are better than less:
55g tank has been set up for couple years, guess I restarted when I moved here in October, FOWLR, only a few random corals that were hitch-hiking on my live rock. Only fish I've ever had were a few various damsels and had one Fire clownfish (saddleback) for about 2 years, always less than 5 fish per tank.
Never had any major problems with tank, water always clear, everything has been looking healthy. About 3 weeks ago bought a Condy anemone at DNA, I figured it wouldn't host my clown, being Atlantic, but it was only $20 and looked cool. After a couple days, turns out the clown did host to it, and around this same time I upgrade my lights and did a 10g water change (would have done 15 but ran out of salt)
Everything in the tank looked good for about a week and a half/2 weeks, last week I noticed anemone was looking unhealthy about half the time, okay the other half. It started getting pretty deflated, not attaching to anything, occasionally discharging slime but clown was still trying to swim around/in it. Noticed some spots/patches of what looked like dead skin on the clown, after a couple days he died. Inspected the rest of my fish thinking it was Ich, but see no similar spots/patches. Figured condy anemone killed the clown (which i'd heard they can, since their sting is more potent).
A few days later one of my yellow damsels died, then this morning another one went, my two remaining damsels (one black/white striped, one yellow) are acting kind of erratically, black/white looks like he's trying to "itch" himself by scraping against rocks, darting erratically.
Possibility anemone is dying/unhealthy, killing fish? I was about to pull it out two days ago, but now miraculously it's looking healthier than it has. Going to DNA shortly to buy their water, do a big water change with their water instead of mixing my own like normal. Think I should ditch the anemone just in case? Any other ideas? Anything they would see in a water test that may be helpful (my water's always tested okay, occasionally nitrates and phosphates higher than 0 but not too bad).
55g FOWLR
4x65w PC bulbs half actinic half 10,000k
About 15lbs of live rock
Prolly 35 cleaners mixed snails/hermits
3 month old Fluval 305 canister filter (have a 750gph powerhead coming UPS)
No skimmer for now (yes, i know, i know, i'm getting one this week, but in the past everything had always been healthy/clear water without one, i'm pretty good about staying on top of my water changes, but i know i need one)
I plan on waiting to buy anything else until I get the PH and skimmer, then just letting the tank do its thing for awhile before introducing any critters, but if there's anything I can do in the meantime besides just waiting for my last 2 fish to die I'd really appreciate any help!!
55g tank has been set up for couple years, guess I restarted when I moved here in October, FOWLR, only a few random corals that were hitch-hiking on my live rock. Only fish I've ever had were a few various damsels and had one Fire clownfish (saddleback) for about 2 years, always less than 5 fish per tank.
Never had any major problems with tank, water always clear, everything has been looking healthy. About 3 weeks ago bought a Condy anemone at DNA, I figured it wouldn't host my clown, being Atlantic, but it was only $20 and looked cool. After a couple days, turns out the clown did host to it, and around this same time I upgrade my lights and did a 10g water change (would have done 15 but ran out of salt)
Everything in the tank looked good for about a week and a half/2 weeks, last week I noticed anemone was looking unhealthy about half the time, okay the other half. It started getting pretty deflated, not attaching to anything, occasionally discharging slime but clown was still trying to swim around/in it. Noticed some spots/patches of what looked like dead skin on the clown, after a couple days he died. Inspected the rest of my fish thinking it was Ich, but see no similar spots/patches. Figured condy anemone killed the clown (which i'd heard they can, since their sting is more potent).
A few days later one of my yellow damsels died, then this morning another one went, my two remaining damsels (one black/white striped, one yellow) are acting kind of erratically, black/white looks like he's trying to "itch" himself by scraping against rocks, darting erratically.
Possibility anemone is dying/unhealthy, killing fish? I was about to pull it out two days ago, but now miraculously it's looking healthier than it has. Going to DNA shortly to buy their water, do a big water change with their water instead of mixing my own like normal. Think I should ditch the anemone just in case? Any other ideas? Anything they would see in a water test that may be helpful (my water's always tested okay, occasionally nitrates and phosphates higher than 0 but not too bad).
55g FOWLR
4x65w PC bulbs half actinic half 10,000k
About 15lbs of live rock
Prolly 35 cleaners mixed snails/hermits
3 month old Fluval 305 canister filter (have a 750gph powerhead coming UPS)
No skimmer for now (yes, i know, i know, i'm getting one this week, but in the past everything had always been healthy/clear water without one, i'm pretty good about staying on top of my water changes, but i know i need one)
I plan on waiting to buy anything else until I get the PH and skimmer, then just letting the tank do its thing for awhile before introducing any critters, but if there's anything I can do in the meantime besides just waiting for my last 2 fish to die I'd really appreciate any help!!