Please Help!!!!

[EricandDanas90]

A couple days ago I bought a new bubble tip anemone and three beautiful true perculas. They hosted the anemone right away (though I must say the fought over it a bit). This morning I woke up to a tank without an anemone. Instead I found bits and pieces of anemone throughout the tank. The clown fish are getting along better, but I want to know how he died/got ripped to pieces and how I can prevent it from happening again. All I have in my "new" tank is 3 green chromis, 3 true percula clown fish, 11 red mexican hermits, and 4 astrea snails. The only equipment that could have ripped him apart was my maxi jet circulator pump (maxi jet 900 pro). Please help!!!! I don't want to kill anymore anemones and I thought I had a safe tank.

Thank you,
Eric and Dana

 

[JGard911]

I am new to this myself, but I think I have read that 3 clown fish in a 90 gallon tank is asking for trouble. Maybe the third wheel clown fish got mad and started throwing anemone dishes? :cursin:

 

[sasquatch]

unless the clowns are juveniles (very small) threes a crowd, if they are older you could have 2 males or 2 females, there will be a fight and somebody gonna get hurt reaaal bad lol, yes they have been known to shred anems usually the anem is too small for them but if the three wanted in it Id think they pulled it apart

 

[DaveK]

You have several issues here. One, pointed out by others, is the three clowns in the tank. The other issue is the anemone getting torn to pieces. I'd guess that it had a run in with one of the circulation pumps you have in the system. Most likely it was moving around the tank looking for a better spot. To prevent a crash, you'll need to get the pieces out of the tank. Most likely, you'll also need to make some major water changes, and filter the water with carbon.

You also have some additional issues with keeping anemones. They require well established systems with top quality water, and very good lighting. You don't mention lighting in your post, so I can make no judgement about that.

Your signature mentions a Fluval 405, which is a canister filter and a Reef Octopus 100 BH. IMO, these products are not capable of maintaining the quality of water needed for an anemone. The Fluval 405 is rated about 340 gph. This is only about 2/3 the water flow you would want through the filtration system. It's only about 4x per hour. Ideally you'd want at least 5x to 6x per hours of turnover. Many people used a lot greater flow. There is also the issue of canisters on reef system. While you can use them, they are far from ideal, as they tend to become nitrate factories and big oxygen consumers if not cleaned at least once a week.

You also mention a Reef Octopus Skimmer. It's only rated for a 60 gal tank. Skimmer manufactures tend to be "very optimistic" rating skimmers for much larger tanks than they are capable of supporting in the real world. Ideally you want a skimmer rated by the manufacturer for a tank size at least double of what your planning on running it on. In other words, this skimmer would be ideal for about a 30 gal tank.

I don't know for sure, but it sounds like your tank has only been set up a short period of time. Usually you want to have the tank running stable for about a year before you add an anemone. This means no measurable ammonia, and nitrites, with the other parameters being more or less stable.

Now I know that this post sounds a bit like I'm beating up on you. I don't intend to do this, but I also don't think your going to be able to keep an anemone for any length of time without some changes to you system.

If you really want an anemone, plan a major upgrade to the filtration system, and possibly your lighting.