Are my saltwater fish ok?

Question

I have a 20 gallon tank with crushed coral at the bottem, 1 perc clown, 1 damsel and one small Pink Tip Haitian Anemone. Today i bought sand to replace the crushed coral. I took most of the water and put them in buckets, washed the sand really well and put it at the bottem. I then started to fill my tank with with the water again. The water is REALLY cloudy. I put my anemone at the bottem and my damsel in and the anemone rolled into a ball and now it wont move. I added salt to my tank and it all went to the bottem and landed on it. Now it looks like it got burned or something. I know I probably shouldnt have added the sand since I already had fish in the tank but the guy at the fish store told me it would be ok. Will my fish be ok swimming in the cloudy water? Is my anemone dead? Please help. Thanks

Answer 1

if your anemone closes up and does open anymore it is dead and it does stick anymore. it is probably stress out so you should do a water change and i think the damsel wont die cuz they r strong but if your anemone dies it can really contaminate the water and kill your fish but if white slime thinks are coming out of the anemone he is stress out and if it loses it's color the anemone doesn't mean it is dead. and you should see if your fish as ick. i think you should call the company of the sand and they will reimburst you for the dead fishes. i know by experience

Answer 2

Don't listen to the guy at the fish store! You should mix salt in a separate bucket so you can get the correct salinity (1.023-1.026) and temperature (~ 78) before you add it to the tank.

That being said, the anemone may come back. I've seen them get salt on them before and it does dehydrate them where it hits. Just give it a day or two and make sure it has good water circulation around it.

Is the sand actual sand, or a finer grade of aragonite/coral? The aragonite and coral will help buffer your water against changes in pH, but the sand will not. You may want to keep an eye on the pH and make sure it stays in the 8.1-8.4 range. If it's lower, this may be another reason the anemone isn't happy (along with being uprooted for the substrate change and having salt on it). It also need very bright light, so the cloudiness in the water isn't to it's liking, either. The cloudiness is either from the sand or the crushed coral - it's harder to get the dust out of these substrates than typical aquarium gravel. If you have good circulation and a good filter, it will clear up in time.

Answer 3

:o
you definitely burned the anenome with the sand. The only time you can add the salt directly to the tank is when you have nothing else in it. (it will even burn what's on the live rock if it lands on it)
Give the tank time to filter through and to let the sediment settle from stirring up the bottom.
Why were you adding more salt to the tank after you changed??
Next time pre-mix the sand in with the water you are adding to the tank so you can make sure the salinity is correct. (you can keep a container of water in a jug or something else, and add it when you do water changes.)
When you "top it off", add plain water, without salt. As the water evaporates, it becomes more salty, so you would have no need to add more salt.
You can get any information from the message boards at www.saltwaterfish.com.

The anenome (aside from it being burnt by salt) should open up in time and clean itself out, and expel any sand or particles it got in it.

Good luck, and enjoy the website... I DO!

Answer 4

Depends on the type of sand you added. Silica sand can change the pH of the water and kill your fish. You should have tested the pH of the water with the coral, set up a new aquarium with the sand, and stablized the pH to that of the coral tank.