Struggling with reef tank...

Question
QUESTION: I have a bunch of questions. First, my star polyps have stopped coming fully out. We have noticed a fuzzy bright yellow something on the side of the polyp tubes that seems to be excreting spider web-like strands. Could this be affecting the full "blooming" of my polyps? Second, I have a bubble anemone (with Maroon Clown tender) that stays deflated most of the time. I have tried feeding it, but it won't take food from me. I have seen the clown take food to it, so I think that the clown is keeping it fed. I thought anemone's liked lots of light. Well this one is firmly attached to the lower back of my tank, with minimal light. The clown has cleared out all the sand beneath the anemone so I know the clown is taking care of her. Is it normal for them to stay deflated a good portion of the time? All the testing we've done has shown our water is at the appropriate levels. We have VERY high calcium (off the calcium chart in the test kit). Is that a bad thing or a good thing? I also have A LOT of what I call sediment in my tank. I have hermit crabs, snails, a sand sifting star, but they can't seem to keep up with it. I have cut back on how much I feed, thinking I'm overfeeding them. I have 1 sand-sifting goby, 2 hippo tangs, 1 firefish, 2 damsels, 1 gramma, 1 bi-color blenny, 1 scooter blenny, 1 flame angel, 2 mandarins in a 100 gallon tank (all of them are under 3 inches except the goby and bi-color). I also have candy cane coral (small), mushrooms (also small), a carnation (that is rotting at the root for whatever reason), a large set of star polyps (the ones with the fuzzy stuff), a colt coral and another type (can't remember the name) that are thriving. Am I doing something wrong or is that the way tanks go? Our tank was set up in April, live sand, live rock. HELP!

ANSWER: Hi Paula, In order for me to help I need a little more information. You say all your water levels check out but what exactly are they testing at(ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, phosphate, salinity, and alkalinity)? What kind of lighting do you have and how much? Filtration? protein skimmer? strong currents? How often do you do your partial water changes(do you use tap water or RO water)? Any chemical or supplemental additions being done?(some supplements if over done will cause stress to some corals)High calcium should not be too much of a problem depending on how high it is. If you are adding any additions to your tank that contain calcium cut back on that. From the sounds of it you don't have very much in the way of stony corals. Soft corals do not make a hard skeleton and therefore won't be utilizing the calcium so it should not get depleted between water changes. Also if you have good filtration using carbon(which I highly recommend)and a good protein skimmer that should help with the excess calcium in the water.
Bubble tip anemones do fine in moderate lighting. However if it is staying deflated most of the time that is not a good sign. If the maroon clown is too large for the anemone he will actually be doing more harm then good by hosting this anemone. And that could be part of the problem. Make sure the anemone is not getting overfed. Usually after a good feeding an anemone will shrink to expel its wastes and take up new water to replace the old. If you feed too often and they have to constantly replace the water in their tissue then this could cause many problems. An anemone kept in high quality water and with good lighting should only be fed about once a week.
The creature you are seeing next to your star polyps sounds to me like a tube snail. These snails spend their entire lives in a tube. They eat by casting out a web of mucus and catching fine particulate matter in it. They then pull the "web" back in and eat what they have captured. They are harmless and should not be causing any stress to your star polyps. What kind of current are they in? Star polyps will not thrive in an area of low current. They also need supplemental feeding if kept in an area of lower lighting.
This is a very long and hard question to properly answer. What you can do is get back to me with all the info I asked for and we can break it down into several smaller questions by addressing each thing one at a time. I am a bit concerned about the stability of your tank. It can take six months to a year to fully stabilize and you have allot of inhabitants in there for only having it set up for 5 months. (4 months actually since the first month is generally spent cycling your tank)

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for your quick response. Just to answer your questions...here is a list of what we have in the tank.

Live sand: 50 pounds

Live Rock: probably 100+ pounds (haven't weighed all of it because we got some rock with the aquarium that was not live. The aquarium is acrylic, 5' long, 20" high, probably about 16" deep.

Lights: two 150W MH, 2 420W actinics, 4 65W actinics, 2 "sunlight" fluorescents.

Current: 5 Koralia powerheads (2 #1, 2 #2, 1 #3)

Testing: 0 nitrates, 0 nitrites, ph 8.3, phosphate 0, salinity 1.25, ammonia 0.

Canister filter: 5 trays (1 ceramic, 2 charcoal, 1 phosphate beads, 1 empty)

Protein Skimmer: built by my husband and working well (2 airstones)

Water changes: we add water, either salt or fresh depending on salinity, salt water from fish store, fresh from filtered tap (tested before adding). We do 15-20 gallon water changes once a month.

No chemicals or supplements (I bought Iodide and Strontium and Molybdenum, sp? the other day and am not sure if it would be a good thing to add...it is supposed to be good for coarls.

We only have soft coral right now because we were told by our fish store that hard corals are harder to keep. Our calcium level is way over 600ppm (I think my husband said it was 662ppm).

The anemone is good size. when she is completely inflated, she is a little smaller than a dinner plate. The clown is probably 3 inches long and WILL NOT leave her alone. He attacks my hand if I try to feed the anemone pieces of krill, but if I drop the krill in front of the anemone, the clown will pick it up and drag it into her.

I know we have a lot of fish for it being a newer tank, but they are all thriving and with all the water levels being accurate, we thought it would be okay.

I will try and get a picture of the star polyps with their little bright yellow fuzzy things and also one of my anemone to upload. We are going away for a few days on October 1. My son is going to take care of our fish for us.

My husband says I'm always worrying about nothing...he says whatever happens in the tank, happens in the ocean and that we shouldn't be concerned too much. I just hate to pay good money for stuff and not see it thrive! I'm sure you can understand. Any help you can give would be appreciated. I have also considered asking someone at the fish store who knows what they are talking about to come and do a "tank evaluation" to look at my lighting, coral placement, "sediment problem", coral health, etc. to see if I'm doing something wrong or to at least tell me I'm doing it right!  

Answer
It sounds to me like you are doing everything right. There really does not seem to be something wrong here and as long as your water is testing good for everything I can't see a reason for the problems with anemone or the polyps. A few bits of information on star polyps. First of all they should never be placed too closely to any kind of elegance coral or corals from the Euphyllia species(torch, hammer, trumpet, frogspawn,anchor, candy cane etc). These corals have potent stings and will prevent the polyps from emerging from their mats if they are located too near to one another. Also Iodine additions have a negative effect on star polyps and should not be added to a tank containing them. Star polyps are also very sensitive to the aluminum oxide found in some phosphate removing media. Check to make sure the brand you are using does not contain this element.
While strontium can be a valuable addition to a reef tank, it is only of benefit to stony corals, and should only be used if the levels of strontium in the water get depleted due to the uptake of it by the corals. Everytime you do a partial water change you are adding strontium that has been depleted and with virtually no stony corals in your tank it is an unneeded addition. Molybdenum was once thought of as an important additive but there has yet been any proof that it has any value on coral growth. Better not to add these elements than to possibly over do them.
Have you tested your alkalinity? If that is at a low level it will cause you to get a higher reading on your calcium.