Removed UGF and.....

[frogger]

Recently I removed one side of my UGF. After doing so, my inhabitants have been acting really strange. My African Red Knob/Red General used to ALWAYS STAY ON THE GLASS. Now it won't leave the substrate and often looks drunk as it attempts to climb the wall and then folds over onto itself (If I wasn't so worried it would be helarious !)
My three anenomes (2 condi's and 1 atlantic carpet) NEVER moved prior but now are all over the tank (I know it's common for them to bounce around however mine never did prior to removing UGF.)
The tank is a 75G, has 50# lr, hot mag 250 filter w/ two biowheels attached, prizm skimmer, and half of a UGF.
Should I go ahead and remove the other half or wait a while?? anyone ever experienced this before?
Tanks!

 

[ed r]

Frogger lists 50 lbs of live rock, a filter and two biowheels in additon to the remaining half of the UGF. Also putting the removed half of the UGF back at this stage would not help. With a reasonable bioload, there should be no need for the undergravel filter. How much substrate is on top of the UGF, and in the now empty half? Is it CC? When people have problems with the removal of a UGF, I believe it is due to stirring up all of the accummulated debris in the substrate above the UGF. If the UGF has been recently vacuumed, and there is other biological filtering, removing the UGF and substrate should not cause a problem. If the substrate is CC, you may want to consider removing it as well. If you do, don't replace it until after the second half has been removed. Putting good sand in now would be a waste. It will get mixed with the CC and then you will either end up leaving some of the CC in or removing some of the good sand. Is there any chance the creature that is acting strangely was injured to some extent when you pulled the filter and presumably dumped some of the substrate? I don't know what else to suggest.

 

[sdmarriott]

What are your water parameters? Perhaps in removing the UGF you stirred things up enough to get them out of whack. Also, did you rearrange the rock while you were making the change? If so, that could be the cause of your anemones moving around anyway.
Sounds like you should let the system stabilize prior to removing the other half of the UGF, or you may cause undue harm to the inhabitants. JMO.

 

[frogger]

MY AMMONIA IS UP TO .25 NOW. IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN 0. DID A 25% WATERCHANGE YESTERDAY, CHANGED THE CARBON AND VACCUMED, HOWEVER STILL AT .25% HOW OFTEN SHOULD I DO THE CHANGES TO GET IT DOWN? ALSO, IS THIS HIGH ENOUGH TO MAKE INVERTS OR THE STAR DO WEIRD THINGS? EVERYTHING ELSE LOOKS GOOD.
Tanks!