BTA closed up

[Isleofzoa]

Hi all,

I bought this RBTA 3 weeks ago. I bought him small because I wanted to watch him grow. Unfortunately, it is always closed up. First few days it was open and I fed it small piece of silverside and it has shriveled up. its either looking like this or completely closed up. Ive tried many things such as lowered light intensity and turned up intensity. Any thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[Amoo]

tank params, what light, and what is your light schedule/intensity?

 

[Isleofzoa]

tank params, what light, and what is your light schedule/intensity?

calcium 420
kh 10
phosphate 0
Nitrate 0
PH 8.2
ammonia 0
Nitrits o

Im running Hydra 26 HD with the BRS light schedule

 

[Amoo]

are you fairly confident that your tank is sitting at 0 nutrients? No nitrate of phosphates?

Also how far from the fixture itself is the nem?

 

[Isleofzoa]

are you fairly confident that your tank is sitting at 0 nutrients? No nitrate of phosphates?

Also how far from the fixture itself is the nem?

Yes, i am very confident on the levels. have tested at home and LFS. The nem is 16 inches away from the light

 

[Amoo]

I personally would try a two pronged approach here.

You may want to try something like a max of 60% on your blues and work everything out from there to keep things balanced, your spectrum isn't bad. Might try 60 on your blues, 20 on your whites and set everything else from those. Also FWIW most people run both UV channels similar to their blue channels.

So something like 60 60 60 60 5 5 20

Secondly you are going to need some nutrients. Something like 5-10 Nitrates and .03-.05 Phosphates. Higher is fine but lower can be bad.

There is definitely quite a few stickies in the Reef chemistry forum as well as threads on raising Nitrates and phosphates. If you're running GFO or dosing something to reduce them you may want to back off.

Honestly you might try posting a thread with your parameters and setup in the chemistry forum and asking for suggestions on how to raise them to acceptable levels.

 

[Amoo]

To be more clear, the nem may be starving as it has nothing to use as food and the brighter the light the more quickly things like this go bad as it wants to photosynthesize but doesn't have the sugars it needs to do so.

 

[Isleofzoa]

To be more clear, the nem may be starving as it has nothing to use as food and the brighter the light the more quickly things like this go bad as it wants to photosynthesize but doesn't have the sugars it needs to do so.

so should I feed it extra stuff? such as in frozen or just increase my blues?

 

[Amoo]

No firstly you need a decrease in light not an increase. Probably just a typo on your part but wanted to clarify.

Secondly, you need nutrients in the water itself. It already looks pretty bad as it is, I'd honestly be surprised if you could get it to eat and even if you did it wouldn't be everything it needs for the Zoos inside to survive.

 

[Isleofzoa]

No firstly you need a decrease in light not an increase. Probably just a typo on your part but wanted to clarify.

Secondly, you need nutrients in the water itself. It already looks pretty bad as it is, I'd honestly be surprised if you could get it to eat and even if you did it wouldn't be everything it needs for the Zoos inside to survive.

I just changed to this light setting based on what the LFS told me. The light setting was originally low. I increased the lighting this past weekend. Why does't it just move to a lower area of light?

 

[Isleofzoa]

I just changed to this light setting based on what the LFS told me. The light setting was originally low. I increased the lighting this past weekend. Why does't it just move to a lower area of light?[/QUOTE

I just changed to this light setting based on what the LFS told me. The light setting was originally low. I increased the lighting this past weekend. Why does't it just move to a lower area of light?

I have a 45 gallon tank that is two feet x 2 feet x 2 feet I think I left that detail out.

 

[Amoo]

unknown. Sometimes they find a spot in the rock they feel they can adequately bury their foot and don't like to move from that spot even if it is killing them. It may not have the energy to move. There could be a number of reasons.

 

[Isleofzoa]

unknown. Sometimes they find a spot in the rock they feel they can adequately bury their foot and don't like to move from that spot even if it is killing them. It may not have the energy to move. There could be a number of reasons.

This will be the last one I purchase. they are too dramatic. My LTA is loving his life. I've hah him for months and hes still thriving. Despite being kicked out of his spot by the tiger spot goby

 

[GoVols]

This will be the last one I purchase. they are too dramatic. My LTA is loving his life. I've hah him for months and hes still thriving. Despite being kicked out of his spot by the tiger spot goby

A BTA is not that hard to keep. If you follow @Amoo 's lead he'll get you on track.

Your phos and nitrates are way too low and if you don't dim the lights, it might bleach.

Also, I don't like silversides, they can rot inside of a BTA.