BTA help

[Scott84]

Can anyone tell me if my BTA looks ok? For roughly the last 2-1/2 week it has looked like this. In the morning it’s small and all the arms are inflated but as the day goes on it gets to this size with a gaping mouth.

 

[AnneO]

Gaping mouth suggests low oxygen / low flow to me..

 

[tehmadreefer]

Gaping mouth suggests low oxygen / low flow to me..

Not exactly. A gaping mouth is more of a sign the anemones overall health is in decline, not low oxygen or flow.

 

[tehmadreefer]

I would keep an eye on it as it isn’t too bad.

 

[lilgrounchuck]

How long have you had it? What lights is it under?

 

[Brad Waddell Wrath's Reef]

They will do that if the need to poop but if it is everyday then yeah its sick.

 

[Scott84]

How long have you had it? What lights is it under?

I’ve had it for about 15 months. I previously had it in a bio cube that was in such decline I shut it down. It’s now on a Red Sea max 260. I have two hydra 26 lights, running mainly blues with next to no red or green and very low white. 12 hour light time with ramp up and down within that 12 hour period.
The spot it choose to settle in is right up top of the rock by the return and it does in fact appear to have plenty of flow there. It almost looks flattened against the rock with the flow, I can see the contours of the rock through its skin when it’s full sized and pressed against the rock.

Salinity 1.024
PH 8.0-8.1
Ammonia 0
N02 0
NO3 0

 

[Scott84]

I just went back to take a photo of it’s placement in the tank from further back but one of my emerald crabs just invaded its space and it got mad and shrunk down. But the photo shows where it has been sitting since March 16

 

[AnneO]

Not exactly. A gaping mouth is more of a sign the anemones overall health is in decline, not low oxygen or flow.

Fair enough. But I would say that only the return appears to be creating any surface tension, which is not a whole lot if you don't have a decent sized skimmer hiding somewhere. Not sure if you can point the nozzle upwards mine is half way out of the water.

 

[Scott84]

Fair enough. But I would say that only the return appears to be creating any surface tension, which is not a whole lot if you don't have a decent sized skimmer hiding somewhere. Not sure if you can point the nozzle upwards mine is half way out of the water.

I do have a eshopps x-120 skimmer running in my sump

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

I have seen them look like that after being overfed. Looks like some additional flow would be helpful. The overall coloration looks decent.

 

[lilgrounchuck]

I’ve had it for about 15 months. I previously had it in a bio cube that was in such decline I shut it down. It’s now on a Red Sea max 260. I have two hydra 26 lights, running mainly blues with next to no red or green and very low white. 12 hour light time with ramp up and down within that 12 hour period.
The spot it choose to settle in is right up top of the rock by the return and it does in fact appear to have plenty of flow there. It almost looks flattened against the rock with the flow, I can see the contours of the rock through its skin when it’s full sized and pressed against the rock.

Salinity 1.024
PH 8.0-8.1
Ammonia 0
N02 0
NO3 0

Ok, how long has it been in the current non-neglected tank? How long has it been under the current lights? Did you just drop it into a brand new system with different flow/lighting/water parameters than it was used to?

 

[Scott84]

Ok, how long has it been in the current non-neglected tank? How long has it been under the current lights? Did you just drop it into a brand new system with different flow/lighting/water parameters than it was used to?

It’s currently been in this tank since the first week of March. Tank was set up beginning of February. It was moved in a little pre maturely. My previous tank had next to no flow, terrible lighting and I could never get a handle on proper filtration, I also had constant algae issues. From the time I originally got the nem it never seemed to grow, it just existed. After I transplanted it into the new tank it has seemed to have done well. It’s more then doubled in size, it’s just recently had the open mouth. Color and size look good to me though, But I’m no expert

 

[Dieselyfe]

I’ve had it for about 15 months. I previously had it in a bio cube that was in such decline I shut it down. It’s now on a Red Sea max 260. I have two hydra 26 lights, running mainly blues with next to no red or green and very low white. 12 hour light time with ramp up and down within that 12 hour period.
The spot it choose to settle in is right up top of the rock by the return and it does in fact appear to have plenty of flow there. It almost looks flattened against the rock with the flow, I can see the contours of the rock through its skin when it’s full sized and pressed against the rock.

Salinity 1.024
PH 8.0-8.1
Ammonia 0
N02 0
NO3 0

Your aquarium is too clean, you should be showing some no3, if it’s at 0 then that would lead me to believe that tank is not cycled yet.

 

[Halo_003]

NO3 being zero doesn’t necessarily mean the tank isn’t cycled. My tank is over a year old and I’m actually working on fixing the same set of problems as the OP has here (no detectable Nitrate/Phosphate, slow/no growth, frequent gaping mouth). To combat this I doubled my feeding of the tank (not direct) and I’m dosing nitrate / KZ Pohl’s Xtra to get detectable levels.