Help! My BTA has suddenly shriveled!

[BDeVaney]

Ok so I just got home today with the plan of removing a couple small aiptasia and doing a little regular tank maintenance. Everything in my tank was looking lively so i proceeded to put Salifert Phosphate Eliminator in the tank(more precautionary than anything, i have a small amount of green algae) as well as take out 2 small aiptasia with Aiptasia X. About 10-15 minutes later i noticed my BTA was shriveled up. Not like how they close at night, this guy looked sucked up and his tentacles became very thin and tiny! I am very worried. It has been about an hour or so now and he has opened back up a little but still does not look well. The closest aiptasia to the BTA I killed was about 4 inches or so away from the BTA. Would either of these things had this much of an effect on my BTA?!? I have used aiptasia X this close to my BTA before and nothing happened then.

 

[TrishW]

Maybe it was the phosphate eliminator. I used Phosphate RX in my tank about 5 days ago and a healthy acan that I have had for at least two years had skeleton exposed within two hours. It hasn't died but it hasn't bounced back either.

 

[mike007]

You have to be carefull with Aiptasia X as it will harm other corals if they injest it. Make sure your pumps are off so it will not drift. Only use a small amount on the pest so as none of it drifts close to other corals.

 

[reefaddictionrx]

I've been following Melev's post on Phosphate RX and it sounded like there haven't been many issues. I purchased some for my 200g system and have dosed twice. Both times my large >8" red BTA has shrunk back into the live rock for about 24hrs after the exposure. It hasn't ever done this before, but both times it has "recovered." THis last time there is some bleaching present in its color. I'm hesitant to dose with it again...

Any one else dosing lanthanum chloride with BTA issues?

 

[BDeVaney]

Yeah I had all water flow shut off before I used the Aiptasia X and kept it off for 15 minutes after use as instructed. I only use a small amount at a time because I have a smaller tank. That phosphate issue posted above scares me! However, it has been a little longer now and just checked on the nem. He has almost gotten himself back to his normal size however the tentacles are still a little thinner than normal. Will keep u updated