HELP with RBTA.. limp/saggy looks bad

jedthefish420 · Feb 6, 2015

i topped my water off with RO from the LFS the other day and came home to this:

I've had it for about 2 weeks acclimated for 1hr using drips when i added it. i have moderate flow in my tank using jabao wavemaker set at else setting 1

paremeters:

Ph: 8.0
nitrite: 0
nitrate:10
Ca: 440
Kh: 161
phosphate: 1.0
specific gravity: 1.023
temp: 80
lighting: Aquaillumination sol blue

czreef · Feb 6, 2015

Couple questions- How long has the tank been set up? How much top off water did you need to add? I top off daily with an ATO. If your water level was really low, a big swing in salinity could happen and shock the anemone. Also, your salinity is a little low RBTA's have done well for me at 1.024-1.026 sg. Also your nitrates are a little high, under 5 ppm, preferably closer to zero is best. Also, I've always kept my tanks between 74-78 and had great success with RBTA's. I suggest doing a water change to get the nitrates and phosphates down, slowly bringing up the salinity over the next week, and bringing the temp down a bit. My 2 cents. Good luck!

jedthefish420 · Feb 6, 2015

czreef said:
Couple questions- How long has the tank been set up? How much top off water did you need to add? I top off daily with an ATO. If your water level was really low, a big swing in salinity could happen and shock the anemone. Also, your salinity is a little low RBTA's have done well for me at 1.024-1.026 sg. Also your nitrates are a little high, under 5 ppm, preferably closer to zero is best. Also, I've always kept my tanks between 74-78 and had great success with RBTA's. I suggest doing a water change to get the nitrates and phosphates down, slowly bringing up the salinity over the next week, and bringing the temp down a bit. My 2 cents. Good luck!

Cz,

thanks for the quick reply. the tank has been up for 4yrs. i took over for a friend who didn't have time for the hobby. it had live rock and sand when i got it. i removed some live rock and replaced it with a few pieces of dry rock that i had (i liked the formations of the rock). i topped off about 1-2 gallons. i need to get a ATO system.. which one are you using?

czreef · Feb 6, 2015

I'm using the Tunze Osmolator Nano, simple set up really works well, the return pump is cylinder shaped and fits right in a standard 5 gallon water jug. Well worth the $100. How big is your tank? 1-2 gallons is a lot to top off if it's a small tank. Any idea what the salinity was before you topped off? It doesn't take much to shock them.

jedthefish420 · Feb 6, 2015

i have a 60 gallon tank. the reason why it was about 1-2 gallons is because i haven't topped it off in a week. before topping off it was 1.025. just did a 10% water change and turned the lights up a little bit. i'll update by the end of the day

Reefersutherland_ · Feb 7, 2015

So did we figure out what is wrong with the anemone? IME anemones do not tolerate poor water quality... Nor rough clowns [emoji30]

jedthefish420 · Feb 7, 2015

Update

Did a small (5gallon) water change and increased the lighting in my tank. RBTA is looking much happier. it's not sagging down anymore. I removed my canister filter and just running fuge w/ second skimmer. thanks for the help

jedthefish420 · Feb 8, 2015

Edit* SWC skimmer

so last night my skimmer overflowed on me. now my RBTA is sagging again. should I do ANOTHER water change?? or should I ride it out another day?

Nevil · Feb 8, 2015

IME e. quadricolor are extremely hardy. They do strange things from time to time.Yours doesn't look terrible in the photo. Can you tell if it's mouth is open? It should be closed tight. I would wait it out and see what happens. If your salinity was 1.025 prior to the top off what is it now? Most people keep their reef at aboit 1.026 so yours might be a little low.

jedthefish420 · Feb 8, 2015

Nevil said:
IME e. quadricolor are extremely hardy. They do strange things from time to time.Yours doesn't look terrible in the photo. Can you tell if it's mouth is open? It should be closed tight. I would wait it out and see what happens. If your salinity was 1.025 prior to the top off what is it now? Most people keep their reef at aboit 1.026 so yours might be a little low.

yes the mouth appears to be open. salinity is now at 1.026

czreef · Feb 8, 2015

Sorry to hear that. I agree, if your water parameters are good I would just wait a day or two. Not sure what caused your skimmer to overflow, was it full of skimate gunk or just clear water? Possibly collection cup sitting too low after you topped off? Adjusting from 1.023 to 1.026 over the course of 2 days could have shocked him a little, again I'd let it settle for a day or two unless it begins to deteriorate further. Best of luck.

jasonandsarah · Feb 10, 2015

Do you have any other nems in the tank?

jedthefish420 · Feb 10, 2015

I have an elegance in the tank about 7-8" away from the rbta

jasonandsarah · Feb 10, 2015

jedthefish420 said:
I have an elegance in the tank about 7-8" away from the rbta

Have you checked how close the sweepers are getting? I've never had an elegance but if I remember correctly they can sting from a distance?
Bta doesn't really look like it got stung but it's worth checking out.

jedthefish420 · Feb 12, 2015

Help asap

came home from work to my RBTA looking like this.. with brown mucous coming out of it should i take it out of my tank??

Reefersutherland_ · Apr 18, 2015

How is your nem doing now?

4FordFamily · Apr 18, 2015

No one with the "but enough about my ex wife/husband" comments?

Op, my guess is more flow is needed?

4FordFamily · Apr 18, 2015

Yeah that doesn't look good... are your nitrates high? Get another test kit rbta can't handle much over 50 in some cases (although mine gradually went up to 160 due to a bad test kid I had it read 40 ppm I bought another kit and about had a stroke!)