LTA died and now no one is happy!

Todd Kellley · Dec 5, 2019

I am currently running a 90 gallon tank with 3 to 4 inches of live sand and a good 60 lbs or more of live rock. No coral only fish and inverts. Fish consist of 4 clowns, 3 damsels, 2 watchman gobys, one randals goby, one yellow wrasp, 2 green filefish 3 peppermint shrimp, 3 anemone crabs, 2 emerald crabs along with assorted snails and hermits. Anemones "were" one GBTA, one RBTA, one mini maxi and 3 LTA's. Monday night one of the LTA's decided to turn around and burried itself under the sand and a rock head first. This one had a habit of shrinking down under the rock every evening for about an hour or two and then would inflate back to normal so it hiding only concerned me due to the fact it released its foot and turned around. When I go up Tuesday morning you could see it coming back out from under the rock so I went to work and did not think about it. HOWEVER when I got home that night its foot was very skinny and still in the same place it was when I left. No sign of tentacles. I stuck my nose in the tank and it smelled normal but when I reached in to move some of the sand form the foot to try and pull it out from the rock by pulling sand from under it it was lifeless and stuck under the rock. When I pulled it out the rest of it looked like something had been eating it! And boy did it stink! I immediately flushed it, did a major water change and added 2 bags of carbon. I took yesterday off to do a thorough cleaning and media change. Oh yes sorry, I am not running a sump, just a FLuval 406 canister filter. Everyone in the tank seemed normal except the other 2 LTA's They were all within inches of each other in the tank for they had all settled in a spot with lots of smaller rocks they could attach to the sand in between. So the one dying must have released enough toxins to force them to move.

Anyways I added 2 fresh bags of carbon to the filter, phosphate guard, paraquin media. Same media I change out every month except for the extra carbon. Upon starting the filter back up all the anemones closed completely! I even have one rock with an outbreak of aptasia on it and they all shrunk and closed. Other then the two LTA's moving and being slightly closed, everyone else looked "normal" until after I started the filter back up. The RBTA literally moved to the top of the tank like it was trying to get out of the water whatever is in it that is irritating them so bad. My big GBTA has been in the same spot for a year now and even it had moved by the time I got up this morning. Everything still mostly closed, RBTA at the top of the back glass. The aptasia looked normal this morning other then what the green filefish had been eating. I had taken the entire day off of work yesterday to do all I could to get any toxins out so I have to work a 12 hour day today and all I can do is sit here stressed wondering what I am coming home to. Any idea on what changing my filter media could have done to cause this reaction? It seems every month when I change media they shrink and hide for an hour or so but that usually coincided with my cleaning some of the interior of the tank which causes them to close a little anyways, but nothing like last night. Hate to say it but I am preparing myself for the worse tonight except the wife gets home a good hour before me and she will have no idea what to do if she walks into a nuked tank. Any questions or advice are appreciated. Sorry I am long winded and am sure I missed something one of you will ask so please do!

Todd Kellley · Dec 5, 2019

Oh and to add to this my first thought was increased ammonia or nitrate levels. Both tested nearly ZERO last night to may amazement so I tested twice to make sure nothing was false or wrong with my first test. Phosphates under 0.5, PH at 8 and ALK was a little low at 6.7 but I did not want to dose anything after they closed up. What am I missing friends?

Hemmdog · Dec 5, 2019

What are your parameters. It sounds like you have low nutrient and changing the media stripped your nutrient even more, especially the phosguard, that crap is dangerous.

Uncle99 · Dec 5, 2019

Nems require a high degree of water stability. You state your phosphate is .5, that’s way too high, should by in the 0.05 to a max of .1 and you say your Alk is a bit low at 6.7, to me that’s very low, should be in the range of 8-10 dkh with a maximum variance of .5 dkh.

Keep in mind it’s not as much the level, but how stable you can keep them at.

A full review of all parameters is in order, if inhabs running to the surface.

Todd Kellley · Dec 5, 2019

Uncle99 said:
Nems require a high degree of water stability. You state your phosphate is .5, that’s way too high, should by in the 0.05 to a max of .1 and you say your Alk is a bit low at 6.7, to me that’s very low, anything below 7 dkh is acidic, and will melt your rocks....should be in the range of 8-10 dkh with a maximum variance of .5 dkh. Even though you have no corals, you should maintain at least NSW levels of Alk.

A full review of all parameters is in order, if inhabs running to the surface.

Thank you for the insite. My decimal was in the wrong spot for phosphate .05 was what I meant when I matched that to test card. I had been fighting high phosphates about a year ago so its just habit for me to check that as often as I check the PH. I guess I really need to take a close look at the ALK. The replacement water tested close to 12 so I made the assumption that the water change would raise it but apparently not. Looks like I retest everything tonight and keep my fingers crossed for the rest of the day. This is killing me not being able to be home to take care of!