Thoughts on Tropic Marin BioSynthetic and BTA's

[Leslie Tabor]

About 6 months ago I gradually transitioned from HW Marin to the BioSyn salt on suggestion from my LFS. I am now mourning the slow sad demise of my 3 RBTA' s that I have had and grown for 2.5 years. The thing is 1 nem started doing poorly and over a few weeks died. Then the second. And now I am watching the 3rd. I have 1 other BTA that seems to still be doing well, as well as many maxi minis and bornemans. Any thoughts? I feel really stupid for changing salts as there really was no reason to. However other things have done well with the switch. Here are my nems before...

I have also noted little to negative corallin growth since the change. Good or bad is in the eye of the reefer but is very different for my tank. Any thoughts? Just coincidence?

 

[Tedzilla]

Wow... Remind me never to change salts! Sorry, you're going through this. I'd buy a (smaller than you used to buy) quantity of your old salt, and try acclimating the tank a bit more to the new salt. How many water changes have you done with the new salt?

 

[chefjpaul]

If you truly think it is the salt, then switch back, do large w/c and see if you get progress back.

 

[Lance M.]

Never heard of that salt. Things I could think of would be a batch issue, or based on the description of the salt, it successfully drove your system to a ulns system (what are your water parameters before and after the switch?). Depending on the amount and speed of the changes, it could have been detrimental. Maybe created a bacterial imbalance in the btas? Maybe coincidence?

How much water did you change and what was the frequency of the water changes?

I just use the red sea blue bucket and raise the alk a little to 8.5. Matches what I keep my tank at. Simple.

Use to use the red sea coral pro, but the high alk of the fresh mixed water (~12 vs 7 tank at the time) seemed to disturb my nems for about a day after every wc.

 

[Dancingmad]

I've switched between instant ocean, reef crystals, some sketch no name brand at a LFS, and red sea pro (which is my go-to) - never had any woes. Highly skeptical its the salt, but I have never used the two salts you mention.

What do you parameters look like? How fast did two of them die? What symptoms and how did they progress? Any pics of the deceased while they were dying? I have so many questions .

 

[Leslie Tabor]

Never heard of that salt. Things I could think of would be a batch issue, or based on the description of the salt, it successfully drove your system to a ulns system (what are your water parameters before and after the switch?). Depending on the amount and speed of the changes, it could have been detrimental. Maybe created a bacterial imbalance in the btas? Maybe coincidence?

How much water did you change and what was the frequency of the water changes?

I just use the red sea blue bucket and raise the alk a little to 8.5. Matches what I keep my tank at. Simple.

Use to use the red sea coral pro, but the high alk of the fresh mixed water (~12 vs 7 tank at the time) seemed to disturb my nems for about a day after every wc.

I am going to do some water testing today, the salt is supposed to help with nitrates, which my system was always 30+ prior to switching. This has been over 6 months, so I did lots of 15 gal or less changes initially. I generally do 20 gal a week to every 10 days.

 

[Leslie Tabor]

I've switched between instant ocean, reef crystals, some sketch no name brand at a LFS, and red sea pro (which is my go-to) - never had any woes. Highly skeptical its the salt, but I have never used the two salts you mention.

What do you parameters look like? How fast did two of them die? What symptoms and how did they progress? Any pics of the deceased while they were dying? I have so many questions .

I appreciate the questions! They started just looking small and mad. Then they started spewing zoos, then they get very short, flat spindly, the mouths gape. They will look ok one minute than like total crap. And they take turns they are not doing this all at once. It probably takes a good 2-3 weeks before they spew their guys and I have to remove them. Here is the most recent, this is actually looking better than this morning.



My temp is 77-78, pH is 8, salinity is 1.025 to 1.026, nitrates always 30+ and phosphates 0.36. I do struggle to keep those down, which is why the change to bio syn as it is supposed to help. I will get new readings today. Everything else looks great. I run carbon once in awhile due to all my leather corals. I have not check ca, mg, alk in awhile as I have all soft corals.

 

[Dancingmad]

My temp is 77-78, pH is 8, salinity is 1.025 to 1.026, nitrates always 30+ and phosphates 0.36. I do struggle to keep those down, which is why the change to bio syn as it is supposed to help. I will get new readings today. Everything else looks great. I run carbon once in awhile due to all my leather corals. I have not check ca, mg, alk in awhile as I have all soft corals.

I should have clarified in my post that I have lots of questions, but I may not have any answers (just a fellow hobbyist here - not an expert!). Maybe someone more skilled can help more!

FWIW I usually don't change up my routine for the sake of one critter (and putting risk on any other livestock I may have), but I'd run some carbon for smiles n' grins since thats in your routine, and keep a watchful eye. If its bleached my regime is usually to do a light acclimation cycle and target feed tiny food (like mysis) maybe 2 times a week. Minimal overall tank impact type things, but could be helpful to nurse a grouchy nem. There is a helpful cipro sticky that may be worth a read (Never had to do it myself, but if I needed to that's where I'd look!). It also has a point system on how the nem looks vs health which is pretty sweet too.

Hope it works out!

 

[Leslie Tabor]

I appreciate any and all help! I just keep trudging along!

Tested my water...not great. NO3 is 64 and PO4 is 0.12 - 0.16. But not crazy different than it has always been. I am going to do some hefty water changes. It is so sad to lose something that you have watched grow and thrive for years