Unhappy BTA

Hal3134 · Dec 2, 2019

Tank is about 18 months old. BTA has been in it for 5ish months, always doing fine. It found a spot within 48 hours and stayed there the entire time until this week. It split once maybe 2 months ago, but was bubbled up and looking pretty after that. Sal=1.026, Ca=420, alk=7.3, mag=1390. Nitrate and phosphate kits are in the mail. The split new later split again, and all three look the same. Some tentacles are deflated, others partially inflated. Now the original nem is starting to walkabout.

nezw0001 · Dec 2, 2019

What else is in the tank? sometimes nems are sensitive to chemical warefare. Do you run carbon? What are you using for lighting?

Hal3134 · Dec 2, 2019

I started running carbon a week or so ago after the nem had been looking bad. 1 cup of Rox in a reactor. Tank is 250g. I know that is only a half dose of carbon, but wanted to start slow.

Lighting is 3 reefbreeder economy LED boxes. Again, same lighting as when it was bubbled and pretty.

Hal3134 · Dec 2, 2019

I added a large green leather a month ago, but I thought the nem only started looking bedraggled about 1-2 weeks ago.

Jason mack · Dec 2, 2019

Hows your temp is it fluctuating a lot during the day..???

Jason mack · Dec 2, 2019

Hal3134 said:
I added a large green leather a month ago, but I thought the nem only started looking bedraggled about 1-2 weeks ago.

Seems to be a lot of algea...maybe its irritating it ....is that cyno or hair algea you might have there

Hal3134 · Dec 2, 2019

Also, on Nov 5 I replaced a MP40 that had been non-functioning for a few weeks. The nem had been fine when the old MP40 was working.

I did raise the mag and calcium on Nov 17. Ca was 330 and mag was 1260.

Temp is 81. Normally it runs 78 steady.

Don’t know what the algae is. It’s not cyano. It’s like thicker brown hair algae. I have Vibrant also in the mail to me.

chizerbunoi · Dec 2, 2019

How long have you had the flame angel and have you noticed it nipping at the BTA?

I doubt the algae will harm the BTA. Anemones don’t tolerate dosing of certain chemicals like hydrogen peroxide. Did you by chance use any of that to combat your algae?

Did they just split recently? If just a few days then give them more time to recover. Salinity changes are hard on anemones and cause BTA to stress and split. What caused yours to split?

Hal3134 · Dec 2, 2019

Flam angel has been from day 1. No peroxide. Possible salinity change downward due to an uncalibrated refractometer. Maybe down to 1.022 for a few days then back to 1.026. But it’s been steady for at least a week at 1.026.

aznflyfisherman · Dec 3, 2019

What kind of water are you using? Your tank water doesn’t look very good from the looks of all the algae or diatom bloom you have, that’s probably why your nem is not doing so good.

chizerbunoi · Dec 3, 2019

The salinity swing would have caused that BTA to split. Try topping up your water everyday if you don’t have an auto top up. You need to try to keep stability with your salinity. Then your anemones will grow and be happy.

Hal3134 · Dec 3, 2019

I have a Tunze auto topoff. Occasionally it freaks, but usually it works.

Hal3134 · Dec 3, 2019

Temp is up to 82.5. Heater was still on. I dialed the heater down 2 degrees. We will see if lower water temp helps.

Today the mouth of the nem is gaping maybe 3/8 of an inch. I never saw that before.

Hal3134 · Dec 3, 2019

aznflyfisherman said:
What kind of water are you using? Your tank water doesn’t look very good from the looks of all the algae or diatom bloom you have, that’s probably why your nem is not doing so good.

4 stage RO off city water. No chloramines in the supply water.

Hal3134 · Dec 3, 2019

I run my lights about 11 hours per day. That’s probably why I have the algae.

ashs_exotics · Dec 4, 2019

Hal3134 said:
Tank is about 18 months old. BTA has been in it for 5ish months, always doing fine. It found a spot within 48 hours and stayed there the entire time until this week. It split once maybe 2 months ago, but was bubbled up and looking pretty after that. Sal=1.026, Ca=420, alk=7.3, mag=1390. Nitrate and phosphate kits are in the mail. The split new later split again, and all three look the same. Some tentacles are deflated, others partially inflated. Now the original nem is starting to walkabout.

I have been having somewhat of the same problem with my bubbletips

aznflyfisherman · Dec 4, 2019

From the looks your rocks are almost 100% cover in diatom or cyano ? Your phosphate and nitrate must be very high? Also if you don’t have a Wavemaker, I would recommend one. How many fish do u have? I use RO water only in my tank n it’s running good, your rodi should be much cleaner then mine.

Hal3134 · Dec 8, 2019

Update: Temp was adjusted up,one degree to 76-78. BTA continues to look bad, maybe even a little worse. I dosed my first shot of Vibrant a few days ago. No reaction good or bad to it. Two of its clones are mostly withdrawn, but look slight better than the momma.

I boosted the blue LED channel from 50 to 100 percent hoping that might help the internal algae of the BTA.

It seems to have stopped walking around, ending up about 3 inches from where it started.

Dsdman · Dec 10, 2019

Mine looks like this. I have no idea if it’s good or not. I feel like it’s stressed but this could be normal, the other day my temps dropped down to 75 before I caught it. It’s back up to 79 now. Sensitive little critters aren’t they