BTA (?) Needs your Help!

[RayWhisperer]

Every picture you’ve posted looks washed out with yellow and fairly dim. These are just pictures, so I figured it was a trick of the camera. However, browning out is usually poor water quality or insufficient light. Now this thing has yet to take hold. When it did, it didn’t stop wandering. This is far enough in that it should have settled down some by now. It’s time you post up some water parameters and what you’ve got for lights.

[Chris's Fishes]

Not all of us have access to nice cameras - for me, it's either a washed out yellow picture or something so blue you can't see anything that's going on. I edit the white balance, tint, and brightness to get something that's somewhat presentable.

 

Parameters:

Ammonia/Nitrite: 0 PPM

Nitrate: 5 PPM (it never gets above 15 PPM before a water change)

phosphate: 0.05 PPM-0.1 PPM

PH: 7.9

Temperature: 81

 

SG; 1.025

 

For lighting, I'm currently using an ABI 23W PAR 38 that barely works. I dropped it into the tank a few nights ago by accident. I'm receiving another bulb tomorrow.

[RayWhisperer]

Oh, I’m not knocking your photography, or camera. Like I said, until now I figured it was from the camera. Phosphates climbing up to 0.1 can be problematic. I could see an anemone becoming duller from that. However, I don’t think one would brown out from those levels. I could be wrong. 

 

Im really unfamiliar with the par 38 lights, so I can’t comment much on that. Yet, a 28 watt par bulb should be plenty sufficient. 

 

The only other thing thing I can think of off the top of my head. You say the bulb is barely working now. Was the nem improving before the bulb fell in? Did it seem to take a turn for the worse after that? And, have you done a water change, or a few, after it fell in?

[Chris's Fishes]

I was actually getting ready to edit my last post - I did NOT mean for it to sound so offended! I was just trying to say that what I post is the best I can do with this camera. I guess not getting any sleep kinda messes up your language skills, eh?

 

The anemone has continued to improve daily. The bulb was unplugged when it was knocked in, and it was only in the tank for a second or so. I did a 50% that night, and then a 50% the next day - I was worried about the thermal paste on the back of the PCB. But, nothing has shown any adverse effects, so I don't think that caused issues.

[RayWhisperer]

Yeah, I was thinking it could have been electrical, or thermal paste, as well. 

 

That really only leaves phosphates. Your tests vary from .05 to .1. Honestly, I’ve kept tanks that high, but it’s unusual for them to go well without several problems, algae and browning being the most common. I’ve had BTA’s get dull, or go pale, never really start to brown though. Then again, this is a green, and I’ve only had reds. It may be the phosphate levels. It may just as easily not. However, getting them down to a more manageable range like .01 to .005 couldn’t hurt anything.

[Chris's Fishes]

Will do.

 

I'm not of the mindset that a reef needs to be incredibly clean to be healthy (some of the healthiest tanks I've seen ran phosphates and nitrates much higher than is usually recommended), but I'll try and get them lowered, if for nothing else to cross that off the list.

[RayWhisperer]

Like I said, I’ve run them that high before. It mostly depends on the tank. Each one is different. It’s all about finding YOUR tanks right balance. It’s nor something I would normally equate to a browning BTA, but with no other glaring faults..... It’s really all I can think of that might cause it. Normally, phosphates in the range of .003 is considered ideal. I’ve never really held to closely to that, myself. However, .1 is really pushing it. I figure .05 or lower to be pretty good for most anything but SPS.

[Tamberav]

I thought those successful high Po4 tanks were really mature tanks? Not fairly new systems? I think maturity plays such a huge role in things we can't test for. 

[Chris's Fishes]

I'll definitely work on getting them down to 0.05 or so, at least.

 

The tanks I'm talking about were owned by a guy of the local reef club. He died a few years back, but he was definitely stuck in the 90's when it came to reef keeping - he used daylight lighting, tap water, and did water changes every month or so. That obviously wouldn't work for everyone, but it did show me that you don't HAVE to maintain such pristine water to be successful. He was really big into dendros, duncans, torches - anything that was colorful and flowy.

 

I'll agree that maturity is a huge part of a tank's success - there are far more "cycles" than just the Nitrogen Cycle. But, I'm also a firm believer that there are far more ways than one to slice the aquarium pie, so to speak. What works for you might not work for me, and vice-versa - there aren't that many absolute truths in the hobby.

 

That said, I do agree that phosphate is about the only thing that could be going wrong with this guy, and I'll start water changing a bit more and feeding a bit less. 

 

 

[Chris's Fishes]

I did a 50% water change today, replaced my Clearmax media, and installed the new light. Seems as if the BTA has finally picked a spot to stay a while - not sure how well he's anchored, but his foot hasn't moved for a few hours, and he seems pretty secure where he is. The colors in this picture are kinda off, but this'll give you an idea of where he ended up:

 

 

Lighting looks weak, I know, but there was some strong editing done to this pic to get it to where you could see what was going on.

 

Not sure if it just wasn't liking the lower kelvin spectrum I had before, if it was a nitrate/phosphate issue, or if was just taking it's time - but hopefully it'll stay here and recover.

[Chris's Fishes]

Looking better today!

 

[Chris's Fishes]

Pretty terrible pic, but he moved around again. No more rolling around, though - he walked over to a new spot, climbed up on the rock, and got comfortable.

Nitrates are still reading around 5 PPM, but phosphates have dropped noticeably. It's hard for me to tell the color difference on the chart, but it's definitely closer to 0.01 than 0.05. I've been turning off all the pumps, and blasting small areas of the rock work with a turkey baster - spending 3-4 minutes on a few square inches of rock, to get all the muck out I can. Then, I siphon it all out, and replace the water. Seems to be doing the trick. I can tell a definite difference in algae growth.

[Chris's Fishes]

Time for an update with this little guy.

 

It eventually attached in a spot and hasn't moved in around 3 weeks. It's foot seems to be firmly anchored to a crevice in the rock.

 

It attached near the sandbed, and doesn't seem to be reaching for light - although I've been told it may need more light. What do you guys thing? I could add another bulb, to see how it'd do with an upgrade. but I don't want it to freak out again, either.

 

It's beginning to change color - from its' old mint green, to a pale red on the disc and an even paler green on the tentacles. I've read that green is often a stress color for anemones, and that they'll turn almost red-brown as they settle in and repair themselves. Is that true?

 

It's tentacles are still awful short - I haven't attempted to feed it in a long while, but they don't seem to be getting any longer. Is it time for a feeding, or will it just take several months for a noticeable increase to happen?

 

 

The disc is more of a pale red than it is in the picture. As always, the camera makes it seem much darker than it actually is.

[mcarroll]

On 1/6/2019 at 8:51 PM, Fisker said:

Nitrates are still reading around 5 PPM, but phosphates have dropped noticeably. It's hard for me to tell the color difference on the chart, but it's definitely closer to 0.01 than 0.05.

Amemones are phosphate pigs, so PO4 may have dropped too far.

 

Make yourself a zero-phosphate water sample to test for reference and hold it up next to your tank water test to compare with.

 

If you have trouble telling the difference between the zero reference and your sample, then your tank levels have dropped to zero and your anemone (and everything else) has used up the available phosphates.

 

Stop doing water changes and if you're removing phosphates with your filtration (GFO, Chemiclean, ATS, anything...) then stop that as well.

 

It's possible that's all it'll take to even things out and stop the nutrient swings, but if PO4 remains at zero after these changes then you might want to consider dosing them up to a minimum level.....0.03 ppm is what I'd recommend for a target.   5ppm is a good minimum level to keep for nitrates.

 

IMO there was nothing wrong with your nutrient levels to begin with....looks like they were both balanced and available...which is good!   :-)   Corals and their allies stay happy....worst case is you get some hair algae and upgrade the CUC to deal with it.  Simple.  That's the right way for things to go.  :-)