timrandlerv10
New member
My two BTAs are still in decline...they've been declining for about six weeks now. Originally, one got a small stomach eversion--about 3/4" of its stomach was balled up outside its mouth. About two weeks later, the other got the same thing. Until Friday their color had been ok, but not eating and they had shrunk to about 1/3 their normal size--they're about 6" across now and laying flat on the rocks.
When I came in to the office Saturday I could tell one was bleached. Its not any worse today, but it certainly isnt any better. They both still have about 1" bubbles of stomach hanging out.
Current stats:
amm/ites/ates 0/0/0
ph 8.3 (was as low as 7.7, but i've been using kalk to slowly bring it back up--I would say I dose about a cup every few hours of 1/4 tsp to 1 qt of ro/di...only one dose on Sunday, 2 on Saturday, maybe 3 or 4 during the week)
ca ~400 (hard for me to tell, was as low as 330 last week, and i've been using calcium carbonate to raise it...dosing a small amount every day for the last 5 or 6...dont know how i let that get away...)
mg 1250 last test (2 weeks)
alk 12 (was as high as 13...had been using reef buffer 8.3 which helped the ph but caused the alk to get up to 13...when i discontinued the ph fell to 7.7, so now i'm venting the office, running additional aeration in the tank, put another light on the sump 24/7 and not supplementing alk til its back down to 11)
phosphates undetectable
1.024
approx 100 -110 gallons of water volume in a 75g display with 55g sump
major disturbances over the last two months:
long spiny urchin disappeared, presumed dead--never saw a body.
moved the tank 9 days ago from one office to another (did a 20G water change the day after moving)
heater failed off, temp got as low as 72 before we found out and replaced it, took another 6-8 hours to get back up to 78
the above chemical variances--most of which were last week after the move
these disturbances all occurred after the nems started their stomach distension. i've increased the amount of time the MY lights are on to about 6-8 hours a day (from 3-4), and although the nems seamed to respond positively to that, their stomachs were still distended.
ive got a quart of charcoal here--i was thinking of going to get a filter sock and filling it with a 1/4 qt of new charcoal every 12 hours to see if there's something i can't test for in there.
water sources: 5 stage spectrapure filter for ro/di. instant ocean and reef crystals salt. some ro/di and salt water from john's.
had been dosing chelated iron (to make sure iron isnt the limiting factor in macroalgae growth--still have some hair algae and i'd like to keep it minimized), vitamins, marine snow, trace elements. feed ora glow pellets, formula one flake, some other random pellets and seafood buffet from the oriental store (blended, adding garlic, spirulina, vitamins).
other inhabitants are a wall hammer, branching frogspawn, gsm pair, halimeda, caluerpa, blue leg crabs, snails, mushrooms, kenya tree, and something that looks like a 2" brownish-green ricordea that i think somebody in the club (mariner?) gave me (he/you gave me 3, we put two in adam's tank).
HIS anemone also started to decline after mine did, and has also died since then. things that go in both tanks:
water
salt
our hands
office air
long tongs that we've since broken and thrown away
all chemicals
food
on a daily basis, there is very very little cross contamination besides water.
HELP!!!
When I came in to the office Saturday I could tell one was bleached. Its not any worse today, but it certainly isnt any better. They both still have about 1" bubbles of stomach hanging out.
Current stats:
amm/ites/ates 0/0/0
ph 8.3 (was as low as 7.7, but i've been using kalk to slowly bring it back up--I would say I dose about a cup every few hours of 1/4 tsp to 1 qt of ro/di...only one dose on Sunday, 2 on Saturday, maybe 3 or 4 during the week)
ca ~400 (hard for me to tell, was as low as 330 last week, and i've been using calcium carbonate to raise it...dosing a small amount every day for the last 5 or 6...dont know how i let that get away...)
mg 1250 last test (2 weeks)
alk 12 (was as high as 13...had been using reef buffer 8.3 which helped the ph but caused the alk to get up to 13...when i discontinued the ph fell to 7.7, so now i'm venting the office, running additional aeration in the tank, put another light on the sump 24/7 and not supplementing alk til its back down to 11)
phosphates undetectable
1.024
approx 100 -110 gallons of water volume in a 75g display with 55g sump
major disturbances over the last two months:
long spiny urchin disappeared, presumed dead--never saw a body.
moved the tank 9 days ago from one office to another (did a 20G water change the day after moving)
heater failed off, temp got as low as 72 before we found out and replaced it, took another 6-8 hours to get back up to 78
the above chemical variances--most of which were last week after the move
these disturbances all occurred after the nems started their stomach distension. i've increased the amount of time the MY lights are on to about 6-8 hours a day (from 3-4), and although the nems seamed to respond positively to that, their stomachs were still distended.
ive got a quart of charcoal here--i was thinking of going to get a filter sock and filling it with a 1/4 qt of new charcoal every 12 hours to see if there's something i can't test for in there.
water sources: 5 stage spectrapure filter for ro/di. instant ocean and reef crystals salt. some ro/di and salt water from john's.
had been dosing chelated iron (to make sure iron isnt the limiting factor in macroalgae growth--still have some hair algae and i'd like to keep it minimized), vitamins, marine snow, trace elements. feed ora glow pellets, formula one flake, some other random pellets and seafood buffet from the oriental store (blended, adding garlic, spirulina, vitamins).
other inhabitants are a wall hammer, branching frogspawn, gsm pair, halimeda, caluerpa, blue leg crabs, snails, mushrooms, kenya tree, and something that looks like a 2" brownish-green ricordea that i think somebody in the club (mariner?) gave me (he/you gave me 3, we put two in adam's tank).
HIS anemone also started to decline after mine did, and has also died since then. things that go in both tanks:
water
salt
our hands
office air
long tongs that we've since broken and thrown away
all chemicals
food
on a daily basis, there is very very little cross contamination besides water.
HELP!!!
)
