BTA's are shrunken - need some input

[jkobel]

Hey Everyone,

I have 2 BTA'a that were once active and healthy but one day they shriveled to the size of a marble and started to move around the tank.

At first I thought they were being attacked by tank mates and would eventually open back up. Then my tank crashed which masked many things. It's been about 4 months since the tank has been healthy again but these guys never opened back up.

Water params are all in check (Nitrite/Nitrate/Ammonia/dKH/PH)
pH - 8.2
NO3 Nitrate - 0
NO2 Nitrite - 0
NH3/NH4 Ammonia - 0
KH Alkalinity - 7.5 dKH
temp 80F

I run carbon and GFO and change it regularly.

The only thing I can think of is I had been using a hydrometer for mixing/testing my salinity and when it finally died I bought an ATC Refractometer. It now seems my hydrometer was WAY off and I had been mixing my salt to approx 1.018 as that's where my tank was at.

I've been slowly bringing that up closer to 1.025 so I'm hoping that they will open up but no dice yet.

Questions:
1. Has anyone had a low salinity experience/reaction like this and is it the likely cause?
2. Has anyone seen BTA's recover from being shriveled up for so many months?

Thanks!

 

[Sapelo]

Honestly I've never had salinity go that low so it's hard to speak to that part of your question.
I do think nems, once they start down that bad road, are hard to bring back BUT they've made it this far so you really have nothing to lose by continuing down the same path.
Your Alk is a bit low for me but at this point I would think stability is the most critical thing.
I'm assuming you haven't added anything new to the tank that would raise a disease flag so I'd just try to maintain water quality and hope for the best.
You might try posting this in the anemone section too for more responses.
Good luck.

 

[jkobel]

Thanks Sapelo, appreciate the feedback.

I was pretty shocked to find the salinity that low, wish I had some clue when it started down that path.

I'll post over there to see if I get any additional info.