My GBTA is this normal and okay?

[Ztrain]

So I have 0 Ammonia 0 Nitirite and 0-10 Nitrate API test. Salinity 1.025 temp 80F.

The nem didn't wake up this morning. So went to go look for it and finally found it in this condition in the large cave I have in the tank. Fearing it may be dying and seeing that it's not attached I fished it out and it bulked right up. But then after anchoring it's foot deflated while crawling over to a rock. Looks pretty sickly again as you can see in the next video. It's been doing this every night since getting it but not in the dark cave. In the morning before the lights come on it it generally inflated and looking okay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYgQR89DPZM

This is it almost to the chunk of live rock. I tried feeding it to perk it up. I couldn't see it eating any food. It almost looks like it has two mouths but it hasn't split after several days. So don't know if their both actual mouths.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BM1wvk2WrE

After it tucked itself under the rock it inflated somewhat in the next video and the clowns tried to host it unsuccessfully.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQZI4uSoAZE

Let me know if these look normal for BTAs. It does have a more green color but just as with the algae Greens don't really show up much with these lights. On a side note it hasn't closed up tonight after the last video so maybe it's getting better.

 

[Ztrain]

This is the morning after it crawled under the live rock. It stayed open all night rather then closing up like it has been doing all week. It's very hard to see from the video but most of the tentacles on the left are actually green tinged and the ones on the right are a pink/brown. The LR themselves are covered in a thick green that you can't really see in the camera either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es7E2gcwp_k

I tried feeding it some frozen brine shrimp and the tentacles near the top deflated and the ones on the swelled up. I couldn't actually see the food going in to the mount through all the tentacles covering everything up. It wasn't sticky enough to grab food yesterday so hopefully it was today. But at least I saw a visible reaction to touching the food today. As you can see the ones in back are a lot thinner and deflated. But their retracted under the rock so can't really see what they are doing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgqQCpGSkkI

 

[Ztrain]

This could be why I'm having problems with this nem. Apparently it has two mouths. While I couldn't tell before if it was eating clearly it did because the lower one gapped open and threw up. Then when it started to close the other mouth above it opened up and puked all over. The mouth on bottom shrunk down and it currently looks like the 2nd picture.

 

[cnreef]

How long has that tank been set up?

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

Following

 

[Ztrain]

How long has that tank been set up?

A little over two months now. Everything been stable for a while now. Been religious about checking SG, and temp of 80, verified by separate thermometer several times a day. Always between 80.2 and 80.8. Nitrites have been 5-10 never seen above 10. Tank has very little algae other then a bit of brown on the glass that I scrape off right before my water change. The dry rock is white where there isn't direct light from the LED. Where there is direct light exposure I have a very dark green but still hard. Don't know if it's coraline. Let me know if there's any other parameters you need to know.

This morning it opened up to full size with the body shaft actually being lifted off the bottom of the tank instead of resting on it. Still hasn't done any type of split. I didn't want to turn the lights on to disturb the tank but just from a little window light leakage it looks like it's still the brownish pink color when it expanded. I'll check in on it when I go home for lunch.

 

[Mr.C]

What is your Ca, Alk, Phos, PH? What lights are you using? How long have you had it?

Two months is pretty fast to add an anemone. You don't have a problem with algae because it hasn't had time to grow.

 

[Ztrain]

Ca 420 Alk 8.4ish PH is normally about 8.1 during the day and if I test it late at night 8. It doesn't seem to fluctuate but reading the API test color's is a pain. I'm using a Kessil a150w Ocean blue. Was on a 9 hour timer and 12 inches above the water. Nem is on the right hand side of the tank not directly under center. I've had it for just a week.

I was reading last night that nems loose their color with too much brightness. So I moved the light up to 24 inches above the water line. Base of the tank is 13" below water line.

This morning it was all inflated looking good except for the color. Now that the lights are on can see it does today have some of the green back. It looks a lot better then last night. The green on the left is what I think it's supposed to look like. I'm just worried about the pink on the right. It's not totally bleached white but still would like to improve it's condition. The two mouths are both closed shut and I have not tried to feed it today.

The problem I've been having is there's a ton of contradictory information out there. Some people say wait six months but they can't tell you why. LFS said wait till everything is stable and you don't see a lot of changes on your tests. I've even brought in samples for them to test on occasion. I've been going on mostly what I read online. One site says keep your tank between 72-78 degrees. Another study says that is akin to slowly killing everything in your tank and things should be kept at a minimum of 80 because average sea temps are in the 84 range etc. LFS says when chemistry is stable. The Reefcentral downloadable PDF guide says "...you should wait at least a month after your tank is done cycling..." So it's not a game of finding the information its trying to figure out which is a more credible source of information.

Store info. They keep their SG at 1.024 for 6" cube it came from and a temp of 78 degrees. They are also using Oceanic salt mix. I started out with IO standard but am currently moving to RC with water changes. They are also using a 50/50 truelumin pro strip and an all blue strip over their tank so my lights are a LOT brighter which is why I'm thinking it may be lighting.

My acclimation was 15 minutes float while I prepared everything else. After the 15min float I put a corning ware bowl inside of my 5g bucket. I then poured the bag from the fish store in to the bowl. I then used airline hosing to put about a drip per second siphon from the tank to the over the bowl. So the water could over time spill out over the bowl while being replaced with tank water and let this go for about an hour and and a half and then transferred the nem to the tank. The other method I saw was to put the nem in a bowl and let it expel all of it's water and shrink down and then dump in tank. I thought something about that sounded wrong so went with the drip method.

As of this moment it looks like the picture with the kessil above 24". Should shorten the period or move the light back down? Going forward what should my best action be?

 

[Ztrain]

Welp never mind. It just shrunk down and started expelling the brown goo again this time during the day. When it shrunk down I saw the part of the side was deteriorating and opening up so I pulled it from the tank and it's now out in the garbage. Not going to risk the other inhabitants if.

I'm not going to accept defeat though in this hobby. I will try again in a few months. However with all the contradictory information out there. What is a reliable site or source of information so I have a better chance with the next one.

My two clowns doesn't seem to be too happy. They just hovering by where the Nem was.

 

[Ztrain]

Okay think we know what happened.

I took a large sample of my water to my LFS and had them do a whole workup on the tank which gave me very different results form what I was getting at home. While I tested my hydrometer and then went and took the same water over to the LFS to look at with their hydrometer my hydrometer was fairly close. So I was keeping my salinity at 1.026. So I went to the store today had them do the basic tests. Their hydrometer read 1.03. Okay that's a serious problem. I'm glad I had them check and didn't have a tank crash. Went home sure enough 1.026. So I lowered the salinity they said it would be safe to lower it some what quickly for the two fish and since I don't have any snails they wouldn't be all that affected by the salinity swing. They figured it would be better to get it to where it some what safer limits faster. So I went back and it registered 1.027. So that's where I'm leaving it till tomorrow until I do another small drop.

Other parameters are a little off as well. While I am getting 5-10 ppm nitrates on my API test their nitrate test showed 0 nitrates. Good sign. My other tests were a little off as well. On their tests my phosphate came in at .16 that could be another potential problem. I don't have a lot of algae yet but at least I caught this early. I have an AquaClear filter and picked up some empty media bags for my size and they sold me Continuum Aquatics Captiv Phos W to use in it. Hopefully this will fix the phosphate issue. My Calcium came in at 460 and my alk came in at 11.2dkh.

These readings are very different from the others I was getting and I liked how the Red Sea tests worked so I'll be getting a set of those and my own refractometer shortly.

Given these findings I'm going to assume the issues I was having with my Nem was either phosphate or salinity related. From my discussion with the LFS I think it was the mostly the high salinity. They've seen tanks with higher phosphate then that and fine anemones but suggested that it be dealt with before it gets any worse. I'll fix the phosphate issue too now that I'm aware of it. Just very surprising that nitrates can stay really low and the Phosphate can run rampant.

 

[Silvergryphon]

Ditch the hydrometer, get a refractometer and calibrate it monthly, more accurate.