Nursing BTA To Health

[Sound]

I purchased a BTA from my LFS two weeks ago and it was bright yellow. Now I know that means it was put through much stress and it must be nursed back to health. What is the quickest course for this?

I have a 24 gallon Aquapod with 120 watts PC/Atcinic (those are the blue lights, right?) that's been running for about..well almost a year, maybe 8 months give or take. Parameters are in check except for nitrates which are at 30ppm (I'm currently lowering them gradually.) . It's gotten a slight shade of brown since I got it two weeks ago. It ate two medium pieces of fish the first three days and since hasn't eaten what i've given it. Should I try smaller portions?

What can I do to speed this up?

 

[Lmecher]

picture

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

How big is the anemone? small food this early is always better then larger...

since your tank has been up for a year and you dont know what colour of bulbs your running and they are PC's i would highly reccomend changing them as PC bulbs pretty much max out around 8 months...

other then that if he is turning brown that is a good sign...a pic will help though...what does its mouth look like? is it inflating and deflating at all?

also your nitrates are fairly high for an anemone...how are you reducing them?

 

[Sound]

Well fully inflated it's about 5-6 inches in diameter from one end to the other. It doesn't deflate very often, unless I feed it. I'm at work during the day adn it could just be that it deflates during the daytime and I just don't see it most of the times.

I'm running half blue lights half white. I was meaning on replacing them soon, too. I'll post a pic later today.

His mouth is usually closed up pretty tight unless it's expelling waste. There's a maroon hosting it and it seems happier since I got him.

I'm vacuuming up the waste from my sandbed since before I would do water changes mainly by removing water from the top of the tank, until I realized my nitrates came primarily from my sand and rocks and from my filter media (which I have since removed, or washed after each water change) I'm doing 20 % water changes every other day.

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

20% every other day?

holy damn that is excessive to say the least...

as for your lights they could be 10000K 50/50 or 420 actinic...not sure what other colours they come in...

 

[Sound]

Yeah, well before yesterday I had been doing 10% weekly. Two days ago I started the 20% in the sandbed routine (about 4-5 gallons). Do you suggest I do them less often? Like weekly?

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13791540#post13791540 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sound
Yeah, well before yesterday I had been doing 10% weekly. Two days ago I started the 20% in the sandbed routine (about 4-5 gallons). Do you suggest I do them less often? Like weekly?

i do 25% once every two months if that...that includes full sand siphon and rock dusting...but i would not recommend a new tank practice this...if i were you 10-20% every week should be fine, as the tank matures, you will find a lot of people only do 20% a month..however they feel like breaking it down...to each their own though...i cant imagine a tank can sustain itself with the frequency you are doing right now...unless you are replacing with NSW...