RBTA not doing well, Help Obi Wan

[stanley_3]

I need some help... I am have major issues with a RBTA. A few weeks a go my skimmer stop skimming (ASM G-2), so I went to lowes and started making mods, no matter what I did, lots of micro bubbles just no slime. So I went out and bought a coralife 220, it seams to be doing better but not what I'm used to or think it should be. Now this all happened a few weeks after I added some soft coral and a few fish over a 4 week period. Everything is doing awesome except my RBTA. Here is a pic of it, during the day it does come out some, but most of the time is retracted and looks dark. Early on looked great.

More info, I got nervous and did a 30% water change and I can't say that helped or hurt other than the nem looks a little worst everyday.

Any thoughts. What should I look for, do. What could cause a reduction/lose in skimming results....

72 DT, 29G ref, 29G basement sump, Aquaticlife 4x T5 HO fixture. 120lbs live rock
Mandarin dragnet, 2x clowns, 2x pj cardinals, potters angel, GSP, green leather Kenya tree and mushrooms

Ph 8.1, dK 7, SG 35, ammonia 0 , no2 0, no3 0, phosphate 0. ( so the tests say)


Thanks

 

[kretzkiller]

When you say stop skimming, what do you mean? For how long? Your parameters look good so it doesn't sound like too much, if any, damage was done. Where is it at in your tank? How old is it? How long has it been like this? Quadricolors are extremely hardy so even if it is overly stressed it could actually be fine and make a recovery.

 

[Anemone]

Age of the tank, and how long you've had the RBTA are key elements here. I haven't had a skimmer on my 65 gallon RBTA tank in 8 or 9 years, so skimming isn't a necessity, and lack of skimming probably isn't your issue.

Note: I've been keeping RBTAs for 18+ years (well, the same RBTA, and its clones), and I'm NOT recommending that everyone go out and dump their skimmers. It just happens to work for me, in my set up.

Kevin

 

[stanley_3]

My tank has been running for about 9 monthes, I've had the nem for about 4 weeks and the skimmer stopped working about 2 to 3 weeks ago. I went from cleaning my bowl out once a week full up gunk to to nothing. The only thing I can get now is slightly clear greenish brown water to nothing. The new skimmer does seem to be working better.

Probably 2 weeks ago the nem started slowly turning, contracting more and less vibrant. In the last few days I've seen him open up and show is mouth, a few times its looked like his mouth was open, possibly swollen.

He is located in the upper right corner. I have moved power heads and return lines around to make sure he his getting good recirculation/flow. I will recheck all parameters today and try to take another photo or two.

Currently I top off water once to twice a day manually, could this be contributing? I top off with ro/di water in the sump, about 1 gallon a day. I've ordered a Neptune system to go to an auto top off but this will be a week or so away until that's up and running. Also how does temp affect them. I believe that my temp is 79-80, but added another thermometer and it read 76-77, going to get another thermometer today to confirm that it is 79-80.


Thanks for any advice.

 

[dirk_brijs]

never point flow points straight at the anemone always try to guide your return a few inches above where your RBTA sit so it has to extend to reach food. Anemones extend their tentacles into a current to find food. So most of the time just one directional flow (like a stream) a few inches above the RBTA would do the trick to lure it out more.
When you see it open its mouth try to feed it small pieces of shrimp or something else meaty.
Again direct current is most of the time why they retract themselves not water quality.

 

[velvetelvis]

I'm no expert, but your dK sounds a little low. I keep mine around 9-9.5 and my Ca in the 440s. It's true that anemones don't actually use calcium, but ionic balance is important.

 

[stanley_3]

I ran all the tests this morning and all the same.

Ph 8.1, amm 0, no2 0, no3 0, phosphate 0, SG 35ppt, kh 7-8.

The placement is actually more of the middle of the tank. I was thinking of raising the kh, but at this point I was afraid of changing anything. Attached is a pic of him this morning.

Thanks again for all the input.

 

[stanley_3]

Btw, didn't test mag and ca, but always 1380-1400 and 420-440 respectively.

 

[JHawlz9989]

That last picture looks like a pretty healthy BTA to me. I would go ahead and watch the aquarium for an hour, relax, and then go get some sleep if you haven't had any yet. :spin1:

In my experience, the biggest issue with BTAs is stable salinity. I noticed when I was manually dosing top off water that the anemone was more likely to inflate/deflate, I assume due to the fluctuating salinity during the day. Once I added a top off system, this behavior stopped.

Good luck!

Josh

 

[stanley_3]

Thanks for all the help...this is where I am. I moved the return flow and power heads so they were not pointing right at him and topped of the evaporated water every couple of hours. Also confirmed temp to 78-79. Everything went well today, he is not very vibrant in color or extended too much but was better than past few day. I did feed him a krill..sorry couldn't help myself, he eat it right away no problem. Then the lights went off...is this normal?

 

[dirk_brijs]

again dont worry about those water parameters they are good enough for any anemone
now the flow is on top of him he will slowly start extending
feed him a little piece of fresh shrimp every 4 or 5 days and he will get much better in time
a lot of time
Anemones react very very slow on circumstances.

 

[ShelbyJK500]

From my experience, "dirtier" water can be helpful for nems. Much like zoas/palys tend to like "dirty" water because of the nutrients....SPS is where you need clean water. So if anything I would think the lack of skimming would actually help a bit.