RTBA'S sick/dying after being stable for years. Help!

[jeffsfish]

I have had my RTBA'S for about 5 years and they were flourishing. They've split several times and I even had to thin my tank of a couple of them. Since last fall they've slowly started declining. I thought it was due to my old bulbs needing to be changed. For Christmas I splurged and upgraded my lighting to LED's. This didn't fix my anemone problem. They've gotten much worse. I checked the PAR and at the bottom of the tank it was 80. Even with that the BTA'S have hidden in the shadows of the rocks. There have been no changes to the tank (no additions) except for the lighting. My water chemistry is as follows:
temp 78 F
pH 8.0
dKh 11.2
Ca 445
Mg 1125
PO4 0.3
Nitrates negligible

Their tentacles are shortened with pink on the tips, but the rest is not bleached out, but a dark gray color. They get fed well and I don't believe that's a problem because as I said, I've had them for years and not much has changed other than the lights.

Any ideas anyone?

 

[Jamie1210]

could be a lot of different things ... have you added anything to your tank? where do you get your water from? do you mix your own water? are there any other inhabitants? if so, how're they doing?

 

[Daniel62]

what have you been feeding?

 

[Ebisan]

What is your salinity?

 

[worm5406]

Pictures before and current.

 

[jeffsfish]

As I said, I've had them for years (I'm guessing between 5-6 years) and they have done very well. There is nothing different with my tank as far as inhabitants other than many asterina stars. I now have harlequin shrimp working on that. It is a stable, established tank. The only change was the lighting. My salinity is 0.022 and that is generally where it stays. I've fed them Prime Reef, Mysis Shrimp, Cyclops, Rotifers. Their tentacles are not stretched out enough for anything larger. I tried target feeding and they will close on a larger morsel and then push it out. I make my own water using aerated RODI. I use Kent or Instant Ocean Salt. I have a Nilsen Reactor to dose kalkwasser. I tried putting in a poly filter on the very slight chance there is a metal leaching in somewhere. So far, nothing. I'm stumped and heartbroken.

Sorry I don't have any before pictures and they're in a place where I can't really photograph anything you could see.

 

[seamonkey84]

Your salinity should be 1.024-1.026 SG, that may fix your low mg, your Alk seems a bit high, I keep mine 9-10. Other than that, make sure what ever your feeding the nems is fresh, frozen foods should be checked to make sure it hasn't been thawed and refrozen.
Nems can get bacterial infections, check out the antibiotic threads for nems.

 

[Anemone]

A couple of things - what was your old lighting? LED lighting is pretty intense. Are you dimming it, or did you just go "all in."

Second, have you double checked your thermometer?

Third, when did you last change your RO/DI filters and resin?

Finally, what are the other tank inhabitants, both fish and inverts (including other corals)?

Kevin

 

[seamonkey84]

^+1 and recalibrate your refractometer, prob good to double check your parameters if your test kits are old or aren't the "lab grade" kits.