What is wrong with our LTA?

[Joshnlaura]

This is what our LTA looked like for about the first 6 months we had him:

For the last week or two, he has stayed shriveled up like this, and his tentacles are gray/purple looking:

The only thing "off" on the water quality are the nitrates. They are slightly high, but nothing major and for the last couple of weeks we have been doing larger water changes and we have been doing them much more often. We typically change out 10% of the water weekly. Lately we've been changing out 15-20% every 3-5 days.

I don't know if this means he is sick or if he has just been unhappy with the nitrates being slightly high in the tank. Any suggestions?

 

[davocean]

Maybe list all param numbers, specs, time running, lights, and how old lights are.

 

[Joshnlaura]

Sorry, I had it in the profile but forgot to put it here!

Tank is 15 months old, 75 gal., 20 gal. sump w/fuge, skimmer, gfo reactor. Lights: T5 nova, all bulbs were just replaced a couple of months ago. All water params within normal limits, except nitrates being slightly high (0 on nitrites, ammonia, PH 8.3, nitrates .6, salinity 1.026, calcium ~400)

Let me know if any other info would help?

 

[davocean]

Hmm, I see what looks like another tentacle, and a toadstool, were they actually touching the LTA?
What were you feeding?
Were bulbs real old before switching, and did it move after that?

 

[Joshnlaura]

In the beginning we had a condy who liked the crack in a rock above the LTA. He's not in the tank anymore.

We do have a toadstool leather (a VERY big one), but the anemone stayed in the sand between large rocks where he was protected from everything else. He's never touched the toadstool so far as I am aware?

We spot feed mysis and a mixture of shrimp, scallops, mussels, phyto, and coral frenzy. We've been feeding this for months, so nothing has changed there.

The bulbs were a year old before we switched them. He didn't start acting like this until about 6-8 weeks after the bulbs were changed.

 

[Joshnlaura]

When we did the bulb change we went from two actinic & two 10K to three 10K & 1 actinic?

 

[davocean]

Are you running carbon?
Sometimes I see issues w/ other corals or nems in the tank, but mainly if they are touching or were disturbed to the point of releasing toxin's/chem warfare.
It's really hard to say for sure what's wrong w/it, usually there is some kind of obvious flag, especially if you've had it that long and it was healthy to begin with.
A condy could have bothered it, or released toxins when it was disturbed at removal, but I can't say for sure if that would be the cause.

 

[davocean]

When we did the bulb change we went from two actinic & two 10K to three 10K & 1 actinic?

That could have bothered it, but I wouldn't guess to this point, and if it did I would expect it to pull into the rocks or shady area if so and if that was available.
If you had screen you could shade it and see if that does anything.
Maybe someone else will chime in w/ something I can't think of.

 

[Joshnlaura]

Yes, we are running carbon, but have been since the nems been in the tank. I suppose any of these factors could have contributed over time? Just seems odd that it's happening in the last couple of weeks with the only change being the nitrates being a little off, which we're addressing.

Eh, thanks for taking a stab at it. Guess we'll have to just keep working on getting the nitrates back to normal and see how he does.

 

[chasedasea]

Phosphates? Not sure how tough LTA's are but I know my BTA always let me know something was off in the water.

 

[chasedasea]

Just curious, where do you get your source water? Last year I was having problems and kept doing major water changes with LFS RO/DI water to no avail. I finally tested the source water and the phosphates were through the roof but everything else was fine. Initially I always tested the water but after about 6mos I got lazy.

 

[Joshnlaura]

Good point there. We were running carbon and gfo in the reactor until ... I dunno... 4 months ago when we started running only carbon. We're ordering some more gfo and we'll try that. Don't test for phosphates. Just because the kits are typically inaccurate/difficult to read and if they tell you that you have phosphates, you run gfo. So, to cut out all the hassle in the middle, we'll just try the gfo. LOL

 

[Joshnlaura]

We run an RO/DI filter to get our water. We've had it for about a year, do you think the filters may need replacing even though the TDS meter still shows the water readings at zero? Good suggestion. Thanks!

 

[chasedasea]

We run an RO/DI filter to get our water. We've had it for about a year, do you think the filters may need replacing even though the TDS meter still shows the water readings at zero? Good suggestion. Thanks!

Yeah, IMO a year is pushing those filters but it all depends on the brand, your municipal water and whether you use it regularly. If the TDS says zero your DI filter and RO membrane is probably still good. Just change out the other ones when you can, I usually changed mine every six months and the RO and DI when the TDS began to rise.

 

[davocean]

^^Agree w/ that.
Also if running GFO make sure to check alk, I didn't catch that number, and too much can cause a significant drop, but usually that affects calcium too.

 

[chasedasea]

Good point there. We were running carbon and gfo in the reactor until ... I dunno... 4 months ago when we started running only carbon. We're ordering some more gfo and we'll try that. Don't test for phosphates. Just because the kits are typically inaccurate/difficult to read and if they tell you that you have phosphates, you run gfo. So, to cut out all the hassle in the middle, we'll just try the gfo. LOL

Haha, that makes sense.

 

[Joshnlaura]

We'll order new filters with the GFO and give it all a go! Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[Joshnlaura]

Testing signature...

 

[davocean]

I think most call for the main membrane replacement at that time period as well.
And I probably would at least shade that nem w/ screen or crate for a spell and see if that changes anything.

 

[chasedasea]

Double check my second to last post, I added more in depth info. My brain was busy and kept thinking after I initially posted.