BTA doing great for a year and now small and shriveled

[ruppertb]

I have a RBTA in our JBJ 28 with custom Cree LED Hood. It has been set up for over 2 years and the BTA has been in there for 11 months. It has been doing great and is about the size of a large grapefruit. About 2 weeks ago i bought a new media basket and started using purigen. Media basket has one small packet of purigen and a sock with some carbon and 1 Tbs of GFO. About 2 days later the nem wont inflate much and stay about the size of a golf ball. everyday the tentacles bubble up a bit int he morning when the blue lights are on and then they deflate in the afternoon when the white are on. It is not gaping mouth is tight. There is a small clown in the tank that has been in there for a year that hosts it. It doesnt ever close up or seem to ball up but it just is not inflating nor as large as it used to be.

Parameters

Salinity 1.025
Nitrate Undetectable
PO4 - Hanna Meter says 0.01
Alk - 7
Calcium - 420
Mag - 840
PH - 8

Mag is low but unsure if this will affect nem, any help would be great. I will try to get a photo posted tomorrow.

 

[bairdimusprime]

I've noticed with my BTA's small amounts of nitrates and phosphates have them bigger and more active.. don't know why

Just keep an eye on the nem for now. hows the water temperature?
i had to add a second heater in my tank since its been so cold here in NJ the one wasn't keeping up

 

[Trex]

I would (( slowly )) raise up the Mag, those levels are very low.

While only anecdotal, I have always noticed that my S. haddonis would look "off" whenever I let the Mag levels drop.

If that doesn't change anything, I would stop using the purigen --- mainly because of the timing.

 

[KillerKlownFish]

Pics?

 

[ruppertb]

Sorry spend all day and night at work just getting home lights are out, i will snap one tomorrow. thanks for the responses, i will raise the mag slowly and check my heater maybe it isnt functioning properly. when i added the media basket i did add a smaller different heater to the sump area of the jbj 28 and removed this huge 300w one that i had in the tank inself, it was an eye sore

 

[bigtoysrock]

What combo of chemical filtration were you using before the new media basket?

Personally mine does this for about 3 days when I change media to new stuff. Those water parameters, are they before or after the new media?

 

[jcrider48]

Levels look low

I agree Mg should be up around 1400-1500 alk 8-10 calcium looks good. Most likely it's going to poop then needs to eat. Do you feed it?

 

[Fizzpop]

Nems are weird

I have three (used to be just one) BTA that I kept in a JBJ 28, recently moved to a JBJ 45. When I first got it, it crawled into a cave and sulked for a full month. Then found its "spot" and grew like crazy. Split one night into three (?!?!) nems. All three grew to be almost as large as the first. Moved to 45. All three sulked about looking for the right spots. After about a month, the nem placement gods decided all was right in the world and they are happy again. During this time one had spent a lot of time near the bottom of the tank and had shrunk in size by half. Now currently in a "good" spot and growing again.

I run carbon and occasionally Phosguard. Haven't seen any negative reactions from my nems. Sometimes they bubble, sometimes they don't, often both at the same time. Watch your parameters and don't worry. Nems are weird.

 

[Mike J.]

I agree with all the previous responses. I'd like to state that I had a 50 watt heater in a 12 gallon tank and it wouldn't keep it heated consistently. What's the temp of your tank; especially when the lights are off?

 

[zoa_addict]

One apmag was reading low due to old kit I bought a new

 

[zoa_addict]

Sorry typing this on my phone. Brice asked me to post a photo of our nem and it shrunk up. May was low due to old test kit and it is now 1350 with new kit. Previously ran carbon and gfo and when we got the new media basket for Xmas brice put in new Carbon gfo and Purigen. Tank has a small hair algae outbreak and I think it's from low flow. Afraid to put in a power head with nem. So flow is just from the 2 return Maxine's 1200 both running at the slaw time. I will monitor the temp for a few days at different times of day to figure if it is dipping. Brice is going to buy a par meter and we will see what the odds are outputting. Nem doesn't ever walk anywhere but he rotated the rock to get the nem higher to see if it would walk and it stayed put. Nem gets fed lysis about 2 times weekly plus what ever it may catch when feeding tank.

 

[zoa_addict]

Sorry for typos dumb iPhone auto correct

 

[zoa_addict]

And now the phone won't upload photo

 

[ruppertb]

ok so this has taken long enough, I phone wouldnt upload photo so i had to tether my phone to try to add it from laptop, urg. ope this works. Temp stays between 79 and 80 heater seems to be on whenever i check the temp.

it is about the size of a quarter and before it shrank it was always puffed up orange grapefruit size. it looked bubbled all day but is just so so small, and isnt reaching at all. Do you think more flow would help it puff up?

 

[ruppertb]

Update removed him to my frag tank and he still acts the same. Small but bubbled. I am waiting for a par meter to test lights in cube. Maybe lights were weak and he was slowing staring and that's why he shrunk. Any other ideas