A few questions about my BTA

[STGSilva]

So question one why does it keep going upside down? Right now it's in my cave where my fire goby stays and it's upside down. Second question what is that flesh color stuff in the pic? This is my first BTA.

 

[Jekyl]

Welcome to R2R! Can you please give some detail on your setup? Age of tank, lights being used, parameters and whether or not you're using RoDi?

 

[STGSilva]

Tank is a fluval seaflex 32.5 all stock parts supplied with the tank. Tank is almost 5 months. I use sea water from my lfs.
Salinity 1.028
Ammonia. 32
Nitrite fluctuations between .5 and 1.0
Nitrate also fluctuations but low
Ph tested yesterday was 8.2
Calcium 470
Alk is 10

 

[Jekyl]

The concerns I would have are the age and lighting. Generally new reefers don't have any success before 6 months and best results waiting a year to allow the tank k to mature. The stock lighting in the fluval also is probably insufficient, but I dont that's the cause here.

Also, salinity slightly elevated.

 

[STGSilva]

The tank was initially filled with natures ocean nuti-sea and the salinity has stayed 1.028 since it was started. I can add rodi water on my next water change to lower it. Would that take some of the stress on my bta?

 

[Jekyl]

The tank was initially filled with natures ocean nuti-sea and the salinity has stayed 1.028 since it was started. I can add rodi water on my next water change to lower it. Would that take some of the stress on my bta?

Getting to 1.026 and focusing on stability after would be best. I would also get the salinity double checked to be safe.

 

[STGSilva]

I had my last check it before I seen nutri-seawater was actually that high. My corals and fish dint seem bothered. Is it possible the bta is just getting used to the tank? And what's that stuff near its mouth?

 

[Jekyl]

I had my last check it before I seen nutri-seawater was actually that high. My corals and fish dint seem bothered. Is it possible the bta is just getting used to the tank? And what's that stuff near its mouth?

Nems prefer a mature system. I think this is a result of that.

 

[exnisstech]

I can't tell for sure from the image but it looks like it may be spewing it's insides which is not good. It also looks like it may be splitting but that could be an illusion.