PLEASE HELP MY LTA and BTAs!

[justino2224]

I question your alk and Ph numbers. Typically with alk at 10 i would expect your PH to be much higher. Alkalinity at 10 is on the high side. Zero nitrates are a problem. Nitrates are a food source for anemones. Anemone farmers feed them nitrates. They love high nitrates. In my experiance they will thrive with nitrates as high as 120. Othere corals may not do so well with nitrates that high though. There are threads here on increasing nitrates. I almost never feed my anemones directly.
I suspect lighting is also part of your issue. Anemones love a lot of light. Generally it is hard to give them too much light. White and blue both add up to provide the amount of light they need. How many hours you have your lights on each day is also important. Your trying to mimic the sun as best you can with artificial lighting. You want to make changes gradually especially to your lighting. I would put your lighing back to what it was before and slowly increase the blue 10% and possibly the white 5% every couple days. You don't have to go by a specific AB program if you prefer more white in your tank. Depending on how many hours a day your running your lights you may want to increase how long they are on as well. My tank is mostly white. I don’t like the blue look as it is not natural and my fish look like crap under blues. I do have more blue in the mornings and evenings.

I will retest Alk and pH-- I am using Hanna Instruments for all of my testing. As for lighting time The lights go on at 8 and are off by 7:30pm. I will try and gradually increase the light to more of a blue. It was more white and they didnt seem to do well. I did change them to more of a blue color today and the coral and anemones opened up more than they have, but not a whole lot. I measured the par today at the bottom of the tank and it was 150. Does it need to be higher? I currently have the light 8 inches above the water because I figured if I had a bluer hue, it would lessen the par. Thanks so much for your response and assistance!

 

[justino2224]

I'd add some amino acids to help counter 0 nitrate. You can feed the anemones pretty frequently. There is a good paper on feeding bubble tips. Your pH is not 7.5. That is extremely difficult to achieve in a reef tank. Also, how high is the light mounted? It should be roughly 13 inches off the water surface

I use the Hanna Instruments for testing my water parameters. I think it uses a spectrophotometry method to determine the result. Ill retest tomorrow to see pH. The light was 12 inches from the surface when the light was more white, but I adjusted it to be more blue, today, so moved it closer to the water due to me believing the darker hue would decrease par. Its currently 8 inches above the water with a par of around 150. Thanks for your help! I really am just trying to save these beauties!

 

[laverda]

What is the par reading at the height your anemones are at? Try not to change more than one thing at a time. Moving the light cliser and increasing the amount of light at the same time may be a bit much. Its done already so let it be for a week befor making more adjustments to the light. Changing one thing at a time is usually the best idea when it comes to anything reef tank related. It will cause the least stress for your animals and make it easier to know what caused changes for the good or bad.

 

[Jekyl]

Here's the general settings used for your light.

 

[Tamberav]

Ok! so they do need nitrates? Ive always been told to keep them at zero, but maybe thats more related to fish care. How do I increase them?

You never keep them 0 in any tank. Fish didn’t need them zero and true zero is harmful to coral/inverts. This is old information that needs to stop circulating. I am sorry someone lead you wrong.

 

[Spare time]

I use the Hanna Instruments for testing my water parameters. I think it uses a spectrophotometry method to determine the result. Ill retest tomorrow to see pH. The light was 12 inches from the surface when the light was more white, but I adjusted it to be more blue, today, so moved it closer to the water due to me believing the darker hue would decrease par. Its currently 8 inches above the water with a par of around 150. Thanks for your help! I really am just trying to save these beauties!

White vs blue won't matter much. That par level works great for bubble tips but lta may like something a little brighter. Make sure with the hanna that you wipe the vial clean with a lint free cloth and the inside with rodi water.

 

[justino2224]

White vs blue won't matter much. That par level works great for bubble tips but lta may like something a little brighter. Make sure with the hanna that you wipe the vial clean with a lint free cloth and the inside with rodi water.

Will do when I retest in the morning! Ty!

 

[justino2224]

You never keep them 0 in any tank. Fish didn’t need them zero and true zero is harmful to coral/inverts. This is old information that needs to stop circulating. I am sorry someone lead you wrong.

Me too, now! But I appreciate someone letting me know! I see that the common way to increase nitrates is feeding them more? Will that pollute the tank in other ways? Should I buy a nitrate additive instead?

 

[justino2224]

Here's the general settings used for your light.

THANK YOU! I have been trying to find this.

 

[Cassy621#]

Jumping on this thread I have a large bubble tip which splint into 2 but since its small hardly see tentacles and pale and it won't eat don't know how to help

 

[Jekyl]

Jumping on this thread I have a large bubble tip which splint into 2 but since its small hardly see tentacles and pale and it won't eat don't know how to help

Tank age, parameters and lighting being used?

 

[Cell]

Jumping on this thread I have a large bubble tip which splint into 2 but since its small hardly see tentacles and pale and it won't eat don't know how to help

I'd recommend starting a new thread. Jumping on someone else's can be very confusing.

 

[Cassy621#]

Tank age, parameters and lighting being used?

6 months but most from tank that cracked PH 8.4
Nitrite 0
Lighting nicrew reef not sure on name
Alkalinity 9.5
Phos 0.48
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 29.4
Cal 440
Mag
2260

 

[Cassy621#]

6 months but most from tank that cracked PH 8.4
Nitrite 0
Lighting nicrew reef not sure on name
Alkalinity 9.5
Phos 0.48
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 29.4
Cal 440
Mag
2260

 

[Jekyl]

6 months but most from tank that cracked PH 8.4
Nitrite 0
Lighting nicrew reef not sure on name
Alkalinity 9.5
Phos 0.48
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 29.4
Cal 440
Mag
2260

Nitrate and phosphate a tad high but probably isn't the issue. Magnesium test I think is faulty. Have you looked into ideal settings for your light? I don't see any coraline which is a red flag

 

[Cassy621#]

Nitrate and phosphate a tad high but probably isn't the issue. Magnesium test I think is faulty. Have you looked into ideal settings for your light? I don't see any coraline which is a red flag

There's lots of coraline just cleaned class can't see my heater for it lol x I prob need better lights I get choice of blue white or white and add blue as much as I can.

 

[Blue Cheese]

It’s a lot of blue but my lta is the size of a basketball,I feed it once a week and nitrates are about 15

 

[laverda]

6 months but most from tank that cracked PH 8.4
Nitrite 0
Lighting nicrew reef not sure on name
Alkalinity 9.5
Phos 0.48
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 29.4
Cal 440
Mag
2260

You Mag is extreamly high if accurate. I suspect BTAs would not be happy with that; but can not say for sure. All your other levels look fine for a BTA. Anemonies need a lot of light. It is hard to give them too much light.