Strange BTA behavior

[Gobi-Wan]

Hello all. About a year or so ago I lost control of alegae in my reef. Long story short, nutrients were stripped for a long time and now after a big reset, nutrients have been under control for several months. During the 0 nutrients period, my 2 baseball sized anemones shrunk to the size of zoas. They have not recovered. The are not showing signs of being unhealthy other than being super tiny. Did I permanently harm them? Do you think they will recover? Corals and coralline algae are now growing fast again. I lost a lot of corals during the long 0 nutrient period.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Assure medium light and moderate water. Too much of each will cause it to both dhrink and hide. Too low if light will not support the needed zooxanthellae they require
Cipro in this case likely won’t help

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Hello all. About a year or so ago I lost control of alegae in my reef. Long story short, nutrients were stripped for a long time and now after a big reset, nutrients have been under control for several months. During the 0 nutrients period, my 2 baseball sized anemones shrunk to the size of zoas. They have not recovered. The are not showing signs of being unhealthy other than being super tiny. Did I permanently harm them? Do you think they will recover? Corals and coralline algae are now growing fast again. I lost a lot of corals during the long 0 nutrient period.

Biggest thing right now is stability, some nutrients available and the nems should recover. More than likely, the zero nutrients starved the zoox in the nems and the nems could not get enough "food" from them.

As long as nutrients are detectable, the tank stays stable, the nems should recover fine over time. YOu can try to feed them directly, but not large chunks of anything. Just some small bits of mysis or something meaty. Again, it needs to be small and only every now and again.

 

[Gobi-Wan]

Assure medium light and moderate water. Too much of each will cause it to both dhrink and hide. Too low if light will not support the needed zooxanthellae they require
Cipro in this case likely won’t help

Flow and light are ok I think, before the nutrients bottomed out the nems were very large for the first several years

 

[vetteguy53081]

Flow and light are ok I think, before the nutrients bottomed out the nems were very large for the first several years

Something had to have changed :
Light
Flow
Water

if water, nitrates, salinity or even temperature

 

[Gobi-Wan]

Something had to have changed :
Light
Flow
Water

if water, nitrates, salinity or even temperature

Nutrients went to 0 or close to 0 for a very long time, like 8 months maybe. Most of my corals died out, and it finally ended when I reached out for help here and ended up doing a massive day-long rip clean and got the algae under control that was captivating all the nutrients. Now I’ve had .08 phosphate and 20-25 nitrate for several months and I’m just wondering if the nems will bounce back. They are staying put, in the light and their colors are coming back but they just haven’t gotten any larger yet

 

[vetteguy53081]

Nutrients went to 0 or close to 0 for a very long time, like 8 months maybe. Most of my corals died out, and it finally ended when I reached out for help here and ended up doing a massive day-long rip clean and got the algae under control that was captivating all the nutrients. Now I’ve had .08 phosphate and 20-25 nitrate for several months and I’m just wondering if the nems will bounce back. They are staying put, in the light and their colors are coming back but they just haven’t gotten any larger yet

With good conditions, they should
Nitrate <10 and some nutrients

 

[Gobi-Wan]

With good conditions, they should
Nitrate <10 and some nutrients

Ok. Need to turn up photoperiod on turf scrubber and do a big water change this weekend. I have a mixed reef, mostly los and very easy sps (birds nest, different kinds of montis). What phosphate levels would be best?

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Ok. Need to turn up photoperiod on turf scrubber and do a big water change this weekend. I have a mixed reef, mostly los and very easy sps (birds nest, different kinds of montis). What phosphate levels would be best?

IMO 20-25 is not too bad for nems. Biggest thing at this point is stabilty. While 5-10 is more preferred for BTA, if you turn up the light cycle on the scrubber, do it slowly and watch params like a hawk.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ok. Need to turn up photoperiod on turf scrubber and do a big water change this weekend. I have a mixed reef, mostly los and very easy sps (birds nest, different kinds of montis). What phosphate levels would be best?

.02-.04

 

[Eagle_Steve]

.02-.04

@Gobi-Wan be careful if aiming for .02-.04. Depending on the test kit being used, the margin of error could be 0 at those numbers.

also, .08 is not a bad PO4 number either. Most mixed tanks aim for somwhere about 5-10 no3 and .4-.1 PO4 with no issues.

My 100% nem dedicated tank sits at an average of 15 NO3 and .08-.1 PO4 with no issues. This tank has almost all available species of nems in it.

In short, better to aim for stable, instead of making a 100 changes or making changes to quick. With stability and decent numbers, the nems will recover. Right now, your numbers are decent. NO3 could come down a little, and in the process, PO4 will also come down if usijg a scrubber, so be sure to watch it like a hawk.

 

[sfin52]

Something had to have changed :
Light
Flow
Water

if water, nitrates, salinity or even temperature

Ya zero nutrients starved the Zooxanthellae remember they are a type of algea and need nutrients. This feeds the coral. If you starve the zooanthellae you starve the coral. Bta didn't die because it was getting just enough to survive not thrive. Hence the reason shrunk and bleached.

Stable environment with nutrients the nems should recover. Follow @Eagle_Steve his advice is solid and a nem expert.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

10-20 NO3 is what I shoot for in my dedicated anenome system and PO4 sits about .06-.08. this is the range I have found My anenomes to have the best color expression and lay out the nicest.

Whatever you do, Make slow moves. Don't change 10 things today and please don't try moving to an ultra low nutrient environment. That is likely the Cause of the issue and will exacerbating and lengthen recovery.

Stability is key here. Good luck and keep us updated on the progress

 

[fishguy242]

.

 

[Gobi-Wan]

@Gobi-Wan be careful if aiming for .02-.04. Depending on the test kit being used, the margin of error could be 0 at those numbers.

also, .08 is not a bad PO4 number either. Most mixed tanks aim for somwhere about 5-10 no3 and .4-.1 PO4 with no issues.

My 100% nem dedicated tank sits at an average of 15 NO3 and .08-.1 PO4 with no issues. This tank has almost all available species of nems in it.

In short, better to aim for stable, instead of making a 100 changes or making changes to quick. With stability and decent numbers, the nems will recover. Right now, your numbers are decent. NO3 could come down a little, and in the process, PO4 will also come down if usijg a scrubber, so be sure to watch it like a hawk.

Yeah my scrubber is of my own invention when I designed the stand and sump, and it’s definitely the reason for the original nutrient bottoming-out. I reduced the size of the screen quite a bit and got the photoperiod dialed way down so the tank stays fairly stable- it only has to run 4 hours a night to keep up. I will never try ULN again, I’m happy with some nutrients. I use Hanna ULR for phosphate since I’ve had phosphate troubles so many times.

 

[sfin52]

Yeah my scrubber is of my own invention when I designed the stand and sump, and it’s definitely the reason for the original nutrient bottoming-out. I reduced the size of the screen quite a bit and got the photoperiod dialed way down so the tank stays fairly stable- it only has to run 4 hours a night to keep up. I will never try ULN again, I’m happy with some nutrients. I use Hanna ULR for phosphate since I’ve had phosphate troubles so many times.

Thats a solid plan and understanding of your system. I think your on the way to a great tank

 

[Gobi-Wan]

Thats a solid plan and understanding of your system. I think your on the way to a great tank

Hope so. After 4 years lol. Thanks for the help

 

[Gobi-Wan]

So after several months, the anemones kept shrinking and shrinking, eventually smaller than the smallest zoa polyps. and then disappeared. Never heard of anything like it. They've been gone a month or so. Corals are doing fine right now and growing. Today i did a big project to reorganize my cables and clean up the inside of the stand.. and when taking some things apart i found an old stainless steel clamp i had used as a temporary measure and forgotten about... this was 2 years ago when i set up the aquarium and upgraded from a smaller tank. shame on me... but could this have caused the issue? heavy metals? the clamp still operated to be removed but did have a pretty good amount of rust on it. I am running fine filter material right now and plan to buy some cuprisorb or something.