Anyone seen this with their BTA? Suggestions

[Gig-Island]

I’ve had BTA for over a year. Got it when it was about 2 inches. Since it has split twice. All three are between 4-6 inches each. All eat krill and left over food on a weekly basis. Over the past 4 months their tentacles are knotting up and are not long and stringy like in past. Water has your basic readings 1.023, 7-9 Alk, 450 Cal, Nitrates are high. No major changes over the past year. 1st two pictures are from 6 months ago.

 

[MERKEY]

Interesting....

When you say nitrates are high, what's high?

 

[Gig-Island]

Probably 30-50. I’m a heavy feeder. Been high the life of tank. I have been doing weekly 10-20% water changes to combat.

 

[Will Wohlers]

Usually when you see wrinkled tentacles and stubby tentacles it's a sign of a bacterial infection. I would start cipro treatment immediately.

 

[D-Nak]

Usually when you see wrinkled tentacles and stubby tentacles it's a sign of a bacterial infection. I would start cipro treatment immediately.

It's very rare for an established anemone to get a bacterial infection. Have there been any new additions to the tank?

 

[reef lover]

Salinity could go up a bit...you said alk 7_9? Does it fluctuate alot?

 

[Mical]

As Reef lover mentioned Salinity should be higher. I keep mine at 1.026. Do you feed your nems? I feed mine once a week either frozen shrimp or littleneck clams from grocery store.

 

[Gig-Island]

It's very rare for an established anemone to get a bacterial infection. Have there been any new additions to the tank?

A couple of leathers and a couple of SPS but nothing within 4 inches of the BTA’s. Added added a doser for my 2 part. That is the only new hardware.

 

[Gig-Island]

Salinity could go up a bit...you said alk 7_9? Does it fluctuate alot?

I bumped up my salinity to 1.025. I do not have an Apex so I test every 1-2 weeks. Over the past 4 months Alk has been 8.5-9.0 dKH and Cal has been 450-500. They are in a 40 breeder with about 20 other corals. All are doing fine.

 

[Gig-Island]

As Reef lover mentioned Salinity should be higher. I keep mine at 1.026. Do you feed your nems? I feed mine once a week either frozen shrimp or littleneck clams from grocery store.

Yes they have gotten 1 San Fran product large Krill about every week or two over the past year. They also get squats of meaty leftover fish food periodically. They all have a great feeding response with them balling up and directing food to mouths. I’ve never seen mouth exposed or inverted either.

 

[Gig-Island]

Ok, here are my numbers as of today:

Salinity - 1.026
Alkalinity - 8.3 dKH
Calcium - 494 ppm
Magnesium - 1560 ppm
Phosphates - .613 ppm
Nitrates - 20

Everything in tank is stable except for weird tentacle deformities and 2 singularia finger leathers polyps not fully extending.

Doing weekly water changes over past month.

 

[reef lover]

#s look good. What temp you run at?
Are they in high flow where the tentacles get twisted up?

 

[Gig-Island]

Moderate to high flow

Temp stable between 77-78 degrees

 

[reef lover]

Im stumped.....i would keep working on getting nitrates down a bit and see how he does...
The reason i asked about flow was i had one do that once and it was caused by the flow hitting them.

 

[Gig-Island]

Did a 25% water change on Friday. Today one of my nems split. I now have 4.

 

[Katrina71]

+1 on nitrates being the issue.