BTA behavior

[Spare time]

Target feed every 2 days. smalls cuts from frozen calamari, shrimp octopus, muscles.

Regular feeding is prime reef flakes., pellets mysis. Weekly reef pulse for star polyps.

food is gone within a few minutes before restarting pumps.

I would feed every 2 days max, including if it catches flakes and what not. Here is a neat paper relating to feeding them. It takes 48ish hours for (at least these foods in the paper) to be processed.

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iopscience.iop.org

 

[terryw]

No shells or anything hard, but probably overfeeding. It looks like it was taking a big dump!

 

[Sophie"s mom]

My Nitrates were over 50 at one point. I started occasionally using Tropic Marin Elimi NP and now both N & P are great. I would try that. It lowers the nitrates quicker than the phosphate so you will have to keep an eye on things, but used as directed, it only took about 3 or 4 doses .

 

[terryw]

4 hours later it slowly starts and returns back.

Is this normal or a sign of something else?

 

[D-Nak]

In what way? What evidence do you have for that? I've kept anemones with an alk of 12-13 with no issue. They don't have the same problems that stony corals do with high alk.

I used to think the same thing -- that alk and CA don't really matter for anemones because they don't use them to build their skeleton/structure. However, alk can be an indicator of water quality. When alk is off or fluctuates a lot, it indirectly throws off other parameters: can cause swings in pH, an increase in nuisance algae, decrease in trace elements, etc.

Once I started to provide a more stable environment for my anemones, I saw a lot of the seemingly unexplained issues I used to see go away: random deflations, adjustment of zoox via expulsion (which is what we could be seeing with the OP's anemone), and changes in the anemone's size (typically slowly shrinking). And, in ways I can't explain, what I thought was allelopathy had been minimized, though it could be me adding carbon as part of my goal of providing that environment closer to natural sea water.

As long as your alk is consistent at 12-13 and your anemone's are used to it, they should be fine. My point was that they actually do care about alk, though most of it admittedly in an indirect relationship.

 

[D-Nak]

4 hours later it slowly starts and returns back.

Is this normal or a sign of something else?

I think it might've just been pooping. Mine do that from time to time, especially after big or frequently meals. BTA do this a lot more than other species. If I magnifica or gigantea deflated--even once--I'd be concerned because they NEVER deflate. With BTAs I don't worry nearly as much.

 

[Spare time]

I used to think the same thing -- that alk and CA don't really matter for anemones because they don't use them to build their skeleton/structure. However, alk can be an indicator of water quality. When alk is off or fluctuates a lot, it indirectly throws off other parameters: can cause swings in pH, an increase in nuisance algae, decrease in trace elements, etc.

Once I started to provide a more stable environment for my anemones, I saw a lot of the seemingly unexplained issues I used to see go away: random deflations, adjustment of zoox via expulsion (which is what we could be seeing with the OP's anemone), and changes in the anemone's size (typically slowly shrinking). And, in ways I can't explain, what I thought was allelopathy had been minimized, though it could be me adding carbon as part of my goal of providing that environment closer to natural sea water.

As long as your alk is consistent at 12-13 and your anemone's are used to it, they should be fine. My point was that they actually do care about alk, though most of it admittedly in an indirect relationship.

Alk swings are different than the complaint of the high alk, which is what I was debating about. Yes, pH swings are probably an irritant. I disagree that alk relates to nuisance algae at all, and I am not quite sure how you are linking it to trace elements but I think I see what you are getting at there.

 

[terryw]

Well. I didn’t feed it and it’s going through the same cycle.. it seems to come out fully at stay when lights off. I just tried blocking a section of light over it but has no effect. PH and others at the same but I noticed ammonia is .25ppm.
Going to LFS to have full test and likely do 20% water change. No change in elegant coral.

 

[D-Nak]

You didn't talk about high alk initially, this is what you started with:

To be fair I don't think anemones care about alk at all.

To which I responded that they do care. Then you switched gears and started talking about high pH, while asking for evidence as to why I said they do care:

In what way? What evidence do you have for that? I've kept anemones with an alk of 12-13 with no issue.

So I gave you my evidence, and to which I agreed that if your alk is stable, then it should be fine.

Alk swings are different than the complaint of the high alk, which is what I was debating about. Yes, pH swings are probably an irritant. I disagree that alk relates to nuisance algae at all, and I am not quite sure how you are linking it to trace elements but I think I see what you are getting at there.

We're not debating about the same thing: I was saying alk does matter, you're saying high alk doesn't cause issues (and I agree with you as long as it's stable). Low alk typically means coralline will have a hard time growing, thus allowing more of the nuisance algae to take off (so, yes, it does relate), and trace elements are utilized by reef inhabitants in different ways and deplete for various reasons--many of which are unknown or anecdotal. But to give you an example, high alk may cause growth spurts in SPS, which causes a faster drop in trace elements such as Barium, which is a trace element that apparently aids in coral calcification.

So, would I recommend keeping an anemone tank at alk levels at 12-13? Absolutely not. Would it work? Apparently it does. The only reason it would make sense to do so would be because the salt mix has elevated alk levels. Otherwise I see no reason to boost it that high.

Sorry @terryw for derailing your thread. I do see value in this debate though, as we trying to determine why your anemone is acting the way it is. That said, since you haven't fed your anemone, it's probably not poop. I think it's still acclimating and possibly expelling zoox to adjust to your lighting. Give it a few weeks. If it deflates more often, then there is a cause for concern.

 

[terryw]

I now believe it’s a chemical warfare coming from my elegance coral. I have adjusted lighting and water parameters and it’s a continuing cycle. once the elegance opens fully the BTA shrinks. This is continued for over a month. Now, trying to move the rock the BTA is attached to hoping it can survive. Elegance is loving life though. Other than location that limits flow of water from competing coral not sure what else to do. Any suggestions would be helpful.