BTA Trouble

[noahwz]

so I’m relatively new to the reef keeping hobby have been doing it for less than a year. I recently upgraded my reef aquarium from a 16 gallon biocube which was about 6 months old to a 45 gallon jbj AIO.

I made the mistake on adding everything too soon and the tanks water parameters have not been very stable. When I first introduced things I had let the tank cycle with ammonia and tims nitrifying bacteria, water was testing well then, I made the mistake of not testing and assumed the tank had cycled when it hadn’t, fast forward to now, I’ve been doing 25% water changes every 1-2 days and testing water before and after each change, as my ammonia nitrite and nitrates were out of control which is was led me to the conclusion my tank had not finished its cycle and I jumped the gun.
I’m running bioballs, chemiclean blue, and bio ceramic rings.

I’ve added seachem pristine 2-3 times in the past few weeks to help control nutrients. Right now am not dosing anything else.

A week ago water parameters were:
Salinity: 1.025
Ph: 8.2
Kh: 8.5
Nitrite: 5.0ppm+
Nitrate: 40-60ppm
Ammonia: 2-3ppm
Phos: <0.25
Calcium: 480
Mag: 1525 (not dosing)

25% water changes daily and now water parameters are

Salinity: 1.025
Ph: 8.2
Kh: 8.5
Nitrite: 2-3ppm
Nitrate: 40ppm
Ammonia: 0.25ppm
Phos 0.15
Calcium 480
Mag 1500

All my inverts/fish/corals are doing well EXCEPT the green anemone. I have 7 anemones, 2 rock flower, 3 Rbta, 1 Gbta, 1 Black widow bta. It’s been throwing up zooxanthallae every single day, it will inflate maybe once a day for a few hours then deflate and start throwing up, I assumed that it was water parameters and have been trying to dilute nutrients to compensate for my error as moving everything into the old system is no longer an option. Only other thing I could think of was lighting, I’m running 150W nicrew about 12-16 inches from water surface, the nem is all the way at the bottom of the tank, other nems seems to enjoy the light, not sure if this one doesn’t? Had a frogspawn frag recently bleach and adjusted my lights and took it down lower in the tank to try to fix that.

Lighting is as follows:
6:30 am is 0% white 5% blue
7:00 am is 5% white 15% blue
8:30 am is 5 % white 40% blue
4:30 pm is 0% white 20% blue
6:30 pm is 0% white 10% blue
Lights off are off by 7:30pm and build and dim with a controller.

Not sure what else to do, absolutely know I jumped the gun on transferring but now I’m just trying to meditate and keeps things as happy as can be. And don’t want to mess with my lighting too much as I know it can make things worse in terms of corals and inverts trying to adapt to the lighting.

Please help

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Yikes, that's pretty bad.

The damage is already done to that anemone, and wether it survives or not, who knows.

It's very lucky that the only thing in your tank not doing well is this, because those are very high nutrient levels.

IMO, the best you can do right now is keep good water conditions, and cross your fingers.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Did you move your sand to the new tank? Without rinsing it?

Stirring up a sandbed will cause the problems you are having, always carefully rinse sand before transferring to a new tank.

 

[Jekyl]

My nems are thriving in nutrients higher than that. My concern there might be some warfare going on between the color variations. Others have posted issues with mixing other colors with greens.

Are you running any carbon? I would try that and keeping things stable rather than more changes to the environment.

 

[noahwz]

Yikes, that's pretty bad.

The damage is already done to that anemone, and wether it survives or not, who knows.

It's very lucky that the only thing in your tank not doing well is this, because those are very high nutrient levels.

IMO, the best you can do right now is keep good water conditions, and cross your fingers.

That was my fear, I'm assuming it has a chance, like I said, it's been doing this for about a week now, nutrient levels are stabilizing slowly. My fear is that the prolonged stress will end up being its downfall. Just going to continue with water changes and as you said fingers crossed.

 

[noahwz]

Did you move your sand to the new tank? Without rinsing it?

Stirring up a sandbed will cause the problems you are having, always carefully rinse sand before transferring to a new tank.

I started with fresh live sand and live rock in this tank and did not rinse anything.

 

[noahwz]

My nems are thriving in nutrients higher than that. My concern there might be some warfare going on between the color variations. Others have posted issues with mixing other colors with greens.

Are you running any carbon? I would try that and keeping things stable rather than more changes to the environment.

I had the same thought, ive read of a few people having trouble with rose and greens together, ive learned usually one type will dominate the tank. I've read most lower end BTA can mix but I also have read that there was a possibility of warfare.

Also other than the chemi blue no other carbon, im running 75gallon bag instead of 2 25bags.

 

[Jekyl]

I had the same thought, ive read of a few people having trouble with rose and greens together, ive learned usually one type will dominate the tank. I've read most lower end BTA can mix but I also have read that there was a possibility of warfare.

There's no concrete evidence out there, all anecdotal. Is this tank entirely new dry rock? This could also be your issue.

 

[crazyfishmom]

That Nicrew light is not sufficient for the anemones you’re trying to keep and I worry that all of them will eventually start to do poorly. Anemones need a lot of light and you’ll really need to push that lighting schedule much higher to keep them healthy.

 

[Jekyl]

That Nicrew light is not sufficient for the anemones you’re trying to keep and I worry that all of them will eventually start to do poorly. Anemones need a lot of light and you’ll really need to push that lighting schedule much higher to keep them healthy.

150w nicrew should be plenty. My kessil lights are only 90w each.

 

[noahwz]

That Nicrew light is not sufficient for the anemones you’re trying to keep and I worry that all of them will eventually start to do poorly. Anemones need a lot of light and you’ll really need to push that lighting schedule much higher to keep them healthy.

Other frags were bleaching at same depth as anemone, i just recently took lighting down from peak of 15% white 60% blue because my euphellia started to look unhappy due to the lighting.

 

[noahwz]

There's no concrete evidence out there, all anecdotal. Is this tank entirely new dry rock? This could also be your issue.

No this is on live rock.

 

[Jekyl]

No this is on live rock.

If battling nutrients up the amount of water changed to 30% and no more than twice a week. Once you get the range desired focus on stability. In the mean time start running some carbon to see if it helps.

 

[noahwz]

If battling nutrients up the amount of water changed to 30% and no more than twice a week. Once you get the range desired focus on stability. In the mean time start running some carbon to see if it helps.

thank you, will try adding carbon, any preferred product? or will simple carbon rinsed in salt water in a pantihose do?

 

[Jekyl]

thank you, will try adding carbon, any preferred product? or will simple carbon rinsed in salt water in a pantihose do?

Activated carbon sold at most fish stores. Depending on tank size and filtration you could just buy the bags of it also.

 

[noahwz]

Did you move your sand to the new tank? Without rinsing it?

Stirring up a sandbed will cause the problems you are having, always carefully rinse sand before transferring to a new tank.

I thought the point of live sand was to not rinse?

 

[crazyfishmom]

Euphyllia normally like somewhere on the ballpark of 100-150 PAR. BTAs love 200 plus. Just my experience. Hope it works out!

 

[Jekyl]

I thought the point of live sand was to not rinse?

Live sand you purchase and the stuff from old tanks are different. Old sand is full of nutrients you don't want carrying over.

 

[rsmbudgetbuild2024]

did your calcium climb quick to get to that level? I will say I noticed RBTA will ball up and not like when I up my calcium levels. Nem and euphyllia coral both do it.

 

[Jekyl]

Euphyllia normally like somewhere on the ballpark of 100-150 PAR. BTAs love 200 plus. Just my experience. Hope it works out!

I agree the settings are probably low but currently isn't causing the issue at hand. I have my kessils cranked almost all the way up. The nem he has is shriveled instead of reaching for more light.

Once this problem is figured out then increasing the lighting over the course of a month or 2 is probably a good idea.