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

 

[Spare time]

okay im glad you said it LOL because that's exactly my thought i can only see between 0-0.25 and just have to guess where im at. What test would you recommend. Not in a position to by Hanna testers for all tests.

Salifert is a little better than API when it comes to phosphate. Still very difficult to read imo but I am colorblind so I am not the best judge haha. The nyos one is similar. You can check out their color cards before you buy them. I will say that typically the hanna phosphat ulr or phosphorus ulr is the one test kit I say that if you could only get one digital get that one. Red sea phosphate pro is $30 on saltwateraquarium. That one is good but takes a little while and is like a mini science experiemtn (I found it fun lol).

 

[noahwz]

Salifert is a little better than API when it comes to phosphate. Still very difficult to read imo but I am colorblind so I am not the best judge haha. The nyos one is similar. You can check out their color cards before you buy them. I will say that typically the hanna phosphat ulr or phosphorus ulr is the one test kit I say that if you could only get one digital get that one. Red sea phosphate pro is $30 on saltwateraquarium. That one is good but takes a little while and is like a mini science experiemtn (I found it fun lol).

Probably going to bite the bullet and buy the hanna test for phos only and start there slowly upgrading them. Wish they werent so expensive but understand why they are haha.

 

[rsmbudgetbuild2024]

BTA once moved in new tank already closing mouth, absolutely water I’m feeling.

Have you ever seen it ball up? Should look like a ping pong ball for one that size.

RBTAs will do all of extending , shrink, bubble up and ball up and all are considered normal.

I almost want to say to move it by hand to that cave underneath of it kind of wedge it in there gently so it gets a bit of shading but still direct access to lighting. My RBTA moved from direct light where I placed it when I got it high up in the tank all the way across the tank to a cave near substrate with limited light where it still extends and bubbles etc. they seem to find their own happy place vs a place you find for it. But maybe just needs a hand to figure out where that is.