RBTA isnt looking too good

[JTM4UG]

I have good water quality, had a small amount of ammonia but have since done 2 or 3 water changes. low flow, 150w mh lighting....Ive had it for like a month and a half and it was doing great(6+ inches when open). Last week it moved to the bottom of the tank in a small cave and started opening less and less. now the tentacles are starting to look small and dark as well as its body and some tentacles even look like they are non existent now. It is def still alive so I need to do what I can. Let me know if anyone has any advice

 

[Reef-Ski]

Other than water quality-

The RBTA could be getting ready to split.

And make sure you do not have direct flow on the RBTA, they don't like it directed towards them.

 

[itz216]

There is a great site - www.karensroseanemones.com , but it looks like she was hijacked by a CIALIS seller : (

Try the site, if she gets her site back up ( no pun intended) LOL.

As REEF-SKI says, it may be getting ready to split. They look terrible before and during the process. Look for it to stretch a part of the foot onto an adjacent rock and literally pull itself in two.

If you feed a lot it will digest and then shrink to expel the waste - but that should only take a few hours - maybe a day.

 

[pjed99]

Not to hijack your thread but I just recently bought a RBTA and I found it free floating and it's belly was big and white. It looked like it was in trouble but then at soon as I put on the light it looked normal. Should I be worried? I have it in a 14G nano with 72W PC over it and do water changes ever other day.

 

[stingythingy45]

I have good water quality, had a small amount of ammonia but have since done 2 or 3 water changes. low flow, 150w mh lighting....Ive had it for like a month and a half and it was doing great(6+ inches when open). Last week it moved to the bottom of the tank in a small cave and started opening less and less. now the tentacles are starting to look small and dark as well as its body and some tentacles even look like they are non existent now. It is def still alive so I need to do what I can. Let me know if anyone has any advice

Why would you have ammonia?

 

[JTM4UG]

by small i mean .05 to .1 ppm, barely any color change atall....I added a bunch of new rock so im thinking it was probably that, I have since done several water chages and its at 0 now.

 

[stingythingy45]

What's your other parameters,especially alk?

 

[JTM4UG]

alk 1.6-1.8 LOW
ph 8.1
nitrate,nitrite,ammonia-0.0
salinity 1.023

just checked and alk is low, how do I go about raising it slightly?

 

[stingythingy45]

alk 1.6-1.8 LOW
ph 8.1
nitrate,nitrite,ammonia-0.0
salinity 1.023

just checked and alk is low, how do I go about raising it slightly?

The best way is with a little baking soda mixed with ro/di water.
Hang on a minute and I'll get you a calculator.
VERY,VERY important,raise that alk SLOWLY!

 

[stingythingy45]

Here it is,
Just make sure to input water volume at the top.

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

 

[stingythingy45]

Yes your alk is quite low.I'd try to bring it to an even 6 dkh.Then slowly bump it over the coarse of a few days up to 7-9 dkh.
Alk that low can cause some serious problems in the long run.I hope you caught it in time.

1.8 leq/l =5.04 dkh.

 

[JTM4UG]

Alk is normal now and all other water perameters are good, I ordered a RODI yesterday im hoping that helps, Here are some pics.....these are before and after, sorry for bad pics but atleast you can see the diff

 

[JTM4UG]

Well I hand fed the RBTA every few days with imitation crab meat (lol), tentacles are growing back and he is getting his pink color back, he is extending completely into the light and is starting to resemble a good look anemone again