Rbta + Ph = Rip

[pogodzib]

A word of caution - anemones and powerheads do not mix.

I guess I wrote too soon about coming back from my 1 week vacation without any major casualties. Upon returning from being gone for a week, a couple of my corals did not look the greatest and my RBTA was wondering around the tank. The corals are returning to normal now and it appeared that the RBTA had found a new home. When I got home from work yesterday, the tank was extremely cloudy and there was little bits of my RBTA scattered throughout the tank. The RBTA had gotten sucked up into a PH and got pulverized. I had heard about powerheads sucking up anemones, but I never worried too much about it since my anemones never wonder around the tank and I haven't had any problems in my 2+ years of keeping them. The RBTA had a 5" base and was expanding to about 9", which really makes me worry about how badly it has polluted the water. I tested the water and did a water change last night and everything looked much better this morning. The nitrite tested at 1ppm, but there was no nitrate or ammonia detected. I'll be testing again each of the next several days to make sure that the water quality gets better. Hopefully the RBTA won't pollute the water too bad causing other problems. Once everything looks better, I'll need to decide if I want to get another RBTA.

[davidsreef]

Wow, sorry to hear that Brian. Hope your water turns out OK.

[mtfatwork]

best thing to do is a good sized water change, if it starts to decompose in there you will get an ammonia spike. Very sorry to hear of your loss. I just got an rtba and I think it is the most awsome creature. Maybe when it splits you will be interested in the clone.
Here is a pic.

[schneijt]

I'd run some polyfilter in the system for a few days just to be sure no toxins are in the water hurting corals. Sorry to hear or your loss. My RBTA might split from the stress of being moved to his new 75gal home in a few weeks, so if he does, I'll offer you first dibs on the split if you're interested.

-Joe

[pogodzib]

Thanks for the offers on the RBTA's. Let me know if they split and then I'll decide if I want another one or not. My biggest factor is that I already have two large brown/purple BTAs (1 in each tank) and don't know if I want to put two BTAs in my 45 again. They take up so much room. Maybe I should get rid of the BTA in my 45 before putting another RBTA back in there.

I did a 12% WC last night and plan on doing another 12% WC tonight. I hate doing water changes larger than that at one time. I sucked out as many of the pieces of the RBTA as I could find last night, but there was hundreds of chunks. I was going to put a bag of carbon in last night, but I decided not to yet. If things look poor tonight, I'll either put a bag of carbon or a polyfilter in.

[davidsreef]

I would do both poly and carbon. The carbon to clean up any nasty chemicals the RBTA left behind.
Mary, is there anything that you do to have your RBTA develop the bubbles? Mine doesn't get the bubbles, only once in awhile on one or two tenticles. Sorry Brian stealing your thread.

[mtfatwork]

no magical answer there David. All 3 of my bta's get bubbles. It depends on size, current, and lighting though, at least in my tank it does. My huge anemone only gets the bubble tips after the halides go off, the really small one always has the tips bubbled out, and the rtba only seems to have them fully bubbled when the halides are on. Sorry that didn't really help you at all.

[lfish]

so sorry to hear about the rbta, brian, keep us posted as to how it is going.

david, Mine have better bubbles when they position closer to the lighting, I have noticed. Do you feed it? Also feeding seems to keep them fatter and bubbled. I think when they stretch out they are looking for food and light.

[davidsreef]

Mine is rather close to my MH and my actinic, so I don't think the lack of lighting is a problem. I do feed it, but not every day, and probably not even once a week. Maybe every other week. My clown seems to feed it with large food and poo he finds

[Liza]

so sorry to hear about your loss I hope your tank recovers quickly

[pogodzib]

Everything in the tank was looking somewhat better by last night. Some of the corals have not expanded fully yet, but I'm sure that they will recover just fine. It makes it easier to deal with the loss of the RBTA knowing that all of the other fish and corals in the tank will survive.

[davidsreef]

I am glad that everything is looking better! Hopefully everything will turn out fine.

[pogodzib]

One advantage of having two tanks set up is that I have alot of the same corals in both tanks incase I do have a tank crash and I can move the corals out of one tank and into the other as well. With fish however, by the time you notice any problems caused by ammonia or nitrite it is too late to save them. I still can't believe that I lost the RBTA to a powerhead though.

[Cruiser]

Sorry to hear about the rbta, hope everything else is doing better. Let me know if you're going to the meeting. John