HELP whats wrong with my RBTA????

[fuzzylion44]

Ok lets give background first. I have a 72 gal bowfront.
Temp:80
ph: 8.3
ammonia: 0
nitrate: 0
nitrate: 5
calcium: 500mg/l
hardness: 12dkh
phosphates: between 2 and 5
I do 2 week 20% water changes. This tank has been up and running for at least a year and maybe a half.
Inhabitants: 2 orange clowns(not hosting), diamond goby, lawnmower blenny, and foxface rabbit fish.
LIGHTING: I know the lights i had at first was not enough 2 bulbs t5ho 54watt a piece so i added my power compact to that half of the 72 gal tank to help with lighting. The power compact has 4 54 watt bulbs 2 actinic and 20000k daylight. The bta is at the very top of the water in range of the water flow vent. Ive had the bta for 3-4mos was doing ok but in most internet picts they always look different with lots of bubbles on the tips and are more closed not spread out like mine. Also the center of mine is greenish? I do feed 2 times a week squid in a turkey baster.
Here are picts what is going on??????

 

[meowzer]

Your phosphates are a little high...You should bring them down

 

[fuzzylion44]

any suggestions on how i dont have a phosphate reducer at the moment. Mybe syphon out the stuff at the bottom more and then add so more fresh water? how much i already did a 20% change last weekend.

 

[meowzer]

1st...what are you using for water? Tap or ro/di?
2nd you should get a phosphate pad or something for your filter
3rd...what id causing the phosphates? Find out and eliminate it
You can do all the w/c's you want, but if you don't correct the cause you will accomplish nothing

 

[spiderwoman]

Yep, your phosphates are too high, I'd get phosban or similar phosphate remover in place and put it in a high flow area according to instructions.
Your RBTA definitely does not look good. Does it always look like that? I'm going to say your lighting plays a big part in this too. Do you spot feed it any?

 

[fuzzylion44]

I do use regular tap water but i use the prime to take out contaminants i usuall wait a few hours for that to do its thing before adding it to the tank. The total watts for that side of the tank is over 300 watts. As stated earlier i do spot feed with a turkey baster with squid twice a week. The poor thing looks so sad. Do you think i should try a liquid phophate remover or a phosphate pad? The bta has not always looked like this just in the past week and a half.

 

[fuzzylion44]

I may be kinda stupid on this but what causes phophates? Should i test my tap water to see what it looks like?

 

[spiderwoman]

Prime does NOT remove all of the bad stuff from your tap water. I seriously recommend getting your own RO, RO/DI or at least RO water from LFS/Walmart etc. Anemones are really sensitive to water quality. Have you tried feeding other meaty things to it than squid? I'm not sure how high nutritionally is. You could give fresh shrimp and silversides too.

 

[spiderwoman]

Originally Posted by fuzzylion44
http:///forum/post/3002737
I may be kinda stupid on this but what causes phophates? Should i test my tap water to see what it looks like?
Your tap water will have phosphates on it, I'm pretty sure of that. Feeding flakes will add phosphates to your water... fish poop too.

 

[fuzzylion44]

i dont use any flake i have pellets for the clowns but the foxface goby and blenny eat those too. The only other thing i use is sea weed for foxface. I thought you couldnt feed them silver sides because of the bones?

 

[fuzzylion44]

my just tap water reads between .5 and 1.0 phosphates

 

[spiderwoman]

Originally Posted by fuzzylion44
http:///forum/post/3002741
i dont use any flake i have pellets for the clowns but the foxface goby and blenny eat those too. The only other thing i use is sea weed for foxface. I thought you couldnt feed them silver sides because of the bones?
Pellets are high in phosphates too. Cut the silversides in smaller pieces and you should be fine. I have mine under MH's so I don't spot feed mine often, but when I do, I give them chunks of shrimp and what ever I can find in the frozen home made food.

 

[fuzzylion44]

do you think i need to do metal halides? ive heard not to get a 48 inch one but to get 2 one for each half of the tank?

 

[spiderwoman]

I just noticed your in NC, which part?
You can go with T5's, they wont' run as hot as MH does. I like my 48inch MH fixture on a 75g tank, but I run a 36inch 6bulb T5 on my frag tank. What type of light you decide to go with depends on many things, like how much room you have above your tank, do you have a closed canopy etc.

 

[fuzzylion44]

sorry it took so long to reply i went out and got some phosphate remover. lol I am in greensboro

 

[fuzzylion44]

Ok so let me give you a complete run down on my 72 gal. I have made a seperator so that one half of the tank it just monster my fuzzy dwarf (she ate my first lawnmower ) The other half of this tank has the foxface, 2 clowns, bta, lawnmower, diamond goby, 1 emerald crab, 1 blue legged hermit crab, snails, small frag galaxea, small frag neon green star polyp, 3 frags zoes.
I did have a white sebae anem and 2 black and white clowns but the big black one was getting too rough with the orange ones. And i know this is really bad but i took the 2 black and white clowns and their sebae anem and put them in a 6 gal nano cube. That is so horrible i know! I just dont know what to do with them. I would put my fuzzy dwarf back in the 54 gal corner but with money getting so tight i had to take it down.

 

[fuzzylion44]

here are some better pics to give you an idea.

 

[mr.clownfish]

and also i want to add that ur temp is a lil high. bring it around 75. anemones like colder water.

 

[spiderwoman]

There is nothing wrong with your temp, leave it as is. All of my tanks are in the 79-81 range.

 

[hlcroghan]

mmmm, i am wondering if taking off the top might help too.........it doesn't look like much light is getting through??? if you don't have anything that is jumper that would be a good option....like firefish.