RBTA ISSUES after filter change

[kevNnic]

Well it appears my poor RBTA is unhappy with my most recent filter change, i had to remove all my media and change filters in my canister and i do not think my RBTA is happy about it. Over the past couple weeks he has not been fully inflated like he used to be. Im going to try another waterchange and see if i can get him eating, I haven't changed anything to do with flow and this RBTA has seemed quite happy for the past year. What else can i do to make sure i do not lose him. He spilt about 4 months ago and i lost both of his twins.

any info or feedback would be greatly appreciated. everyone else in the tank is doing fine.

[George]

Anemones splitting, contrary to popular belief, was a way of handling stress, not what they do when they are happy. So when was the first split, 4 months ago? What had changed before that? Was the filter change before that or something else? Lights changed? Test your parameters recently? What kind of lights? Feed it regularly?

[kevNnic]

i haven't been feeding him lots every couple weeks, as for him spliting the first time i have no idea why, he was getting quite big and then one day i came home and he was in 3 peices, nothing new has changed other than the filter, i will test everything tonight and then do a water change and feed!

[mike31154]

Not providing much info on the nature of your filter change. You say you "had to remove all my media", so what media were you running and why did you feel you had to? What media are you currently using? I also use a canister on my sumpless 77 and have a GBTA with one clone hosting a Maroon pair. The only thing that has gone into my canister for the past couple of years is a bag of carbon which I change out once a month or so. Other than that, it's just a mini sump and provides a bit of extra flow in the center of my tank. My GBTA has split a number of times & the clones have always done well, in fact I tore the last clone trying to get it out to sell to another member a few weeks ago. He got the larger piece & I had this little shred that was wedged too far into a rock crevice for me to get out, that's how I ended up tearing it. A kind of accidental, forced split. In any case, it's pretty much fully recovered now & has moved more out in the open. All clones from splits have remained very close to the original BTA. I think BTAs can split for various reasons, maybe stress, but I'm sure I've seen many threads of owners with perfectly stable & healthy systems having their BTA split. I have trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that inverts such as anemones can even experience 'stress' as we know it. Water change will probably be a good idea.

[kevNnic]

sorry for being so vauge on description, i am running an Eheim ECCO easy 80 canister http://liturgachoice.co.cc/search/Eh...er-Filter-2236

as for changing my media i mean i changed all the filters inside the canister and eheim substrate pro after 9 months of use.

Just took it all apart and replaced everything with new goods. i did do a 15% water change and fed some krill last night, it snagged a small peice which was good, and is looking better today.

Ill just keep up on it and hope for the best.

[mike31154]

9 months running the same media in the canister? Did you open it at all to clean it within those 9 months? If not, that explains a lot. Your BTA probably did react to a sudden, major water chemistry change if that's the case. If you're going to run a canister on a reef tank with full manufacturer's media in it, you'll need to clean it out frequently to prevent it from becoming ineffective & counterproductive. Like I mentioned, I run my canister (Eheim ProII) with empty baskets, save one, which has a small bag of carbon changed out about once a month. Looking at all the media included in your filter, if you don't clean the filter pad weekly, as well as some of the other stuff, things will slowly build up to elevate nitrates in your system.