RBTA got sucked through powerhead last night

well, the subject says it all. i came out this morning and wondered why my tank was all cloudy, then i found one of my rbta's was mangled in a mj1200.
needless to say, i'd like some advice from people who this has happened to them before. here is the info.
the tank is a 33 gal reef with sps, zoas, rics, xenia, another rbta, and some fish. it has a 20 gal fuge on it and a crappy backpack skimmer
i sucked out all the peices i could find and did a 5 gal water change. then i put a 1.5 cups of carbon in a place where the water has to flow through it, and sunk the collection cup on the skimmer deeper so it would skim wetter.
i am planning on changing the carbon in 12 hours and doing two more 5 gal water changes as soon as i have the water made and sufficently mixxed. after that, changing carbon every day for a couple days and doing a 5 gal water change daily for the next few days.
i'm sure there is pleanty of peices of anemone that i couldn't see, not to mention the milky cloud on my water is billions of peices of rbta.
so what should i expect and should i make changes to my plan.
thank,
~caleb

 

Ouch, Sorry to hear that Caleb. As you probably know, that's happened to me twice now. I've had real nice bubble tips that grow and do great until one day they start wandering around the tank and inevitably find a powerhead. A while back, Hung told me that I was probably not feading them enough, but they were growing, so I'm not sure if that was the case or not.

In any case, I finally gave up on bubble tips and tried out a saebe anenome. So far so good, he's been in the exact spot I placed him in since the day I got him back in January.

-JB

 

did anything bad happen to the rest of your tank after receiving those shredded bta's?

 

Nope. My SPS slimed up pretty good, but long term there were no ill effects.

-JB

 

Hey Caleb,
Been there, done that.  I also had a GBTA find a powerhead and it was ugly.  It happened at the same time that I was getting ready for my daughters wedding and couldn't even do a water change right away.  I called the guys at Aquatic Environment in a panic and asked what I could do.  They calmed me down, suggested some water changes and all in all, I never really saw any affects or losses.
I love BTA's but they just don't stay put for me.  I won't risk another.

 

cool, thanks for the advice guys. i'll just keep after the water changes and it seems like things should be good. i usually keep pre-filters on my pumps, i'll be sure to not make that mistake again.

 

R.I.P =(

 

thought you might want to know that everything is doing good, seams like i am in the clear.

 

Glad to hear that all is well!

 

I would suggest a water change if you see nitrates creep and would put a bag of carbon in the tank for a bit. I have been thrrough this once as well, no long term effects.