do RBTAs bleach??

FiReBReTHa · Jun 24, 2009

I tossed on a 250w 10k and itsprettttty close to the tank. (havent had chance to correct this)

ad its starting to turn really Pink! and its about 1/4 of the size, but now its bubbling up whereas with the 150w it would not bubble.

if it was angry with the250w wouldnt it move away?

or is mine dumb.

J. Montgomery · Jun 24, 2009

Yes, any anemone or coral that hosts zooxanthellae can bleach.

ficklefins · Jun 24, 2009

The much increase in light would definitely cause a bleaching reaction. If possible I would cut back the light cycle and gradually increase to your normal hours of operation.

Your anemone should be fine, just don't try and move it around.

Blackhawk Fan · Jun 24, 2009

When I switched from Lumenarcs to Lumenbrights I bleached my RBTA out. It took about 6 weeks for him to look normal again. I would definitely move the light up and cut the photoperiod back a few hours. I would increase it back to where it was by 1/2 hour/week unless the anemone continues to remain bleached.

MSU Fan · Jun 24, 2009

They don't always move just because they are unhappy. I would definitely cut the photoperiod back and make sure you feed it. If it ever stops feeding then the problem is more serious.

Blackhawk Fan · Jun 24, 2009

MSU Fan said:
make sure you feed it. If it ever stops feeding then the problem is more serious.

Great point that I forgot to make.

jlinzmaier · Jun 24, 2009

Cutting the photoperiod isn't as effective as shading the light with slow progression to full light exposure. If you shorten the photoperiod your merely decreasing the length of time your exposing your livestock to intense light that they are not used to (a sun burn for a short length of time). If you shade with several layers of screen, frag rack, etc.. and raise the light, you can slowly take away the layers and lower the light allowing the animals to slowly adapt to the intensity. The animals didn't originally have trouble with the length of the photoperiod so when you change the photoperiod and increase the intensity your really causing the animals to stressfully photoadapt to two different changes. They will need to adapt to the intensity and alter their metabolism to accomodate a shorter photoperiod. This will likely cause them to brown out as the zoox are increased in an attempt to take in light while they can. At the same time the zoox are being burned the short time that the light is on since they aren't adapted to the intensity (this leads to less effective photosynthesis and metabolism ultimately affecting the host coral which has a mutualistic relationship with the zoox).

Jeremy

FiReBReTHa · Jun 25, 2009

I fed it some rods and it ate it!

are there pink RBTAs?

I will snag photos tomorrow! I need to make the bracket thi weekend.

kass03 · Jun 25, 2009

I know someone else in our club that has the same strain/clone of RBTA that we all have in their nano with a 150W MH. Theirs also looked bleached and just as you described pink with big bubbles. Theirs also split a bunch of times so they had about 5 of them but they were tiny. They did look cool though as pink lol.
Oh and yeah their all dumb. Sometimes they split and go hide under the rocks where they get no light.

kass