How to make rainbow BTAs pop?

modom1207 · Sep 21, 2025

bluemon said:
I think you’ll appreciate their colors more if you have some whites in there.

Pure blue, especially at that strength, will drown everything out bar the most flourescent oranges and greens

I took your advice, and ran my white lighting on 60% while keeping my blues all the way up yesterday and the day before. This is what my BTA looked like tonight after just two days of increased white lighting… I know it’s hard to tell in the pics because I don’t have a professional camera and I’m taking it through the glass, but I could absolutely tell a huge difference in the tips being much more visibly orange while the greens remained fluorescent. Thanks for the advice! I’m going to keep the whites running with my blues during the day

SaltyGirlMom · Sep 30, 2025

Hunna’s Stunnas said:
Mine hang out at the top of the waterline for some reason, and are super vibrant. No clue why they chose up there or why they are so bright

Gorgeous! Are these rainbow? They are so red.

Hunna’s Stunnas · Sep 30, 2025

i<3blackclowns said:
Gorgeous! Are these rainbow? They are so red.

I believe they are rainbow, that’s what it was originally sold to me as if I’m not mistaken.

Reefing102 · Sep 30, 2025

To add to the above, genetics I feel is also very important. In my wife’s 32 gallon tank, I have some that look like @Joe462 nems posted previously. I also have a different strain I picked up for free that are very bland and while they get some color pop, it’s nowhere near the other ones.

As an example, here’s the pic I entered into September’s POTM, notice the color in the two anemones (back right and front and the more bland coloration in the back left).

modom1207 · Oct 20, 2025

Here’s close to a one month update. I didn’t get new lighting. Turns out my light is fine. I just needed to increase the amount of white I was running. Everything is looking more vibrant. I bumped the white lighting up to 60%, but I recently turned it back down to 45% because I was growing too much nuisance algae. Anyways, the bubble tips have kept their bloated tips and have filled out their orange colors very visibly with higher white lighting while maintaining my blue lighting at 100%.