Anemones and Nitrates

[firewill65]

I've always heard anemones were sensitive to water conditions but maybe not too much.

History - I've had a 180 fish only and live rock for about 4 years and as you can imagine, nitrates have always been a problem and very high. About a year or two ago I bought one RBTA from a fellow RC member and at the time nitrates were probably 40-60. Over time, from that one RBTA in my tank...I now have 12 and my nitrates are 80 plus. I have a few questions regrading this...

1.) Can RBTA adapt to their environment even in unfavorable conditions...Are my nems doing well because they were born in the nitrate tank and thats all they know?
2.) Maybe anemones need a certain amount of nitrates to flourish?
3.) I'm running biopellets now to try to bring down the nitrates...will it bother the nems at this point to lower the nitrates?
4.) Do I now have Nitrate resistant anemones that I can sell for triple the cost of a regular one? lol

 

[hotelbravo]

haha idk about all those questions especially number 4 but i have a rbta that started out growing slowly for the first few months and that was when my nitrates were low but i have allowed my nitrates to get higher to assist in feeding macro and have noticed over the past few months of high nitrates of about 80ppm that my RBTA has flourished. could be a coincidence but id like to think they like a little nitrates

 

[firewill65]

 

[ThRoewer]

I don't think anemones have too much problems with nitrates and phosphates - why would they?

Stony corals have problems with them for at least two reasons:
1. both promote the growth of boring algae in their skeletons
2. phosphate binds calcium and in too high concentration blocks the corals ability to build their skeleton.
Corals that can't block or outgrow the boring algae simply get kicked off their skeleton and die.
So for coral you need to restrict the growth of algae and promote the growth of the coral skeleton.

Anemones have no skeleton and don't care about boring algae. In fact nitrate and phosphate feed their Zooxanthellae and therefore feed the anemone.
I feel the issue with anemones is more the right light and keeping them free of infections.

 

[urbanrat84]

I think bubble tip anemones are quite forgiving of high nitrate levels. I had a sudden increase in nitrates from a steady 5ppm to 80ppm after a heatwave where my air conditioning failed. The anemones were ok with the higher nitrate for a few weeks, then they became darker brown in colour and lost their fluorescence.

I managed to get my nitrates down to 20ppm and over a number of weeks their colours became much more vibrant again.

My nitrates are currently 40ppm and they are keeping their colour well.

 

[bobbravo2]

I keep mine below 1ppm. .25 ppm was my last test, right after feeding (tested with Red Sea high accuracy kit).

 

[mnchartier]

Some find Mags to wander if nitrates get to high