BTA deflating

[fennix12]

My new BTAs have been doing the strangest thing lately, I have only had them for a couple weeks now and don't have he best lighting I have a T5 36in fixture with 1x actenic and 1x 10k bulb a marineland double bright led fixture and a T8 fixture with 1x actinic bulb on my 40 g breeder tank so far the 2 anemones had been well inflated but not very bulbed up so I replaced the T8 actenic bulb today with a 10 k bulb hoping help the nems out but instead it seemed to have the opposite effect both nems shrunk and deflated until they were flat and terrible looking which they continued to look like all day. strange thing is when I turned off he T 5 fixture switched the marineland fixture to moonlights and swapped the T8 back over to actenic for night cycle the nems suddenly inflated and look amazing maybe someone could shed some light on this for me thanks in advance

 

[Tmoriarty]

Good chance of light shock with the new bulbs. You can reduce the lighting with either screen or egg crate, taking a little off over a period of a week or two to help them acclimate.

This is all assuming everything else in the tank is right for anemone, the tank is properly cycled and mature, and you have had no other issues with the nems.

Also assumes the only change has been the lighting in the tank. Hope this helps.

 

[fennix12]

Hmm light shock makes sense I have only been running the actinic bulb while waiting for a reply and the nems have looked great not very bulbed but at least extended enough that the clowns can play i guess I just figured that since I had weak lighting that it wouldn't be a problem, thanks for the reply I will give it a try

 

[rssjsb]

If the anemone is the one in your avatar, it's really bleached, which would make light shock more likely. No one knows why BTAs bubble or don't, although a lot of people have a lot of theories. Your lights are pretty minimal - actinics aren't of any real use to the anemone. LED fixtures supposedly have a relatively high PAR level, though, even though they don't seem very bright to the naked eye, so maybe it's that.

Tyler's suggestion to use screening is worth a shot.