BTA questions

[TIGER SHARK]

Anthony,
I finally got a rose this past weekend. I remember in this post you were talking about the darker colors in BTA's

"most common being accumulated nitrates (overfertilizing brown zooxanthellate algae"

Mine has hot pink tips but as you go down the tenticles towards the mouth area, it gets really dark red/brown and the mouth is the same. I hope this is because of what you were talking about in the quote above but I think it might be because the person I got it from has been letting his tank become overrun with hair and bubble algae. He just doesnt have time to keep it perfectly clean anymore. Here is a pic of the rose with the PH's off so you can see the dark mouth area, it is kind of hard to see on the tenticles. What would you recommend to bring the colors back to all hot pink?

http://www.geocities.com/customreefcreations/rose-dark.jpg

 

[Anthony Calfo]

Tigershark...

I was not able to view the picture, but no worries... the anemone needs some days/weeks to acclimate to its new tank. The darker pigmentation could simply be from the concentration of an animal (pigments in the tissue) that has not fully expanded/acclimated yet.

As far as nitrates "fertilizing" zooxanthellae... it is indeed a balance between not having too much but avoiding none at all/zero.

Low nitrate reef systems benefit from the addition of a bit of nitrate (S. nitrate, Knop) to assist coral/anemone color. But indeed too much of a good thing (perhaps like the tank that this anemon came from) can be bad/algae food.

Please just give this anemone a couple of months to settle in... no quick decisions/worries after just a few days/weeks.

Best regards,

Anthony

 

[TIGER SHARK]

Thanks for the info.