BTA Turned Pure White

[stilmas]

Hey guys!
I have a quick question for the anemone experts. I've had a BTA for about 4 years now. When I first got it it was tiny and pure white. I put it under 380w of VHO in a 46g and it turned brown and grew like mad and even split. I upgraded my lighting to 500w MH HQI and they split again but slowly turned white. The tips bubble up nicely and nerver did under the VHO lighting. The tips have a frosty white with neon green coloration and stay bubbled up. From what I read, the whitening is due to inadequate lighting. I disagree that this is my problem since I have 12watts per gallon. At night the 2 BTA's are extended out and waving around in the current, when the lights come on, they move down into the rockwork telling me that the lighting is quite intense. My question is, is the white color normal under intense lighting? Is it possible that they are bleaching fom too much light? I kind of disagree that they are getting too much light since they can control how much light they are getting by moving to where they are comfortable. All other corals are thriving and very colorful. Any ideas are greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Water parameters:
PH 8.3
Nitrate .2ppm
Phos 0
alk 11-12dkh
calc ~450ppm
temp 82F

 

[Anonymous]

As long as the anemone is eating and otherwise looking healthy, then I would not worry.

 

[Anonymous]

The whitening could be from too much light as well, although anemone will usually move to get away from areas they don't like. I'm guessing if it's all white then it pretty much have expelled its zooxanthela algae so it doesn't matter what light you keep it under now.

But then again I am not an anemone expert.

 

[Anonymous]

I have the exact same problem with my BTAs. I bought a green one that did very well for about 9 months. Then it split into three (!) and slowly started turning white.

I have 2 150W DE MH 14,000K, and 4 55w PC Actinic/Blues.

I can only think that I need to feed them more, as I don't feed often. About once a week I feed chopped shrimp and/or cyclopeeze.

The strangest thing is that although they are completely white, they've been otherwise healthy (AFAIK) for over 6 months now.

 

[Anonymous]

They often split when something is stressing them or they are in decline - it is a method of survival.

 

[stilmas]

Thanks guys. I'll just feed them more often and keep an eye on them.

 

[stilmas]

I did some more searching and reading concerning photoperiod. Does anyone feel that going from a 12hr period with the VHO to a 10hr period with MH only could have this effect on them? Someone had suggested that I run 11-12hrs with MH only. I think I'm going to try 11hrs for a week or two, then maybe 12 if everything still looks good. Any thoughts on doing this? Thanks!