Darkening of anemones

[Rexomega99]

Hello there, my first post! I have a 30G mixed reef. Recently I have noticed my anemones are off color, almost like they are turning a brownish color. My RBTA are like an orange brown, not the vibrancy I know they can be. I have also seen their tentacles shrinking overtime and not bubbling as much. I don’t they are sick, but they aren’t the healthiest they can be. I will occasionally spot feed shrimp pellets and that’s it. I have a 10g sump running an AI Prime 16hd for 12 hours at the specs below. Any ideas as to what’s going on? I have been dosing nopox as my nitrates and phosphates were a little high. 40 and .3 respectively.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
PH:8.0
Phosphate: .07
Magnesium: 1350
Calcium: 450
Alkalinity: 11

 

[D-Nak]

When anemones turn a brownish color, it's typically a good thing. It means that the anemone has a healthy population of zooxanthellae ("zoox") which is an algae that grows inside of the anemone and provides it with nutrients. Of course, in our tanks we try to balance that population with nice color--just know that your anemone is healthy and good color is secondary.

One thing you can try is to lessen the brightness of your lighting. You may see a slow shift back to a more colorful anemone as it adjusts to the new lighting settings by shedding some of its zoox, essentially becoming less brown.

Getting your phosphate down to under .1 should also help.