RBTA Lost Color

[hobbyreefer]

Can RBTA lose color from too much light?

I've had this RBTA for about 2 months. It has been steadily losing color. The anenome doesn't look great. It's open, but it has lost color and the bubbles.

My tank is 8 months old, so I know it's a bit new, but I do monitor parameters daily and I have SPS encrusting/growing. I don't think it's a water quality problem.

I do have a decent amount of light:

5' tank

5 Kessil's 360x running 8am-8pm 100% intensity 20% color
4 T5's running 10am-5pm (3 blue plus and 1 actinic)

Par was 300 on the bottom and low 400s on the top using apogee 500 (or whatever BRS rents)

Salinity 35ppt
N - 5-15
P - .08 - .1 (been trying to run heavier nutrients)
DKH 7.5
CA 440
MAG 1380

About 50% of my sticks have turned brown but the other 50% look ok. I'm thinking I might be hitting the tank with too much light and/or too long high intensity. The par numbers don't seem crazy high for an SPS tank but the corals in the middle of the tank appear to do much worse than the ones on the outside edges.

Yesterday I changed my lighting significantly to see if this helps

New schedule:
T5s run 8am-7pm
LEDs run 8am-8pm but a MUCH lower intensity. My intensity ramps between 0%-50% and back down. I like the color of the tank with the LEDs on but I'm thinking 100% for 10+ hours was too much, especially with the T5s.

Thoughts, Do you think my lights could have been the issue with the RBTA?

 

[TonyD1988]

Mine did the same exact thing. Established tank, with plenty of fish and 2 clowns. Slowly faded away and has now split a few times. I'm taking them out as I can. Don't want it to die in the tank. They had plenty of light from Kessil A360WE's also.

 

[fcmatt]

if everything is normal in the tank a bta can take many months to get back to optimal color. It will travel around until it finds a happy place. Give it more time. It looks ok.

 

[hobbyreefer]

Thank you both for your response. My main question is can too much light cause bubble tips to be unhappy or do you think mine is just stressed from being moved into a new tank and it will hopefully adjust in a few months?

 

[James M]

I don’t think this is a lighting issue. Has it ever found a spot and stayed put ?

 

[hobbyreefer]

Yes - it's stayed put the hole time. It sometimes moves 3-4 inches in each direction but it pretty much stays in the same area. The anemone closes up every afternoon around 3-4pm and then reopens a few hours later. I've seen other anemone's do this in the past so it wasn't much of a concern. I have not fed the anenome, but I'm pretty sure my clown brings it food.