Can I, or Can I not?

zrclshn

zrclshn

New Member
Ok, So after several years, I finaly bougt a place and have set my 90 gallon bow front back up. Cycled with 95 pounds of LR. All Parms are good. So its time to decide what I want. So of course, clown fish and there relationships with anemones is awesome. So i need to ask if I can support one in my tank with its current lighting system and if so what kind?
I have a Orbit 48 inch 4X65W (65w Dual Daylight, 65w Dual Actinic). The LFS said I wouldnt need anything more than that, but this site seems to disagree. Was wondering if anyone had some input on this? Also, I am interested in Angels and Tangs, will they eat it?
Thanks,
Shane
 
reef.magic

reef.magic

Member
the lighting on my 20 gallon is 130w and i consider that very minimal for an anemone, your wattage is double mine but your tank is almost 5 times....
IMO, you will need much more light for anemone, even coral
 
granny

granny

Member
MOst anemones require intense lighting-preferably metal halides. I have kept a bubble tip for about 5 months now under the Orbit PC system which has 130 watts of high outputlighting-probably the same thing you have-but the depth of the tank is important.
My 75 gal is only 20 inches tall and I have live rock all the way to the top. My BTA is in the top few inches of water-within 6 inches of the top and my lights are sitting almost on top of the glass top-only little rubber feet hold it off the glass. There is also a 'sweet spot' as Thomas said in an earlier post that has a higher output than other spots in the tank. You may not be able to do it, but many of the leather corals, colonials, the sun coral and candy cane, plus some plate and other odds and ends will thrive in this lighting, pLUS your clown may make its home in something besides an anemone.
Good luck!
 
whackamole

whackamole

Member
i would of thought the same thing but my 35 gal fish tank is more that 1 1/2 feet deep with only 20 watts of light and i am keeping a 5 dollar anenome in it ive had it for like a month now. but what might make the diffrence is my tank is by a window that gets alot of light ( i have to clean it alot) and thats where we put the anenome so may be u should give it a try with a cheap one
 
120reefer

120reefer

Member
Window could make a difference, but i dont see it making much. Do you have a sort of Hatian anemone.. because they are hardy little suckers and even though they require lots of light like the rest of them... they can live more months without alot of light, just slowly deteriorate. And to answer the origional question, that isn't nearly enough light IMO for even a lot of corals.. let alone anemones. I would say your best bet would be to purchase dual 250w. halides or dual 175w. halides with some PCs and you should be fine
 
S

sea_star

Guest
It's not uncommon for clownfish to host certain corals too. If you wanted to try something like that you probably wouldn't have to upgrade your lighting.
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
Ditto Sea_Star's comments... over the years I have had clowns host a frogspawn, xenia, toadstool & shrooms... all of which should do fine under your lighting.
Even if you were to upgrade your lighting, I'd suggest you wait a minimum of 3-6 months before trying an anemone. 6-months minimum being optimal IMO.
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
fwiw, I decided to try a BTA in my 55g w/4-65w PC (against my better judgement)... with optimal water conditions (I mean top notch) and it only lasted about 3-months. My corals have lasted sense I put them in the tank.
 
saltfan

saltfan

Active Member
Originally Posted by zrclshn
Ok, So after several years, I finaly bougt a place and have set my 90 gallon bow front back up. Cycled with 95 pounds of LR. All Parms are good. So its time to decide what I want. So of course, clown fish and there relationships with anemones is awesome. So i need to ask if I can support one in my tank with its current lighting system and if so what kind?
I have a Orbit 48 inch 4X65W (65w Dual Daylight, 65w Dual Actinic). The LFS said I wouldnt need anything more than that, but this site seems to disagree. Was wondering if anyone had some input on this? Also, I am interested in Angels and Tangs, will they eat it?
Thanks,
Shane
Here is what I would do. Just ditch the actinics and run all daylights, thats plenty. 65x4 is a pretty good number.
 
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