which anemone
- Thread starter remora23
- Start date
T
thomas712
Guest
Sorry remora, no anemone will survive with that lighting. You would just kill the anemone and waste your money. Please don't get an anemone. The clownfish will do just fine without one.
Thomas
Thomas
greatfullreefer
Active Member
I wouldnt risk it without at least 100 watts of either MH or VHO....JMO though
T
thomas712
Guest
First of all please understand that normal output lights will not work, so adding a NO strip light will not add to the survival. It takes higher ouput lighting like PC or VHO, thats Power Compact or Very High Output. I prefer the VHO's. These lights require special ballasts to power them.
For the minimum lighting it is a general rule to have at least 4+ WPG when dealing with the lower light requiring anemones like the Haitian or Bubble Tip anemone. So for a 23 gallon tank you would be looking at 92 watts per gallon. This rule doesn't always work when talking about smaller tanks like this though. I even tried 80 watts over a 55 gallon and nearly killed my anemone. That same 80 watts would not have been enough even if it were a 10 gallon tank IMO. I suggest being in the 220 watt area which would be considered low lighting. It wasn't until I added 380 watts of VHO over that 55 gallon that the anemone (BTA) started to thrive. It went from golfball size to softball size and then split into two anemones.
I still don't like to see any anemone in less than a 29 or 30 gallon tank. But your 23 would be possible with the proper lighting. Perhaps you should look into the PC lighting. Check with others with smaller tanks and see what they are using for lighting with there anemones. There is a thread called "If your keeping an anemone" That may have some information for you.
Thomas
For the minimum lighting it is a general rule to have at least 4+ WPG when dealing with the lower light requiring anemones like the Haitian or Bubble Tip anemone. So for a 23 gallon tank you would be looking at 92 watts per gallon. This rule doesn't always work when talking about smaller tanks like this though. I even tried 80 watts over a 55 gallon and nearly killed my anemone. That same 80 watts would not have been enough even if it were a 10 gallon tank IMO. I suggest being in the 220 watt area which would be considered low lighting. It wasn't until I added 380 watts of VHO over that 55 gallon that the anemone (BTA) started to thrive. It went from golfball size to softball size and then split into two anemones.
I still don't like to see any anemone in less than a 29 or 30 gallon tank. But your 23 would be possible with the proper lighting. Perhaps you should look into the PC lighting. Check with others with smaller tanks and see what they are using for lighting with there anemones. There is a thread called "If your keeping an anemone" That may have some information for you.
Thomas
22caddy
Member
Here is my experience. I have a 20 gallon long, but have a refugium and canister filter which ups my water quantity. I have just under 200 watts of pc lighting. So far he has doubled in size. He has not moved since day one and is very happy. He has been through a lot of errors and is still living. I would really suggest more lighting than I have even. His color is good and he seems happy and eats like a pig, but I think he could be better. Water quality is the toughest problem I have. I am constantly cleaning and changing water. I will be moving to a larger system with metal halides soon, and looking back I wish I would have waited till I had the bigger tank. My RBTA takes up almost half of my 20 long when he stretches fully out.
mary
Member
Look at some of the newer compact lighting. You have a small system, just actinic and day lights{flourescents}. in the new compacts will do just fine, scaled down to your thirty gal. then you could have lots of soft leather corals which vary in color, appearance etc, and your clown will undoubtedly choose a finger coral, or colt or spaghetti coral. Be patient and you could get frags of corals and start small, not that I knew anything about that in the setting up of my own tank. Takes experiance. It took my clowns some time to choose one, but eventually after trying them all out, they chose the spaghetti. It closes up at night, yet is large enough they can sleep in-between the wide body of it. My Clarkiis love their spaghetti coral. They live in it, and now spawn on a rock which is right next to it. Say, maybe someone with the knowledge can tell us if all the different clowns choose anemones which are available in their area of the oceans from which they come, or do they go about searching for a specific species, relocating to find it? The Clarkii, in the ocean, prefer the carpet anemone, yet in our teeny micro system they have chosen what benefits their requirements, the spaghetti. Any studies done on that? They do take food to it and of course we watch it float back up, which doesn't always deter them, 'cause often one or the other will catch it and take it back, putting the morsel onto the base of the coral again. Interesting.