Anemone Lighting question

[saltypaws]

Hey there...first of all, this is a great site. I'm so lucky I found it...tons of useful info here.

I want to set up a 45g tank that will be almost exclusively an amemone and clownfish tank. I was thinking of a BTA and a pair of ocellaris, and perhaps a squamosa clam. I've been reading articles online and I've bought some books as well, and I've seen lighting reccomendations of "a minimum of 5 watts per gallon" for tanks with anemones and/or clams. I know the depth of the tank comes into play as well, so I'm not sure the 5 watts per gallon thing is meant to work across the board. The 45g measures 36"w x 12"d x 24"h. The lighting hood I'm looking at has 4 96 watt power compacts, with two of those being actinic. This works out to about 8.5 watts per gallon. Is this overkill??? TIA

 

[Ben_Wilson]

Overkill, I use 4x96watt PC's on my 24" tall 90gal. I keep a long tentacle anenome, and a croesea clam. The anenome has doubled in size in 6 months. I feed it one piece of krill every 3-5 days. I would cut what you have in half, it would be more than enough IMO.
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Ben

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, the watt/gallon thing really isn't very useful for reasons you suspect, depth of tank varies so much.

I have never kept BTA, but I believe you have plenty of light for one, they are supposed to be one of the less light demanding of the host anemones if fed regularly. I keep a Macrodactyla doreensis under PC for years and it is doing great.

That is a lot of PC light, it may be OK for the clam. I know it is typically recommended to go Metal Halide for all Tridacna clams unless it it a derasa, but you may be OK since it is so much. I however, don't think "overkill" and "power compact lights" can be used in the same sentence.

 

[Anonymous]

4x96 watts is enough. However I would use metal halide. One 250 watt HQI would be awesome(10k). An actinic supplement would make it even better. They will like the halides better(esp the clam).

 

[elpescado]

The clam is what needs all the light. Heteractis magnifica (formerly Radianthus ritteri) is the anemone that prefers MH lighting as it occurs in shallow water at the reef crests.
BTA's are among the most adaptive anemones to keep. I have found however, that they do not care for intense light. Most of them tend to hide in the presence of really intense light. I would use intense lighting to allow you a wider range of possible animals to keep, but put the BTA in a semi shaded area of the tank with gentle current, and let it move to where it wants to go.
It is safe to say that depending on the anemone species lighting ranges from no light at all for some species to MH lighting.