Anemone Lighting

[dankolle]

Hey guys, curious about the lighting requirements of a baby BTA. I am trying to get my tank ready to accept one. I currently have 160 Watts of florescent light over a 55 gallon tank. Will I need more? That works out to 3 watts per gallon.

 

[bencozzy]

more

 

[garygb]

Yeah, you will need more unless you want to confine the anemone to the top 10 inches of the water or so. Are the normal output (NO) flourescents or power compacts (PC's) or T-5's? T-5's penetrate much deeper into the water, and assuming you have a fixture with individual reflectors, would provide plenty of lighting for a 55 gallon. PC's and NO bulbs are generally useless for anemones below a foot into the water. They lose their intensity sharply as the depth increases. Also, you will only want to count the daylight bulbs toward the total wattage. Actinic is just for aesthetics when it comes to keeping shallow water animals like an anemone.