Bubble Tip under NO lights?

[Eldredge]

I recently helped my nephew set up a 55 gallon tank with rock and water from my established tank. He had a short cycle, and parameters seem stable now with no ammonia or nitrite. He has had a chromi and a few hermit crabs in it for a couple of weeks (after the initial cycle), and is adding a royal gramma and nasarruis snail today.

I have a bubble tip anemone that has spit several times, and he would like to put one in his tank. He has a NO fixture. If he put in a Coralife 50/50 T-8 and a Phillips 6500k T-8 being overdriven with the 40 watt t-12 ballast, do you think the bubble tip would be able to survive? I have one or two that are in a pretty shaded area, but I'm just not sure if one could make under his lights. I am sure that he would feed it regularly if that would help. What do you think?

 

[ocellaris123]

80 watts over a 55 gallon aquarium is not at all sufficient illumination for a bubble anemone.

 

[NirvanaFan]

It may survive, but I wouldn't chance it.

Other people might not agree with me, but with HEAVY feedings (daily or every other day) it may do alright. People that have a BTA propagation setup sometimes use NO T8 lights. Going with 4 or 6 bulbs would be better though. It probably won't have the color that it does in your tank though.

I would probably upgrade the lights if possible, and then get one.

 

[Eldredge]

Thanks for the input. I thought it would be a little difficult too.

 

[zaraemna]

I've kept them under PC lights but have never used NO. I feed mine alot too because I know my lights aren't very bright. On another forum Calflo said you could raise bubble tip anemones with NO lights feeding them every other day. I saw a few threads over there where people tried a propagation setup with NO lights and were unsuccessful. I agree with the others that it would be best to upgrade the lights first.

 

[Eldredge]

Thanks for the info. My nephew seems pretty determined to give it a try, so I think I will take one from the more shaded part of my tank and have him keep any eye on it. If it starts to go downhill, we will move it back to my tank until he upgrades his lights. I will post back here with the results in case someone else wants to try this sometime. Thanks again for the help.

 

[zaraemna]

I had a baby one get under the rock work. I found it about a month later when I was moving the rocks looking for it. I had been hoping it would come back out on its own but it never did. It was a light pink to clear color. It is now on a rock in the light at the bottom of the tank. I've been feeding it and it is growing and slowly getting some color back. I think it will be easy for you to tell if it's going to make it just by the color. You can always take it back if the color starts to fade or tell him to feed it more.