First clown and a BTA question

[Embowe]

Well..if anyone follows any posts in the "New to hobby" forum you might have seen that I finally added my first fish on saturday. A firefish...well sorry to say he didnt even make it 24hours before dieing. I tested the water and everything seemed fine so yesterday I put in a false perc and 24 hours later he is eating and doing great. It finally feels good to have fish in my saltwater tank insted of just shrimp and snails.

I was hoping to add another perc this weekend, depends if I can get to the LFS. The main thing I wanted to know is when could i add a BTA..the tank is a 38gallon with 50lbs of LR and a 1" sand bed. The lights are 2 39watt 10k t5's and 2 39watt antics in a NOVA fixture. Being the tank is only 18" deep I think those lights would be fine for a bta...when would be a good time to add one

 

[Raibaru]

The typical rule of thumb around these parts is 6months. This 6mo. period gives you the time to work out the kinks in your system. Things like weekly water changes, proper feeding habits, make sure you find a good way of taking measurements and see how your system holds up.

Me personally have had my tank up and running since september and I've started looking around for anemones. Probably some time by christmas I hope to have one. I honestly feel that I'm ready for one now, but since Im still battling a strange illness I'm going to wait till I get that under control.

 

[Embowe]

the waterchange schedule is no problem..I do those every other week, when I do my freshwater changes. Feeding habits, as of now I am feeding the clown in the morning when I get up and when I get home from work..again the same time I feed my freshwater tanks. So I guess when my tank is stable I would be ok to start looking? Would the light setup I have be suffecent for a BTA

 

[Raibaru]

Well I'm a novice so don't take my word as meaning much. It is just stuff I've picked up along the way and passing on to you. The main reason I mentioned water changes and feeding was because it is very common for a beginner to over feed their tank and see algea blooms appear because of it. That can be a problem for an anemone because of the nitrite/trate spike that caused the blooms would mean unstable water.

As for your lights, I really can't help you. I've read that 100+ watts of PC in your size tank is enough for BTA's and LTAs. How that relates to T5's I couldn't tell you. I'd imagine it would work though since T5 lighting has a better penetration then other lights. But I'd wait for more responses from the others.

 

[Embowe]

Anyone have any answers about the light question?