Guys, bubble tip anemones certainly can be kept succesfuly under power compact lights. These lights can be very strong - all depends on the height of your tank - diffused light cannot penetrate too deep, so you need to have good parabolic reflector for deeper tanks.
Anemones can walk, so they can regulate the amount of light they are exposed to. I started with a BTA when I had 30 gallons tank and two 96W power compacts. I placed a small BTA on top of the rock work - after reading they need "strong" light... In a day or two anemone walked down the rocks into a middle section and hide in the rock cervice lifting only its oral disk to the light, keeping foot deep in the dark cave of the rocks... After couple of years and switching to a bigger tank (58 gallons) and a new lamp my anemone moved even lover on the rocks and now it is touching sand - obviously it is happy with the amount of light, because if he "wanted" stronger light it could crawl higher in the rocks to get more light...
Anemones take energy from simple sugars - sugars are produced from light by algae in the anemone tissue. But sugars are only energy source. To grow, anemones - like all animals - have to eat. Light will not substitute feeding!
So yes - light is important but not so critical as you could think. It needs to be strong, but it does not need to be metal halide - that's for sure. Food is very important and regardless of light source YOU HAVE TO FEED YOUR ANEMONE! You cannot avoid it.
When you keep it with clownfish, they will usually feed their anemone for you by bringing some uneaten food pieces to their "home".
One more thing - bubble tip anemones are very large animals. 10 gallons tank is not even close to be adequate sized home for any host anemone long term. They can easily grow to a foot or two diameter over year or two period when fed properly. So in this whole disscussion I would not be concerned with light or feeding, (because the owner already knows that both are needed) - I would be concerned with the size of his tank. 10, 12 or even 30 gallons can be way too small for a fully grown anemone.
Peace,
Pszemol
