phender - while I was definitely not around in the hobby years ago, I wonder if as many people had success as they are today. Sure, they did it, but everything else likely had to be spot on for it to work (water chemistry, flow, receiving a healthy specimen). I wouldn't recommend NO lights on any nem these days. The success rate has gone up with better lights and understanding - therefore that's why some argue that "MH are a necessity". I think many suggest high output lighting as a way to better the odds so fluctuations in other areas of the tank aren't the straw that broke the camels back.
Keeping anemones under NO does go to show how hardy and resilient a healthy anemone can be though!
I wasn't recommending NO light now that we have better stuff. But, if you used 4 NO tubes over your tank and the tank was 18" tall or less, it was pretty easy to keep BTA's, sebaes, and haddonis as long as they were of good health when you received them. These were also the days when most people were still using air pump driven protein skimmers. There were not many people using 4 tubes over their tanks in those days. Why? Because the internet was just starting, there was no world wide web and the books on keeping anemones were just plain wrong in most cases. Most people just didn't know you needed at least 4 tubes over your tank and manufacturers weren't making 4 bulb fixtures. People who knew could keep the easy anemones just fine.
I went to better lights because I wanted to keep anemones and corals that required more light than the NO tubes could supply, not because I was having trouble keeping the above mentioned anemones. I actually liked the way my BTAs looked under NO tubes because they kept their bubble tips. I had one sebae for over 20 years. It died after I upgraded my lighting (its death had nothing to do with the lighting). I had a large haddoni for 10 years under NO's before I gave it away.
IME, I don't think better lighting has made it "easier" to keep BTAs, sebaes or haddonis. I do think it has allowed people to keep them in larger and deeper tanks and I know that it has allowed people to be more successful with H. magnifica, S. gigantea and LTAs.
I am not saying that anyone should keep their anemones under NO fluorescents. I am just saying that it was done by a lot of people before there were any super skimmers or state of the art salt mixes and additives, etc. Having metal halides will not help you keep easy anemones unless you plan to keep them on the bottom of a deep tank. 99% of the anemones that die and are reported to be in bad shape on this board, and in general, has nothing to do with improper lighting. Most die from improper handling resulting in bacterial infections and such. Anemones that die from improper lighting take months to die. They slowly get smaller, eventually lose the ability to sting and then, if they don't get an infection first, after a few months, they die.
In a nutshell, I don't think having MH lights will better your odds in most cases, especially in the first few weeks. The things that were important then are the same as they are now.
1) Know how to pick a healthy anemone.
2) Know how to acclimate your anemone.
3) Know the care requirements of that species of anemone. (Not all of them require or even prefer high light and high flow)
4) Don't screw with your conditions once your anemone is doing well, even if you think you are making an improvement.
While writing this I just realize that I may have to go back to shoplights with NO tubes over my BTA/haddoni tanks because the CF tubes that I am currently using seem to becoming obsolete and I'm not sure I want to throw down $300 on a T5 fixture when I don't need it.
