What lighting do I need for an anemone

[usmcr0811]

I have a 75 gallon FOWLR and 50 lbs live rock. I need to know what the least expensive lighting I can get to support an anemone for my clown fish to host. What is the best type of anemone to get for a false perc.

(I have a light I have been using for the 75 that was made for a 30 gallon. It is an actinic 65 watt JBJ Coral Life light. I don't know what that is or if that would do the trick. I also have a crappy floresent light that fits the 75 gallon)

 

[garygb]

I probably should leave this one to someone more expert on lighting, but I'll put my 2 cents in anyway. A false perc will very likely inhabit a BTA, which is the hardiest of the clown hosting anemones. Also, BTA's are one of the least demanding in terms of light intensity. BTA's can do very well under PC's, if the anemone is say 12-15 inches from the bulbs. PC's can be intense, but very quickly lose their intensity as the depth of the water increases. The JBJ actinic that you have is mostly useless for an anemone. You need daylight. If you had a 65-watt, 10,000K and the anemone was right under it (say the top of its tentacles were within a foot of the bulb) then you could get by with the fixture you have. In other words, just get a new daylight 65-watt --you said the least expensive solution, that would be it. You would need to have a mound of live rock high enough so the anemone could plant its foot in a hole or cave in the live rock and still be close to the light. If you do decide to stick with PC's, you will want to make sure you change the bulb every 9-10 months. The other light you have, most likely a normal output (NO) bulb could provide some additional light assuming it were close to the anemone. Again, a daylight Kelvin reading would be preferred. You could get one of the triphosphor types by a reputable brand like Coralife or a Triton and you would be fine.

Also, if this would be your first anemone, do research this animal. They do have some specific requirements aside from bright light. You will want to cover any powerhead intakes to prevent the anemone from getting sucked in.

Here are some basics for a BTA: specific gravity 1.025-1.026, temp 76-82F, nitrates preferably undetectable (but not absolutely necessary), ph preferably 8.2-8.4 (can tolerate lower though). They like to eat silversides, squid, shrimp, krill, formula 1 VHP (I recently found out), scallops.

 

[usmcr0811]

Thank you for the reply. I will probably go with the BTA as it is the hardiest for the clown hosting anemones and the least light demanding, and as far as the lighting, I didn't realize I just needed to buy a different bulb. That is awesome! I will someday get a t5 or something but might be switching to a 125 tank in the next 2-5 years.

 

[garygb]

How are your water parameters: ph, sg, temp., nitrates? Also, what else do you have in the tank? You might be able to find a captive bred BTA or RBTA (same species, just different color variants). These are particularly hardy as they didn't have to go throught he perils of collection and transit for days to the U.S.

 

[usmcr0811]

ph: 8.4
Temp: 80
nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 25
SG: 1.024

I currently have 1 clown that is 2 inches, 1 "3 stripe damsel" that is an inch, 2 or 3 hermits, and 3 or 4 snails. I have tons of feather dusters on my live rock and some thing that looks like a feather duster but it has a really thick body and is clear. I have seen these things eat the fish food. I just ordered a tiny blue tang, another oscellaris clown 1-2", a Domino Damsel, and a Yellow tail damsel. They are all going to arrive on Tuesday and will be in a QT Tank for a month or so. I would like to get a captive bred BTA or RBTA if I can find one.

 

[Snapper66]

I have 130 Watt for my BTAs I have three for many Months now and they are doing well one even Divided I only had two when I started.

 

[garygb]

All those damsels should make for an interesting mix. You mention that you have one clown and that an ocellaris is arriving Tuesday. Is the new one also an ocellaris. I hope so because mixed species of clowns often spell trouble (fighting). As far as your parameters, you might want to bump that specific gravity up to 1.025-1.026 by adding salt water to replace evaporated water. Also, before adding an anemone, you will want to get the nitrates down. A well established anemone can tolerate nitrates, but adding an anemone to a tank with that high of nitrates might be problematic. Maybe in your 29 gallon fuge you could put a remote deep sand bed of oolitic aragonite.

 

[usmcr0811]

I have a deep sand bed in my sump already and used to have cheato but the the cheato was all eventually sucked out up into the main. I know I have been over feeding my clown and damsel I have already but if I don't, the flow of the tank makes the food fly away before the fish are able to find it.

I just bought a 10000K flouresent, and 10,000k PC. Hopefully between the two it will be enough light when I finally put in my anemone

 

[garygb]

Yeah, the lighting will be fine assuming the anemone is say a foot or so from the 10,000K. In fact, a tank with no other anemones or corals and right below that light will make for a happy anemone--but those nitrates do need to come down. Like I mentioned before, an established BTA isn't going to have much of a problem with nitrates of 25 most likely; however, IMO a new anemone might not acclimate as well as it would in a tank with less pollutants.

Is the deep sand bed in your sump at least 5 or 6 inches deep and is it comprised of oolitic, sugar fine, aragonite? Oolitic is preferred to the larger grain aragonite. You might benefit from siphoning the surface of the sand to see if you get lots of "dirt" out of the sand. "Gunk" in the sand can interfere with the nitrate reduction. Do you have a efficient protein skimmer? Although skimming won't reduce nitrates directly, it will reduce the amount of protein waste that ultimately will be broken down into nitrate. Does your source water contain nitrates? RO/DI should eliminate that as a problem, if it is even a concern. It sounds like you have good water flow, and that is a good thing for nitrate control. Water changes are also helpful (assuming the replacement water doesn't contain much nitrate). You could also do a remote deep sand bed in your sump, in conjunction to the sand bed you already have--you can read tons about this on another thread in the general discussion forum.

 

[usmcr0811]

I will wait until the nitrates are down before buying a BTA. My skimmer is a turbofloater 1000 and it was really good at first, now it doesn't make very many bubbles for some reason. I need to take it somewhere and get it checked out. Before it made so many bubbles it would flow out the top sometimes, now it is barely coming out and is nowhere near the top. I probably am due for a water change as well. I do have an RO/DI unit but my water pressure is only 30psi and needs to be more like 50 or 60psi. I can't afford the booster for it right now. I have taken the DI stage out because the lack of pressure really eats up the DI, so it is just RO water. I do have 2 1/2 to 3" sand base... I thought it was deeper but never really measured it. I am sure it needs a once over to get the gunk out. I have 2 turbo snails in my sump and they cause a lot of waste. I got my sand from a fellow reefer and I am sure it is the good sand. I have about 2 1/2 gallons of sand left that I could add but it is frozen right now as I left it outside. Do you suggest adding more sand to my sump

 

[garygb]

You could use the 2 1/2 gallons in a bucket. Again there is a thread regarding the use of remote deep sand beds in the general discussion. If you have a 3 gallon bucket, all you would need to do is run a small powerhead into the bucket and let the water overflow back into the sump. You just want 8 inches or so of fine sand. Or, you could siphon your current dirty sand and add the aragonite on top. Since it's dead sand anyway, you might want to rinse it to get the gunk out from the previous owner's tank. Ideally, a DSB would be 5 or 6 inches in depth in the sump, or like I mention 8 or so inches deep in a bucket. I would expect that a proper DSB would bring the nitrates down to undetectable in a month.

As far as that skimmer, have you cleaned it yourself. You can soak it in a mixture of warm water and vinegar for a few hours and see if that gets the bubbles going again. It might just be a buildup of minerals in the air injection.

RO water is good, it's true that the DI is the part that gets the most nitrates out, but it might not even be an issue. you could check your source water for nitrates. Even if you do have nitrates in the source water, the DSB would still bring them down--the denitrifying bacteria don't care where the nitrates came from. You said you haven't been doing water changes regularly, I suggest you do 15 or 20 percent water changes weekly for a few weeks consecutively (with something like Instant Ocean or Reefcrystals, i.e. good quality salts that do not contain nitrates). That way the changes to the aquarium will be more subtle.