phender
Active member
Since I didn't see this the first time around, I will comment on it now. The second article was written over 20 years ago (by me). At that time most people used normal output fluorescent on their tanks. Only a few were using VHO fluorescents or Metal Halides(6500K with actinic supplements). I don't think we had CFs yet and I know we didn't use T5s or LEDs. I am very proud that a lot of the info in that article has become sort of standard baseline information for keeping anemones, but it is based on a time when most people had difficulties keeping any type of anemone alive. Very few people knew that white anemones were bleached and would have a poor chance of survival. I didn't set out to write an article. I set out to find out why I couldn't keep sebae anemones alive for more than a couple months when all the books/articles said they were easy. Other folks were interested about what I found so I wrote my results on rec.aquaria and it morphed into an article from there.
20 years ago 4 watts per gallon(minimum) was about 4x more light than most people were using over their tanks. It was pretty much as many bulbs as you could possibly fit over your tanks. With the advent of modern lighting systems the watts/gallon standard is pretty much obsolete. Now that people can keep anemones for more than 3 months, we have found more details about what it takes to keep them thriving and not just surviving.
20 years later I think the article is still a good starting point, but it is certainly not the end all be all on how to keep anemones.
