Anemone vis-a-vis Lighting Requirements

[SAW39]

Billrwilson,
What are you disagreeing with? That PCs don't provide enought light, or that I shouldn't get the T-5 setup? (Too late, I ordered it this afternoon.)

I've only had fish-only tanks, so to me, your 390-watt PC setup seems huge.

[liverock]

at last an anemone discussion.
I have four carpet anemones. Lights are about 480 watts of metal halide on a tank size of 60" * 24"* 18". Three are somewhat limp right now & are loosing color. Not feeding well also. The last one is still okay and is feeding at regular intervals.
Can somebody tell me the precise needs of anemones.
I will not like to kill anemones in the future.

waiting for a reply

[Big Wally B]

Carpets are notoriously difficult. They cannot handle anything but the most pristine waters. They also generally need a great deal of light, which you seem to have, at least a minimum of.
If you insist on keeping these beautiful but difficult creatures, it would behove you to invest in a good book on their care. Although the "pros" are not always "right", we cannot offer "professional" help, only anecdotal.
If you followed the thread, the outcome was basically

Anemones are not sentient creatures. Therefore, their needs are strictly hereditary. They cannot "learn." They must be provided with their "window" of basic needs.

There is much misinformation out there about anemones. Most of course is not malicious, but the result is the same. Claims like "Anemones get approximately 80% of their nutrition from photosynthetic processes" are simple generalizations that cannot be correct. Much depends on their natural environment.

Which brings us to the plethora of perpetual questions. By your dims you have a 110 gallon tank. What are your water parameters? How heavily loaded is your biosystem? What do you feed and how often? How long have you had them?

Cheers

[SAW39]

We can't offer professional help mainly because we have yet to find anyone who will pay us for our advice!

[SAW39]

The new light for the aquarium arrived Wednesday from Premium Aquatics. It's the 96W, 4-bulb 24" T5-HO system discussed earlier. Man, is that thing bright!

No noticable change in the anemone's behavior, coloration or health. If anything interesting happens, I'll post a note.

[Covey]

Should start walking around to find the light level it likes. Pretty bright for 96W ain't it. How about some pics?

[SAW39]

Here's the anemone after three days under the new 96W T5 fluorescent lights.

[SAW39]

...and here's a picture of the light.

[SAW39]

I returned from a 3-week business trip. The anemone certainly likes the new lights! She's a third larger than the picture above, now stretching from the side of the tank to the "sunken ship". She's a healthy brownish color.

You anemone experts were right!

Now, if I can get the red slime algae under control, I'll be completely happy.

[Covey]

How is the tank and the anemone now?