[jeffwee559]

is it possible to have to much lighting in a tank?
i wanna get a 18" coralife light 98 watt. its for my 20 gallon eclipse i wanna upgrade my lighting i thought i had more lighting than i did. i only have a 15 watt light and my anemone seems to be upset, he keeps moving which i know is strange, all my water paraments are good and thats all i can think to make it happy.

 

[dustin323]

Can there be to much light, yes there can. Is 98 watts over 20 gallons to much, no it is about moderate at 4.9 WPG.

Is this enough for an aneomone, no. They need more WPG & more specifically a stronger type of lighting, metal halide, though some use T5 HOs & VHO T8s with sucess on some anemones. What type of anemone is it? If you upgrade the light he may live longer, but will not live to long. He is moving trying to find light.

 

[caferacermike]

Aptasia and Condylactus are about the onlly low level anemones. Clowns don't host to condies. Would I recommend an anemone for a 20g? Only for the most established reefers. Anemones need to be hand fed. This generally involves a larger morsel. If your anemone drops it you now have a piece of rotting meat in a very confined space, quickly polluting the tank. Many BTA's will look like a golf ball at the LFS only to open up to a huge anemone in a clean tank. They seem to prefer intense lighting and pristine water conditions. T5 lighting can be overdriven and become very intense. You could experiment with that. It does not have the focus that a MH does.

Too much light at 5wpg? Oh no, I run 10wpg on my 75g. I know others that run much more. I have friends with 20g tanks and 250w MH units over them with additional T5 bulbs. Around 300w. These are for clam and anemone tanks. These guys have been around for a long time and really know what they are doing, so much so that they hand build their own tanks to the particular application. Example being that those tanks are shallow squares so that the anemones and clams are closer to the lighting and have plenty of space to fan out.

 

[jeffwee559]

well thanks and i had a condy anemone before and i handfed him and i hand fed this little thing, but im gonna mess around, im currently in a city college and then hope to transfer to san francisco state university to major in marine bio. So sorry for all the questions, i like to learn as much as possible. thanks.