Lighting opinions wanted.

[DMBoocock]

Hi Folks,

Fairly new to this marine game, though had a tropical tank happily for plenty of years. I set up a tank in a Rio 400, Live Rock, 2 false clown, 2 Clarkii's, 4 snails.
Been running for about 4 months though the fish have only been added recently.

Am wondering about getting an anenome for the fish but am worried by what lighting they would need.Also the missus wants a clam!
The tank has 2 flourecent type bulbs 1 Blue actinic and 1 Marine White light (both 36W Arcadia's).

Any opinion on if this is acceptable or not?

I could easily add another 2 tubes but don't really want to change the system for T5's or MH unless I need too.

Any opinions will be eagerly listened too.

Cheers

Dave

[ickypimp]

if you wanna keep a nem and a clam i reckon you will nee to go halide or add alot more T5

[Lavajava]

I'm afraid that both anemone's and clams need a great deal of light and your 36 watts are no where near enough.

I had nems under 250 watts of lighting and have recently upgraded to 900+ watts with M/Halides and can see an improvement in my nems.

Hope this helps.

[instantsquid]

Hi Dave,

I'm afraid the replies above are correct - you don't have enough light at the moment for an anemone or a clam. Both these creatures require strong lighting to thrive.
I can understand the reluctance to move to metal halide lighting as they do change the whole look of a tank. But why would you not want to use T5's? People do successfully keep certain clam and anemone species under T5 tubes - you just might need a lot of them!

As an aside - getting an anemone for the fish isn't a good reason to get one. Clownfish don't need an anemone to thrive, in fact you'll find many members on here who have had clownfish spawn in their tanks without an anemone - so they can't be that unhappy! If you are still keen to get one, I would read up as much as you can about keeping one - they are not an organism to take on lightly.

Mikey (an anemone expert around here!) wrote a good article here:
http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/showthread.php?t=153667

Hope that helps,

- Ian.

[cl0wn]

surprised the clowns aren't all having a massive pagga, 2 different pairs? a nem might bring out their territorial side (esp. the clarkiis)?

no one else think this?

[JASCOT75]

I have one Maroon Clown and he lives very happilly with a leather coral rather than a nem.

[DMBoocock]

Ta for replies guys,
Might not get nem or clam for quite a while!
Does anyone keep 2 sets of clowns then?
It's the thwo clarkii's that are scrapping not with the other pair. I was under the impression that if the tank was big enough they would set up camp away from each other. Books may be wrong then.