Lighting for anemone?

[ctheisen]

I have a 18000 K bulb emmiting light in the blue, green and yellow/orange spectrum. If anyone is familar with the product, it is called POWER-GLO. I had also bought a light called MARINE-GLO which emmitts 100% actinic blue. Unfortunately, my hood can only carry one. Would the former provide sufficient light for an anemone in an 18" deep tank or am I going to have to get a double strip hood?

In general, when determining such a thing, should I pay attention to light heat (Kelvin), the wavelength emmitted, or the wattage?

 

[Boogiechillin]

Powerglo bulbs, while nice fluorescents, don't provide nearly enough intensity to support an anemone. You need to be looking at a custom PC, VHO, or metal halide setup if you want to keep an anemone alive longer than a few weeks.

In response to your second question, pay attention to the Kelvin value and the wattage. Wattage is useful for describing a quantity of light needed to keep something alive. For example, I typically wouldn't keep an anemone without somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-6 watts/gallon over the tank. (However, the whole watts/gallon system falls apart when talking about really small or really big tanks...it's just a useful estimator). The kelvin value tells you the "color" and wavelength of the bulb. Higher K bulbs tend to produce a more blue light, lower K bulbs produce a more yellow/green light. Low K bulbs (below 6500K) tend to strongly encourage algae growth, while higher K bulbs provide a more useful wavelength for the growth of certain corals, particularly SPS corals. Bulbs in the 10K neighborhood tend to produce a fairly neutral/white light that is a good compromise.