clown swimming at surface

Actually, anemones move very little in wild enviroments! and the lux/spectrum readings to where they thrive stay way below a 4.5 watts per gallon rule of thumb in many cases. The consistency on the light frequency on dephts of about 30 to 55 feet stays really constant to a range of about 420 to 470nm! They are NOT being forced! This frequency is at the best range for growth of zooxanthellae which is the bacteria the anemones and corals require the most.The intensity only helps more, but less intensity to a degree will not harm them and they can still thrive.Less intensity only creates more zooxanthellae which will actually boost coloration! If you have a 30 gallon tank with 220watts (over 7 watts per gallon) on VHOS (which penetrate to about 24 inches from the center of bulb ) but the tank is a long tall tank (let's say 30 inches deep 12 wide) the luminosity and light frequency reaching the bottom of the tank is now degraded, and the usable range of light is now much less than at the surface. What does this mean? It means that you could have 7watts per gallon and still NOT have enough light for that light demanding coral if positioned at the bottom! In the same token if you have the same volume of water tank (30g) but positioned horizontally (not tall but long) making it 12 inches deep (for example) and lets say you only have 110w of lighting (VHO) you are now able to keep the same type of corals you couldnt keep on your tall tank (if you had positioned the corals at the bottom). The watts per gallon rule of thumb is a good starting point, but even more important is the type of lighting used for what purpose, and to understand the different rates of penetration of such light for the corals desired! The following baseline is based on SG of 1.024 and temperatures of about 78 degrees: Metal halides (mogul base and HQI a little more) penetrate about 30 to 34 inches,VHOs penetrate about 24 inches. Pc's are a little more to about 26 to 28 inches and regular NO bulbs to about 14-16 inches. So, when you are thinking of light, consider the types of corals you are gonna put in your tank, what they light requirements are for that specific type and the location where you should put it in your tank! Consider aquascaping, and ultimately when in doubt (more is better)!

 

Re: clown problem

LPS corals are FAR more light demanding than soft corals and anemones! shrooms and leather corals should be fine if positioned near the top! but mushrooms occur lower in nature so they might look odd in the high parts (for accuracy only) Frogspawns and hammer corals do need much more lighting to sinthesize calcium for their skeleton base. I would stray away from them at the moment!

 

playing with fire regarding clown-compatible anemones, SPS, or LPS with a 100gal & PC...

PC has very poor light penetration compared to the other normal reef options (HOT5s, MH) and the popular anemones as well as SPS/LPS require LOTS of spectrum appropriate light. There's alot of debate currently going on regarding whether PC even emits useful actinic frequencies in most popular brands (and it's not even debated anymore re: PC's PAR ratings being dismal in comparison to T5, LED, MH....)

with that being said, clowns will bond to MANY things - plants, rubber "fake" corals, stringy balls of rubberbands, power heads, clusters of branching fiji rock.... they dont need an anemone, given time they'll claim a "home" and defend it as long as you dont rearrange constantly

Also - if almost any fish spends most time near top of tank... check your O2, and also make sure they aren't being harassed when they approach the rock.

 

Thoug the debate about PC's (t5's are also PC) and their spectrum is true, the fact is, that IF/WHEN the frequency is appropiate for a given brand and when compared to VHO's (NOT MH since they are different type of lighting (incandescent point source vs diffuse of VHOS and other fluorescent lights) , the penetration of PC's is greater than that of VHO's, which you forgot to mention and it's one of the most widely used type of lighting for reef systems! Yes T5's are perceptibly brighter than VHOS and PC's (which I forgot to mention) but their penetration is still argued when compared to VHOS and their spectrum capabilities. It is believed by many that since the T5's and other PC's circumference is so much narrower to that of a VHO, the amount os phospour producing spectrum is not nearly enough to produce an usable range within our systems. Im rigging a test to prove/disprove this.
I personally stray away from anemones on a reef,(just personal preference) but many people I service and many tanks I have seen sucessfully keep them under PC lighting (even light demanding tabletops/bubbletips/ and others). The trick is to understand their needs and to meet them. Lostanime's advice and comments about clowns bonding to just about anything is dead on.

 

Sorry - was speaking on my personal experience (which could tie to brands/individual bulb specs/ballasts/reflectors/bulb age/etc) as well as a small selection of debates online - my experience with a 6' coralife PC fixture with four 96w (two were actinic) was it was pretty sour - it couldn't light the tank very well and our eclipse 4' four 54w HOT5 fixture lit the entire tank brighter (particularly the bottom) despite being a smaller and lower wattage fixture, after both fixtures were broken in for 100 hours. I didn't pull PAR on mine after seeing numbers posted on reefcentral that reflected similar results in a usable spectrum... but, your absolutely right, lots of posts of success stories with nearly every main-stream marine lighting on aquariums... can certainly be done if done correctly. 4x65w is VERY little light for keeping light-needy critters in a 100gal setup, though...

 

dont be sorry.... it is not a competition in here.... everyone is right and everyone is wrong! WE ALL LEARN and this is what matters!

 

just wondering if you can update us on your clown (If you still have him/her)?

 

perhaps lack of oxygen in tank?

 

Re: clown problem

Doubt lack of oxygen if theres good surface movement.

 

I would say that possibly, he is up there due to lack of oxygen in the lower areas of the tank, you should try using a powerhead, with a venturi air-injection system to super saturate the tank water with o2 and see if this improves things.

 

Topics from back in/around July...but poster stated he had the fish for a week, but just started hovering the surface for the past 2 days which is why it was doubted to be lack of oxygen in thinking it would have hovered from day 1