BTA lighting 12 gallon dx

[mellowyellow714]

Can the lighting for a 12 gallon nano cube dx support a green bubble tip anemone. It is a stock with 48 watts of compact flourescent lighting. The actual main area of the tank is about 10 gallons because the filter and water pump are in separate compartments in the back. This would bring me up to about 4.8 watts/gallon. Is this enough? My water quality is great (weekly water changes and supplements) and the tank has been established for about 6 months.

 

[incysor]

Unfortunately the watts-per-gallon rule is a pretty useless rule of measure. Lighting requirements for reef tanks, and all the different critters that can be housed in them is just too complex to be addressed using this measure.

Unfortunately the short answer is that 48w of pc lighting isn't enough to keep a BTA. It sounds like you've waited long enough to let your tank mature which is a key factor in being able to keep anemones succsessfully, but you'd need to upgrade your lighting to really make it viable.

B