18W enuff for a FOWLR tank?

[joe]

planning to do up a 1.5ft marine tank ... can't do any bigger cos it in office ... and its on my desk

wondering is a 18W PL (half 10k white tube, half blue tube) will suffice for 2 clowns and one anemone?

[kelstorm]

again, it has nothing to do with the wattage but the spectrum of the lights that matters in marine. If your 50/50 PL light(i suppose it is so) is giving out 10k intensity. u can keep anemone.. but just a note of precaution. your tank has to be in tip top condition and top water quality (meaning good filtration system) to ensure that anemone dun die on u, coz if it does, it will pollute your tank so fast that u dun even have time to react considering the size of your tank. Also, with suction filters and anemones, u better pray that the anemone dun wonder near the filter coz if it does, it will be sucked in and your filter choked or grind the anemone to bits and your office will stink big time.

Clown fishes dun need anemone to survive.. my 4 common clowns that are given to me 1.5 yrs ago have been doing fine without anemone. yes, it is nice to see symbiotic relationship between them but it is the clownfish that benefits more from the relationship than the anemone.

Unless u are very certain that u can provide a tip-top condition (which is unlike for a 1.5ft tank) i dun suggest that u get one. Seriously. This is because, while clownfish can withstand some moderate level of poor water quality, anemone cant.

[joe]

thanks kelstorm for the kind advise!!! ... i'll take that into serious consideration

[kelstorm]

u are most welcome.. we are learning all the time from one another... i just dun want ppl to repeat the mistakes that i made.. it was painful and expensive..

[souphamster]

used to keep a 2feet by 1.5 feet tall marine tank. HEADACHE! put near window, eventually aglae and lost interest in keeping, 2 anemones dies off, all fish wipe out, corals dead, spend about 150$ all gone. Now Clean off mess, left only Live rocks, about 8 pieces, even the good purple algae on the rocks are eventually gone. So sad.. the result of being lazy lah;. see!
Now got to downgrade to 1feet, think next mth i will set up and cycle tank for about 3 weeks before adding fish into it. No money to buy xtra things to add to it after if buying tank at $17 (1feet x 1 feet) at Nature aquarium, very nice cheap compare to serangoon , same tank selling at $30. Light wise, got to check again before i really buy loh. hee hee...

[kelstorm]

honestly speaking, i dun recommend anything smaller than 2ft if u really wan to keep marine although i often advice ppl to go for the biggest that they can afford due to the tolerance level that the bigger tank can afford. For my smaller 2ft tank, i only have 1 seahorse and 2 turbo snails and 3 rocks of macroalgae.

being lazy, it is not advisable to keep small tanks as u need to monitor the water parameters more closely.

When anemones dies, it will pollute the tanks so fast that before u can say NEMO, all your fishes will be belly up, especially in small tanks.