New saltwater. Need help.

[Chrostoph]

Hi everyone. Il start of with abit of back ground info. I have successfully maintained a 300l tropical aquarium for the last 3 years and i have recently ventured into the saltwater. My aim was a small tank with a couple clowns and an anemone. So I used a old tank I had kicking around (20l). I began by speaking to my local fish shop who advised on water and live rock and a couple other bits. So I cleaned the tank up and put sand, live rock, heater, saltwater from the shop, and a hang on back filter with a serfice skimmer. I left it like that for 2 weeks as the shop advised. I had my waters checked and they said everything was spot on. So I got 2 small clowns that seem happy an healthy so far. My only worry is when they keep going to the top of the tank under the water full and laying slighly sideways for a second or 2 before swimming away. I don't have any air stone in the tank. Do you think they could be looking for more air? Also I have a 24w white light for lighting. The shop said that was enough for such a small tank. Is this correct? Any help would be great.

Thanks.

[pkirby]

24 watt led? What kind of light is it? If it's led it's more than enough... If it's just a normal lightbulb then it's fine for fish but probably not for the anemone you mentioned wanting... The hob filter should be getting a good amount of oxygen in your water... But you can certainly add an airstone to see if it helps. If it does you could slightly lower the water level in your tank so the water from the hob falls further, breaking the water surface more and increasing oxygen that way...

Good luck! Sounds like your lfs is at least giving you good advice instead of sending you home with the sand/rock/fish all at the same time!

[Chrostoph]

It's a normal light bulb. To be honest it's very bright. But also very boring. Do you have any suggestions for a led light that will have a slight blue colour to it? Iv seen many online but have not got a clue what size I would need. In my tropical I have fluorescents (1white 1 blue) and the colour is real nice. Also I will try the air stone tonight and let you no how it goes. If there is no change and they still go to the filter stream could this just be that they like it there?

[Chrostoph]

Well I got home this afternoon and the clowns seem to have picked up abit. Both swimming around with each other and no sitting nere the filter flow. They still go to the top and poke there faces out the water then swim around happily again. I will keep an eye on them but I do think they are done at the moment. So it's just the query about the light. There is a couple on eBay but how any leds will I need for it to be bright enough for a anemone?

Thanks.

[pkirby]

There are a bunch you could choose from. Unfortunately I don't have first hand experience to make any recommendations... I'd do a search here on RC and you'll find a lot of info. I know ecoxotic makes one, reefbreeders makes one, etc. normally you'll spend close to $100 but you shouldn't have to replace it for many years. The light is also strong enough for coral if you choose to add coral to your tank to go with the anemone

[pkirby]

Also, it's not so much the number of led's as it is the watts per led. 30 .25 watt LEDs will not be as good as 5 3watt LEDs