Lighting needed???

As we all know, I'm a cheapy. I'm thinking about adding nems to my breeding tanks. Question is, can I get away with T8, not sure about the wattage, or T12, which would have two 40W bulbs, lighting for nems? These are just 20 gallon tanks, so there's not much water to go through.

hmmmmmmmmmmmm

on a 20 gallon tank heat is also a huge issue..... don't suppose a 24" DIY t5 fixture is out of the budget? actually, you could do 2 bulbs on each, and get a fixture that runs 4 bulbs... then you can split the power supply between two lights.....

totally thinking out loud here too BTW

meh, nah, the 4-way icecap ballast is like $140 new, and you can get a 2-bulb ballast for $40.... so, $40 for ballast, + endcaps and reflectors, + $40 for bulbs still has us sitting at prolly $100 for each light... hmmmmm

ebay????

I'd go with Home depot ballasts and icecap end caps and reflectors.... at least 2 bulb's per.... actually, you can get a cheapy 4 bulb set up from ebay for $70. They have a 1 piece reflector and sometimes the eng caps crack from the heat but they do the job and would be more than enough light.

found some 36" T5HO fixtures with bulbs 12k and 460 for under $50 shipped. Two bulb fixtures, but each one would be able to cover two tanks!

There you go, they business tanks, not display tanks

36" T5 HO Aquarium Light 78 W 2x 39W Marine Cichlid | eBay

hehe "business tanks".... nice

lmao. it sounds great though!

Still trying to decide on what to go with. There are some clamp on LED fixtures that are pretty cheap. Not sure on how they would do for a nem though. I need to get some water movement in those tanks too. I like the little Rio pumps.

i'd build a closed loop for flow, then you only have to worry about the nem getting sucked into 1 input that you can screen up appropriately, rather than 20 in each of the tanks hahaha

Yeah, but I'm worried about cross breeding if I do that. I'd like to keep them bred with who I want them to breed with.

Maybe I missed it, but wouldn't the logical first question be "what type of anemones"?
And 20 long or 20 tall?

20 long. I'll probably start with a sebae nem. I really want to get a carpet, but I need to test things first.

Technically a "sebae" isn't really a type of anemone. It is a common name used interchangeably with crispas and malus. If you can find a malu that would be your best bet for the smaller clown species since they max out of 8" - 10". A crispa would very quickly outgrow a 20g tank. They get immense very quickly.
And if you are talking haddoni for the carpet rather than gigantea, then there is no real need to wait. A healthy haddoni is relatively easy to keep. But the key is finding a healthy one in the first place since they often don't ship very well. And again, they would outgrow a 20g tank very quickly.
I have my malu thriving under 3 t5's (ballast went out and was never replaced) in a 40 breeder so I imagine that one could do ok in a 20 long with only two bulbs but it would certainly be preferable to have more light. My haddoni is doing well under 4 t5's in a 40 breeder with no problems (other than eating my carpenter wrasse). If you put the requisite 4" of sand (leaving you 8" of water)in place for the haddoni then you might even get away with 2 bulbs there as well. Although once again, what they can survive in and what they thrive in are two different things.
If you are looking for a long-term host for your clowns, then I would stick with BTA's and malu's for hosts. Anything else will just need to be moved in a surprisingly short amount of time.

Well I was thinking about adding them to my tank with cinnamons in it. I need to move them to a bigger tank anyway. I have a few to choose from. I'm not sure on the bigger nems. There's some good pricing right now on some, but like you said, shipping is an issue. I would hate to get a bag of gunk in a box.