Got a green bubble anemone a few days ago. It rooted within a few
hours with its foot buried at the back of a little cave in the
rockwork. There is now a strange lighting related routine that seems
to go against the text books:

1. The Arcadia 4 tube lighting system comes on at half power (1 white
and 1 blue tube) at 0730 on a timer. Over the next hour or so, the
anemone comes out fully, completely surrounding the mouth of the cave
(about 8-10 inches in diameter)

2. Second timer kicks in at 1200 switching lighting system to full (2
white, 2 blue). At this point, the anemone begins to retreat,
shrinking to about half of the full diameter (with quite a bit of it
in the shade of the cave). It stays like this for about 1.5 to 2 hours
then completely retreats into the cave with nothing of it exposed.

3. Timer switches lighting back to half power at 1600. Anemone remains
hidden for another hour or so then begins to emerge slowly, eventually
back to about half the full diameter. It then stays like this until
lights switch off for the night at 2300.

OTHER INFO:

We originally had the lights switching to full power a lot earlier in
the day and switching back to half power later, but have been
gradually reducing the full lighting period given the anemone's
apparent sensitivity to more intense light. The retreating and
re-emergence appears to be linked to the time the lights are switched
from one level to the other, though we have not had the anemone long
enough to be absolutely certain of this.

We have couple of young tank bred percula clowns who took to the
anemone pretty much straight away. Other than these, we have a few
other fish, three cleaner shrimp and a few hardy soft corels (from the
"good for beginners" list).

Anemone looks healthy and appears to be feeding OK (grabbing bits of
brine shrimp that float its way).

QUESTIONS:

In theory, what is a reasonable lighting schedule for a mixed reef
tank with an anemone and soft corels?

Does the anemone behaviour described seem normal/unusual?

Cheers
Knowleman