Can anemone get burned by heater?

[squintypanda]

Hi all, purchased a RBTA from my LFS today and it seems to be doing fine... fed it some krill earlier and he swallowed the whole thing in minutes... one quick questions though... he seems to be slowly moving towards the direction of my heater.. which is a WON pro titanium unit... I'm worried that he might touch the heating element in the course of the night and get damaged... is that possible? When the heater is on it emits "heat waves" (Looks kinda like during a hot summer day when you can see the air become blurry from car exhausts, etc... if that makes any sense) seems like it's pretty hot to me so I dunno.... is there any precautions I should take? would hate to wake up and see him toasted... Oh yeah another quick question... I have all my powerheads covered up already to protect the anemone except for one small rio pump that is used for my aquafuge because I didn't want to disconnect it fearing the refugium could cause an overflow (almost happened once already)... Anybody know if these Rio heads are powerful enough to suck in an anemone? I put my hand up against it and could barely feel the water pulling so I figure it should be safe....

[finding nemo]

Hi Squinty, I have a titanium heating in the tank and have never had an anemone attach to it, they can let go pretty fast if they need to but have had no problem with them getting burned in the 3 years I have had them in my tank.
As for the rio pump, yes they will find it and get sucked in, what seems like not much suction to us is allot to an anemone, and once one tenticle is sucked in, the rest will follow as they try to get out. So cover it as well.

[Gary Majchrzak]

IMO, depending on where a heater is located it can damage an anemone. If possible, move all heaters in an aquarium housing anemones to the sump. Cover all PH's that might be a threat with an intake screen. The last thing you want is anemone chop-suey.
New anemones tend to wander looking for a suitable spot to settle. Once it settles down and plants it's foot you might be able to take the screen off.

[kayl]

ok- stupid question...would it be bad if I put my heater in the refugium? I only have room for one of the heaters, but the other one is pretty well guarded by rocks around it...

[Gary Majchrzak]

Depending on what's in your rufugium, it should be a good place for a heater. My sump doubles as a refugium and all heaters are there.

[kayl]

I'm just going to have live sand, some live rock rubble, and some macro in there... I could fit both, but my refugium is gonna be a small rubbermaid container...I'm concerned about having both heaters in there and none in my tank...29 gallons vs. 20 quarts...