Anemone and their requirements

[ryan820]

Hello all--

I'm pretty new here but have had my tank for a while and I've considered getting both a clam and an anemone at some point but all I ever get from people when I ask what requirements they need is lots of light and excellent water conditions.

I can get them the light they need but the water quality thing throws me a bit. What does this mean? I can currently test for ph, ammonia, trates, trites...and thats it for now. I imagine in the case of the clam calcium would be of concern as well and plan to get some more water tests but what about the anemone? WHat quantifies excellent "water quality?"

My parameters currently are:

pH 8.2
Salinity 1.025
Temp around 78-80 (my thermometer is lame)
Ammonia 0
Trite 0
Trates may be above 0 but certainly not above 5ppm at any given time (its one of those color tests and it leans mostly to 0)

I suppose knowing more would help, re my tank. It's a 46 gal bow front (have to admit, I HATE bow fronts... should have never gotten this one!), octopus skimmer 1000 going full blast, HOB filter that only contains a sock with carbon in it with biowheel, and roughly 45-50 lbs of fully cured live rock. Only one fish (have 3 new fish and a bunch of corals coming this Saturday!) and a clean up crew that does one heck of a job. No sump... I'm running a simple and small operation here. The tank has been running for maybe 4 years, but only about 5 months in my care now (it was simply relocated). No deaths, lots of creatures like pods, bristle worms, sponges, other weird worms etc. Everyone seems quite happy, but happy enough to have a clam or anemone? I hope so.

Regarding water quality, I use a 5 stage RO/DI unit that is only a few months old and filled the tank with store-bought ro water before I got the unit. No algae blooms and no pests that I can find. The algae I do see that forms is never very much though it will grow over a surface or a power head to the point of being noticeable and usually when I see that, the next morning its been stripped clean by a snail.

My photo period is from 9 to 9, under T5 lights (not very good and only two bulbs but I'm arranging to fix that this weekend, too, by adding 4 more bulbs and a mixture of different types of HO T5.).

Thanks for the help.

 

[Cake_Boss]

Your photoperiod is really long, are you doing a few hours of actinics before and after for the sunrise/sunset effect? The calcium thing is for growth, if you have low calcium the clam just won't grow. I would take out your biowheel though. What are your phosphates at? I ask for two reasons, 1) too high of them would not be considered good water quality 2) there is hanna checker buy going on these make it really easy to check your phosphates. You do need stronger lighting, when you add your 4 more bulbs, I would say go for it. Any idea on what kind you want?

 

[ryan820]

Your photoperiod is really long, are you doing a few hours of actinics before and after for the sunrise/sunset effect? The calcium thing is for growth, if you have low calcium the clam just won't grow. I would take out your biowheel though. What are your phosphates at? I ask for two reasons, 1) too high of them would not be considered good water quality 2) there is hanna checker buy going on these make it really easy to check your phosphates. You do need stronger lighting, when you add your 4 more bulbs, I would say go for it. Any idea on what kind you want?

I'm currently unable to test for phosphates (working on getting more tests, but good grief there are a lot). As for my photo period, yes, I know it is long but I have it set up this way because of having only these two bulbs-- kind of lame, I know. But with only two bulbs, the few corals I have (zoas, rics and mushrooms) seem to appreciate it. No actinics though I have plans for some with the new fixture. The New lamp will be used in conjunction with my current one so I can ease the lights on for the tank.

So I have to ask, why remove the biowheel? It seems 50/50 on the wheel, half saying keep it, half saying toss it. Being a cautious reef keeper, if nothing is awry in the tank I'm not all that willing to change things.... unless of course it means a new coral! but I'm curious why you suggest this? Thanks for the info!

 

[Off The Deep End]

Nitrate factory. Where are you located? I have an extra test kit if you need it.

 

[ryan820]

Nitrate factory. Where are you located? I have an extra test kit if you need it.

I've heard this before, as well, though my nitrates hover next to 0 on a consistent basis. Anyway, i digress from the point of the post. I suppose if the bio load increases in the tank and nitrates begin to climb, I have a simple and immediate thing I can do to remedy that!

Rockys_pride

Any idea on what kind you want?

Not sure... so many beautiful varieties. Any suggestions? I rather like the rose bubble tip anemones.

 

[Cake_Boss]

Personally, I think the BTA have a weak sting as compared to others. My monti caps can ward off my RBTA. My LTA consumed all in it's path. There are do many varieties of BTA now that you should really look into getting a colorful one.

Oh, just remembered. You can keep nems with not as stellar lighting..but you must feed him to compensate. Personally, I'd wait until you get the new lights.

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[ryan820]

Personally, I think the BTA have a weak sting as compared to others. My monti caps can ward off my RBTA. My LTA consumed all in it's path. There are do many varieties of BTA now that you should really look into getting a colorful one.

Oh, just remembered. You can keep nems with not as stellar lighting..but you must feed him to compensate. Personally, I'd wait until you get the new lights.

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That's interesting that you can make up for poor lighting with more food. So they are photo creatures... do they have zoo, then, like many corals? There is a local guy who sells bubble tips and so far he's been very helpful in pointing me in the direction of easy vs difficult, what gets along with what and so on and he's not at all pushing the anemone because of how difficult he says they are to keep. I believe I will just take the approach I've been taking with my tank-- slow and "we'll see"... My wife would LOVE a clam-- she thinks they're brilliant color is such a piece to have in the tank and I agree. But I suppose I need to know if my water is as good as I think it is and get tests to test more parameters.

A friend of mine is sending his fish (two percs and the frogspawn they host along with many zoas, palys, rics, mushrooms and a bicolor blenny) to me this weekend because he's moving and will be too busy to rebuild his tank for the next year. I've had my tank running with only one fish in it the entire time just so it would be stable and ready for these new guys. So I think once they're settled in and we get some time in tank with them, i'll begin looking again.

 

[djkms]

Ok im going to play Devils Advocate here but I don't understand the whole "Nitrate Factory" term. In this case; the biowheel provides an aerobic surface area for bacteria to colonize which will break down ammonia to Nitrite then Nitrite to Nitrate. This same thing happens on almost ALL surfaces within our closed system which comes in contact with water. Rock, sand, glass, acrylic, pumps, parts etc etc. So would you say your live rock is a Nitrate Factory? Of course not. So why is the biowheel a Nitrate factory? It serves the same purpose as any other surface within our system, a place for bacteria to thrive. So is the biowheel a nitrate factory because it is much more efficient at breaking down ammonia/nitrite because of being in a higher aerobic area then say the surface of a rock? Or is the biowheel a nitrate factory because it traps detritus easier? Is it possible your calling it a nitrate factory because there is no anaerobic/anoxic zone for denitrification?

IMO I think the term "Nitrate Factory" is way overused and hardly understood (this is not a knock on you Off The Deep End). I am just trying to open up the discussion a little bit. I think the whole term came along around the same time as wet/dry's did. When wet drys where first introduced they where the most efficient means of waste consumption. At that time though converting Nitrate into inert nitrogen was not well understood, hence the term "Nitrate Factory". Back then there was no way (well known) to remove nitrate from your system outside of water changes. Now though we have media, carbon dosing, better understanding of macro algaes, etc, etc to remove nitrate from our systems. Times have changed and IMO the term Nitrate factory should sit on the shelf with undergravel filters

Bring on the discussion!!

 

[little_fish]

With nems, not only do you need good water quality (no nitrates, phosphates or copper exposure), but what is also extremely important is stability. I personally prefer to see nems in older set ups for this reason, and i consider moving going back to square one with the tank.

 

[hurrafreak]

New/Old tanks I've never had a problem with keeping an anemone. I have heard though that not many people test for the trates, trites, ammonia once they have passed the initial "cycle" of the tank. More commonly, from what I hear, people test for Calcium Alkalinity and Magnesium?? I think though with the test results you do have, you should be fine with an anemone. Clams on the other hand I've always had terrible luck with!!! One of the experts will be able to help you with that lol!

 

[Wicked Color]

The term nitrate factory is due to people who don't maintain them, and then there is a lot of bacteria in the filter. IME- they creat flow, aerate water, filter detritus, a lot of them have carbon cartridges, and room for other media, but when maintained properly the bacteria will not be very abundant in the filter itself.
I am not an anemone expert, but I say any light better than standard florescent will support most nems, water quality and feeding are both important regardless of lighting.

 

[ryan820]

The term nitrate factory is due to people who don't maintain them, and then there is a lot of bacteria in the filter. IME- they creat flow, aerate water, filter detritus, a lot of them have carbon cartridges, and room for other media, but when maintained properly the bacteria will not be very abundant in the filter itself.
I am not an anemone expert, but I say any light better than standard florescent will support most nems, water quality and feeding are both important regardless of lighting.

Well there isn't much cleaning one can do on a biowheel. It's jus tthere... it doesn't rinse out nor is it scrubbed etc. The only thing I keep in my HOB filter is a filter sock with carbon-- it gets change regularly.

 

[ryan820]

New/Old tanks I've never had a problem with keeping an anemone. I have heard though that not many people test for the trates, trites, ammonia once they have passed the initial "cycle" of the tank. More commonly, from what I hear, people test for Calcium Alkalinity and Magnesium?? I think though with the test results you do have, you should be fine with an anemone. Clams on the other hand I've always had terrible luck with!!! One of the experts will be able to help you with that lol!

Thanks for the input! Even with my parameters seem stable and healthy, with the new recruits joining the tank this weekend, I'll definitely hold on things for now! I imagine just with adding three new fish my bio load will increase and I want to keep a close eye on any spikes.

 

[Mantid]

.
I am not an anemone expert, but I say any light better than standard florescent will support most nems, water quality and feeding are both important regardless of lighting.

IMO feeding is not important in keeping nems. I have never lost a nem to not feeding them, and I dont. They may grow faster but really I just give away my nems when they split anyway. They are hardy little inverts, compared to most corals. This is all assuming they do have the proper lighting to support their own energy intake.

 

[ryan820]

IMO feeding is not important in keeping nems. I have never lost a nem to not feeding them, and I dont. They may grow faster but really I just give away my nems when they split anyway. They are hardy little inverts, compared to most corals. This is all assuming they do have the proper lighting to support their own energy intake.

Your's split??? That's awesome!!! I didn't know they did that in captivity. How often do they split?

 

[Zooid]

depends on how much you feed them or if the water quality is degrading.
I've had my rose bubble tip split a few times.

 

[Mantid]

They kind of split on their terms and not all that often. Sometimes even when they get stressed, odly enough. I would not go and try to stress one out in hopes in would split though. And like zooid, the one that splits for me is also a rose bubble tip anemone (RBTA).

 

[Cake_Boss]

The guys on R2R swear by over feeding. If I even get my rainbow to come out of his hole, I might get it to split

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[ryan820]

So how do anemones split? Do they form a second "mouth", or does it begin with their plate?

 

[Wicked Color]

They split pretty quickly, like over night.