Thinking of making an anemone tank

[Richer]

I was going to make my 24"x24"x12" half cube into a sps & clam tank, but after talking to Harvey, I'm seriously thinking about turning it into an anemone tank instead.

Here's my rough (very rough) plan on this tank.

Lighting: Single 250w SE 14000k bulb (running on a HQI ballast) in a PFO Pendant

Filtration: ~30-40 lbs of LR. 17g sump at half capcacity, and a 15 gallon fuge off on the side with a 6 inch deep sandbed (with jawfish), and macros. The clams will also be housed in this fuge. Lighting will be provided by a single 150w light. All drain water will be fed directly into a custom skimmer (~20" high, with a sedra9000 knockoff for recirculation and air input) with part of the drain tee'ed off into the fuge. The tank will be a BB.

Flow: Return from a mag 9.5, tee'ed off into two outputs about 6 inches under the surface (with siphon breaks of course). Closed looped from a mag5 into a SCWD, plumbed into two OM Revolutions for a bit of random current.

Topoff: 100% kalk water.

Livestock: 4-5 false perculas. ??? anemone.

The thing that I am not sure about the most is the anemone. What would all of you suggest? I want something that has longer tentacles... so nothing like a carpet. I was thinking maybe a ritteri? but those are hard to come by, and I think my tank is a little small for one.

If any of you have any suggestions, comments, anything constructive to say, please post away!

Thanks for reading my long post

-Rich

[marie]

Have you checked out RC's may TOTM?

[danny zubot]

Reef central's is cool but if you go with RBTAs people will think you are a copy cat. I think the ritteri is a cool idea, maybe with a pair of maroon clowns are somethng. Your tank is 24x24x 12 high right? 250 watts will be enough for that depth. Go for it!

[Troy F]

I think the tank too small for Heteractis magnifica. Survival rate is poor and removing them from their habitat is detrimental to clown fish survival. Go for the RBTs and don't worry about "originality".

[danny zubot]

[Troy F]

Danny, it wasn't a shot at you, just a difference of opinion.

Have a look at Dr. Shimek's article over at the reefland e-zine this month. He does a nice job or refreshing some information on the anemone. All of what he says has been written before but it's nice to be reminded about collection impact.

[danny zubot]

I know, your right. Sometimes I just get caught up in the really cool ideas and forget about the ethics behind what we're doing. My bad!

[Delphinus]

It sounds like a fabulous potential setup, whatever you decide to put in there.

Unfortunately, given my experience with Heteractis magnifica at least, I would venture that 24" square is not really going house that anemone comfortably (as you have already speculated yourself). However I do think that a 24" tank can make an ideal habitat for several other species, depending on aquascaping options; including (as already suggested) Entacmaea quadricolor, Macrodactyla doreensis, Heteractis crispa, Heteractis malu. Also quite possibly good habitat for carpets, depending on the size of the carpet that is. Some carpets can also get quite large, Stichodactyla haddoni and S. mertensii tend to grow towards fairly large diameters. You did mention you weren't too keen on carpets, so I guess I'm just throwing that info in for the heck of it. (They're my favourite so you have to put up with me talking about them )

Collection impact and ethics notwithstanding, I think that if one were to attempt an anemone, that by designing the system around the needs of the anemone first, is certainly commendable. Keeping a dedicated habitat for an anemone, I think, can be an interesting and fun challenge.

[AJ_77]

Purple LTA.


Ooooooooooohhh....

[danny zubot]

You could go with an RBTA along with a GBTA. They're compatable.