Nemo/anemone tank

[ray-the-pilot]

OK I set my tank up. Put the live rock in. Let it equilibrate for 6 weeks and yesterday, I put in my two Nemo clowns (Amphiprion percula).

Now comes the really hard part.

I want to include and an anemone.


This is a really small tank 10 gal. Because of the small size it is easy for me to do 25% water changes per week and so far I have not had any spike in NH4+ I will keep checking now that there are fish in the tank.

OK for the anemone… I know that perculas prefer Heteractis magnifica and I’d go with this species but they have a reputation for being difficult and get really big.

I think with 25% water changes per week I will not have any problem with water quality. I am using an Eheim 2213 Canister filter, which does 11 water changes per hour. This seems to produce a lot of movement in the tank to me. So I don’t think I have a problem with water movement.

My lighting is a 26 Watt Coralife compact florescent on 14 hours per day. People have said that you cannot grow anemones under CF lighting. I’d put in a HQI but 150 watts on a 10 gal tank seems really bright?

OK my questions:
Is anyone successfully growing anemones under CF lighting and what are the details.
Is anyone maintaining other species of anemone that their Amphiprion percula bond with?

I’m only interested in hearing from people who are actually maintaining perculae with an anemone successfully.

Thanks for any help.
RTP

[zero186]

I had a Pair(clowns and BTA) and i wouldnt think about an anemone in a 10g it needs stable water and well in a 10g its hard to get as well as your tank needs to run for a couple months before you should introduce one

[ray-the-pilot]

I’m sure I’m don’t know what I’m doing but stable water is something I think I can guarantee.

I have a lot of lab equipment; so, I can make up my water exactly. I use exactly 8143g of RO water. Add exactly 283.0 g of salt mix. The SG is always exactly 1.0225. I warm it so that it is within 1deg of my tank temp. and dump it in. The clowns swim right into the new water as if it were a wave washing in.
I could up the water changes to 50% - 75% water change per week if I thought that the water was getting bad?

BTW what kind of lighting did you use on your set up?

[zero186]

it was a 60g with a 250W MH

[ray-the-pilot]

That is what I am worried about. You were at about 4 watts per gallon and I'm only at 2.4. Maybe I need more lighting?

[Elegance Coral]

I really don't want to sound negative, but this is a bad idea. You can't guarantee water stability in a 10gl. Temperature alone is very hard to control in such a small volume of water. All of the host species of anemone have the potential to get much to large for a 10gl. If you want an anemone, you will need to get a larger tank. You can keep anemones under CF lighting. You just need to have enough of them and have them close enough to the anemone. I have kept perculas in haddoni, LTA, magnifica, BTA, and gigantea.

[Reeftanker3295]

Keep water temps stable! my perculas always died until i put a heater in and made sure the temp was always at 78 degrees. I have hosted all my clowns in a LTA but it got HUGE and took up almost half of my 29 biocube. dont be fooled by how small they look at the LFS if they are kept in those small display tanks, they get huge in the tank. mine was about 12 inches across and in the LFS it was only about 5 inches across, it is still there since we brought it back and returned to 5 inches, but they get large if put in a tank where they have a full ecosystem

[jenglish]

I'm just gonna throw this out there that a nice hairy mushroom looks like a nem and is often hosted. I might try that first as in general 30 gallons is about the smallest tank even a BTA is recommended for.

[Reeftanker3295]

yea clowns will nest in other things as well not just anemones. i see some nesting in flower pot corals alot and the clowns at my LFS' display tank are nested in goniopora. the only reason this would be hard to do is because like others said, the water would be hard to keep stable at all times in a 10g and these corals most of the time need perfect water conditions. i got one for free and it died within 2 weeks because of my phosphate problem at the time, it caused me to do a 75% water change because it released so much phosphates into the water while i was not home and the water was all fogged up. this almost started a bristle worm problem so just warning you about that. other than that, just try to find corals that could be easily kept and that clowns are known to nest in

[Kimberfish]

frogspawn and hammer would probably get hosted too.
Thumbs down on any anemone in a 10g
Your getting good advice, please take it

[Jnicho]

My daughter has two clowns in a 24g Aquapod with a BTA and a Frogspawn coral...they both host, but the fish probably spend more time in the coral...that tank has 2 x 32W PC bulbs and the nem has been a challenge to keep in that small a tank and under those lights (this coming from someone who has kept nems before and has been in the hobby nearly 20 years)...I guess what I'm saying is I agree with not trying to keep a nem in a 10g under PC lights...as mentioned there are alternatives to nems that are probably more viable for this particular setup.

[ray-the-pilot]

Originally Posted by Jnicho

My daughter has two clowns in a 24g Aquapod with a BTA and a Frogspawn coral...they both host, but the fish probably spend more time in the coral...that tank has 2 x 32W PC bulbs and the nem has been a challenge to keep in that small a tank and under those lights (this coming from someone who has kept nems before and has been in the hobby nearly 20 years)...I guess what I'm saying is I agree with not trying to keep a nem in a 10g under PC lights...as mentioned there are alternatives to nems that are probably more viable for this particular setup.

Your daughter's tank is only under 2.6 watts per gal which is low light. I am pretty sure that I will have to double my lighting if I want to keep anemones.

BTW how much water do you change in the 24 gal?

[ray-the-pilot]

edit

[Jnicho]

Originally Posted by ray-the-pilot

Your daughter's tank is only under 2.6 watts per gal which is low light. I am pretty sure that I will have to double my lighting if I want to keep anemones.

BTW how much water do you change in the 24 gal?

BTA's seem to do "OK" under PC's given a good mature tank and good water params and plenty to eat...although they many seem to loose their bubble tips and just have "skinny" tenticals...it's hard in a 24g to keep things stable...I've run 10 and 12 gallon tanks before and they were really tough to keep on spec...we change about 5 gallons a week or approx. 20%.

[jenglish]

Originally Posted by ray-the-pilot

Your daughter's tank is only under 2.6 watts per gal which is low light. I am pretty sure that I will have to double my lighting if I want to keep anemones.

BTW how much water do you change in the 24 gal?

WPG is really a pretty rough estimate. Most folks don't pay much attention to it. PAR is much more important (though hard to know w/o an expensive PAR meter).