Anemone?

In all of your opinions, with all the specs of my tank (see in signature), do you think i could make an anemone tank? I know the lighting isnt much but it doesnt have to penetrate deep. I have good water flow, good filtration, and soon to be good water quality (working on it). Does the tank really have to be at least 1 year old? I see people putting anemones in tanks that are 2 months/5/7/9 months. Whats your opinion? I know when one of them dies, it takes down the whole tank with it but if i have OK specs, ill take the risk

Thanks,
Ryan

 

not enough lighting, also, if you check back with most of the people you hear about putting an anem in that early, they usually die and bring the tank down with them.

 

anyone agree?

 

i agree..last year i put a nem in a tank that was only a couple months old and it didn't last long at all and wiped everything out

 

You have many things running against you here. First is the size of your tank. A 20g long just does not have enough room for an anemone to travel in. It will sting, sting, sting anything it can.

I consider eight months as the minimum. And the tank needs to be pretty much running perfectly to even consider it. The problem is, there are many stages a tank goes through in that first year. So assuming the tank has made it through all the stages of maturation....that would dictate whether an anemone would have a fighting chance. Keep in mind that most anemones don't even make it six months in a captive system. And the captive systems I am talking about are mature systems.

There are those (such as myself) who did not know better and bought one before their tank was even cycled. I lucked out bigtime. My anemone was tough. I also ran PCs. Not enough light, but my little guy wasn't one that demanded high levels of lighting. Still, it moved around constantly trying to find that perfect spot where the lighting was good. Unfortuately, PCs just aren't good enough. It finally found it's way to a powerhead and to anemone heaven. I lucked out once again and got to it before it died, released toxins, set off my Sea Apple and killed my tank.

Now, just to give you an idea of how prepared a system needs to be, I have a 90g with a 20g sump/fuge. It will have it's first birthday on 5/7/09. Hard to believe I have been in this a year already.....Right now, the fuge is full of macros. I also run a denitrator to take up the slack. Once I get my nitrates below 10ppm (now at 40ppm), I will start considering the possibility. And that's only because I have an 8x54W T5 fixture coming in the mail.

So, honestly, I would put an anemone out of your mind for this particular system. You would be better off stocking with some really cool frogspawn or hammer and calling it good. Sometimes, a clown will host frogspawn. Not often, but sometimes.

Good luck man.....Sorry to be such a downer on this one......John.

 

Thanks Pharmr. Im glad to see your converting to T5's. Losing my confidence in my PC's again! Thanks for the advice and now with that said, the anemone this is completely out of my head. I think im going to stock my tank with small frags and let them grow and develop. Frags and a hammer or/and a frogspawn. My tank's specs are good for that, right ? I hope so... Anyway, thanks for the response.

 

you should be fine with frogspawn/hammer..i have both in my tank along with other euphyllia and they are doing great under pc's..and plus..anyone who knows nothing about reefs always thinks they are anemones lol

 

Oh yeah dude. Just make sure your ammonia/nitrites are zero. Your nitrates can be 20ppm easily and corals will do fine. Just keep your eye on phosphates. Those will hamper growth more than nitrates bigtime. Consider a phosphate reactor. They are pretty cheap. Your PCs will house softies and some LPS. You will be limited, but can still have a beautiful tank. Just use good quality bulbs when you replace them and do that every six months. Look at UVL, Giesemann and ATI bulbs for your replacements if you can get them for your fixture.

And on a side note....you are stocked nicely with not too many fish and a great clean up crew. Good job.

EDIT: Oh....and I want to see PICS!!!!!

 

the corals may need some actinic supplementation.... your PCs are 1x65 wtt daylight corrent? what is the color temp of the daylight?

 

Pharmr, I just uploaded a video on youtube. Ill post it on here once it processes. Tell me what you think. Dont x out of this thread! haha