Anemone only tank or with corals

[Pedal Dangit]

Newbie question / poll here.

I am coming back to the hobby from a 10+ year break. I recently picked up a used 120G 48x24x24 and my goal for the tank is to care for some anemones (BTA probably), pair of clowns, a few other fish and maybe some hardy corals like mushrooms, GSP, leather corrals.

I'm curious how many people on this forum have been keeping tanks with both anemones and corals. I have been lurking and reading posts, and it seems that many people post when they have problems with stinging anemones and anemones moving onto corals. So, are there any corals known to do better with anemones than others? Or is the consensus that it is just all together better to keep an anemone only tank? I went ahead and put in third answer in case you have found success with particular corals and particular anemones together.

I guess the basic reason for asking:
If the advice is to wait for 6 months or longer to add an anemone, what can you add in the meantime assuming it will stay in the tank for the long run.

If you have mixed reef w anemones please chime in as to how long? has it been a war zone? or anemones and corals all happy together?

 

[GoVols]

Yeah,
I've been lucky ;Wacky and have had bta's in my mixed reef for along time.

So that's one go, but it's still a gabble that one could roam...

You can add fish and easy corals and wait at least six months before adding a nem. so your reef can mature and stable out.

 

[Scurvy]

Id probably add a few softies in an anemone tank. Maybe a nice green leather and a couple of gorgonians to put some movement into the water column. Might also think about some display refugium type macro algaes.

I do currently keep small RBTA’s in a mixed 32 biocube as well as a GBTA in my mixed reef reefer 250. I probably wont keep them in a mixed reef or SPS system as I move forward though.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I had a mixed reef tank with several rock flower anemones, a handful of rose bubble tips and a few maxi-minis as well. My rock flowers spawned and I had about 20 (the babies are so tiny!) when I decided to downsize from a 120g & a 40g cube to just the cube. I moved frags of about 70 corals to the cube along with all the rock flowers and a couple RBT's and maxi-minis. No sooner was this just about done and the rock flowers spawned again. Now I have 30+ (it's hard to count as the new babies are just barely bigger than the period at the end of this sentence). The rock flowers prefer to be at the edge of rocks at the sand unless they have really good holes in the rock to hide in, not that they hide much at all. I have not seen that any of my corals mind the rock flowers being nearby. In fact here is a pic of two young rock flowers (about 6 months old) in a field of zoas!

20180622_143853_resized by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr


The parents are the rainbow in the center and the orange face nem to it's right. You can see a few newer babies just above the rim of the orange face nems green tentacles. There are 5 right there and one more just above that has moved off to a small rock.

20180622_144452 R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

 

[Coral Passion]

I have a large BTA in my mixed which was one of the first things to go into the tank. I would probably not put one in after the corals as they like to roam and look for a suitable place. Mine has been in the same location for almost 2 years. The reality is they do limit what can be placed near them and occasionally will split and you will have one of them move.

 

[Edp251]

Following. I am considering doing the same, a tank with anemones and shrimp for our bedroom.

Great thread. Thanks for starting!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Following. I am considering doing the same, a tank with anemones and shrimp for our bedroom.

Great thread. Thanks for starting!

The rock flowers can make for a crazy beautiful tank as they come in so many colors and designs and most fluoresce to the point that in a dark room with blue leds over the tank it looks like Pandora at night (the planet in the movie Avatar).

 

[Edp251]

The rock flowers can make for a crazy beautiful tank as they come in so many colors and designs and most fluoresce to the point that in a dark room with blue leds over the tank it looks like Pandora at night (the planet in the movie Avatar).

Cool. Thanks!

 

[Bonfish]

I too have kept an RBTA in my mixed reef since 2012. At one point I had over 100 in the main display. I would periodically remove them to get credit for other coral. I currently have 8 and they are getting big. Six black widow , one rainbow, one green with pink tips. I have had to move a few to keep them from stinging the other corals. I love them so I do not mind moving them if I need to.

 

[Edp251]

The rock flowers can make for a crazy beautiful tank as they come in so many colors and designs and most fluoresce to the point that in a dark room with blue leds over the tank it looks like Pandora at night (the planet in the movie Avatar).

Hi Ron, Was just looking at your rock flower experience thread. Are their certain colors that tend to fluoresce better? Thanks again!

 

[Ryanbrs Verified Sponsor]

We have a tank at the shop that only has RBTAs and ~ 30 clowns. I’d say most reefers don’t get super excited about it but it is a easy way to have a tank with a ton of movement and looks really sharp. Also very easy to take care of.

I’ve had mixed tanks with rbtas in the past with no real issues. They will grow , split and walk but is all manageable . However I would personally never put them in a Densely packed SPS tank or any tank where there is a huge investment in coral. At least not without some serious thought or semblance of a plan.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Hi Ron, Was just looking at your rock flower experience thread. Are their certain colors that tend to fluoresce better? Thanks again!

IMHO there are 3 basic rock flower anemones.

The obvious winners are the ones that are very colorful and usually have a mix of 2 or more colors, like the orange face and green tentacles, or numerous other combinations, or the rainbows with multiple colors. These almost always, like 99.99% fluoresce very well and they all come from deeper water (30' or more) and not surprisingly, cost more. I can't prove this scientifically, but I think these nems do much better if fed every couple of weeks because they don't have the zooxanthellae that do lots of photosynthesis (they are from deeper water) that helps feed the anemone. ;Happy

P9290014 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
P9290013 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr



Then there are very common colored ones that tend to be off white, tan or brown and may have tan white of green tentacles. Some of these will fluoresce and some don't. My best guess is it's about 30-40% that do and 60-70% that don't. And sometimes parts of them will while other parts don't. Like one can have bright green tentacle that fluoresce well and a white or tan face that does not fluoresce at all. However, some of the ones that don't fluoresce have very nice stripes and other patterns that can look very cool. These are all from very shallow water (1' to 8') and I have seen hundreds of them (and collected a few) while snorkeling in the Florida Keys. And these guys require much less feeding because they can tolerate much higher PAR in the tank and their zooxanthellae do lots of photosynthesis.

Rons rock flower anemone by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr



And then there are some, and I see a lot less of these for sale, that have some reasonable color but they tend to be more just a single color, somewhat darker color and not very fluorescent. A friend collected several of these in the Keys in medium deep water (8' to 15'). I have a one (the upper left of the last photo in post #4) and it doesn't fluoresce at all.

 

[Edp251]

IMHO there are 3 basic rock flower anemones.

The obvious winners are the ones that are very colorful and usually have a mix of 2 or more colors, like the orange face and green tentacles, or numerous other combinations, or the rainbows with multiple colors. These almost always, like 99.99% fluoresce very well and they all come from deeper water (30' or more) and not surprisingly, cost more. I can't prove this scientifically, but I think these nems do much better if fed every couple of weeks because they don't have the zooxanthellae that do lots of photosynthesis (they are from deeper water) that helps feed the anemone. ;Happy

P9290014 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
P9290013 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr



Then there are very common colored ones that tend to be off white, tan or brown and may have tan white of green tentacles. Some of these will fluoresce and some don't. My best guess is it's about 30-40% that do and 60-70% that don't. And sometimes parts of them will while other parts don't. Like one can have bright green tentacle that fluoresce well and a white or tan face that does not fluoresce at all. However, some of the ones that don't fluoresce have very nice stripes and other patterns that can look very cool. These are all from very shallow water (1' to 8') and I have seen hundreds of them (and collected a few) while snorkeling in the Florida Keys. And these guys require much less feeding because they can tolerate much higher PAR in the tank and their zooxanthellae do lots of photosynthesis.

Rons rock flower anemone by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr



And then there are some, and I see a lot less of these for sale, that have some reasonable color but they tend to be more just a single color, somewhat darker color and not very fluorescent. A friend collected several of these in the Keys in medium deep water (8' to 15'). I have a one (the upper left of the last photo in post #4) and it doesn't fluoresce at all.

Thanks Ron. This is immensely helpful!

 

[Pedal Dangit]

I too have kept an RBTA in my mixed reef since 2012. At one point I had over 100 in the main display. I would periodically remove them to get credit for other coral. I currently have 8 and they are getting big. Six black widow , one rainbow, one green with pink tips. I have had to move a few to keep them from stinging the other corals. I love them so I do not mind moving them if I need to.

that is very nice! Do you have more pics of your tank or a build thread?

 

[Pedal Dangit]

We have a tank at the shop that only has RBTAs and ~ 30 clowns. I’d say most reefers don’t get super excited about it but it is a easy way to have a tank with a ton of movement and looks really sharp. Also very easy to take care of.

Do you have any pics or links to this? How do the 30 clowns get along? how big is the tank? easy to take care of is a priority for me as well.

 

[Ryanbrs Verified Sponsor]

Do you have any pics or links to this? How do the 30 clowns get along? how big is the tank? easy to take care of is a priority for me as well.

We have a video series on the progression. Really easy, one thing I learned from this is feed a lot with an auto feeder at regular intervals, provide ample habatat and don’t change anything. Even the smallest change starts an aggression cycle. No changes, no aggression.

I say easy because chemistry is easy. Do some water changes and you are good. Auto water change and it is the easiest type of reef tank there is. I bet with a solid fuge you could even do fairly few water changes.

 

[Ardeus]

I ended up rescaping the tank to keep all the BTA's in an isolated area. At some point they looked like they wanted to take over the whole house.

They don't create an environment that is much appreciated by fish other than clowns and banggai cardinals.

 

[Scurvy]

Looks great!

 

[Ardeus]

Thanks, it did look good. It doesn't look so good now.

 

[John3]

I’m in the same boat. I bought a beautiful RBTA and got it to attach to a smaller rock which I strategically placed. All was good for 6 months and then it split.....

I now have both in a basket because I really have no good room to let one roam. I’m totally perplexed. I stare at the tank like I’m playing chess trying to come up with a spot/way to keep one. I’m about to give up and sell them.

I told my wife “we’re gonna need a bigger tank”