Good starter nem

[Sapper Ski]

I’ve never housed anemones before and was wondering if there were any nems that host clowns (I have 2 ocellaris) and don’t require massive lighting. I can grow GSP in the bottom 3rd of my tank with ease, but never used a par to measure my actual lighting. I would say I have moderate lighting. Lights are led beamsworks 6500k 0.50w. I currently have my blues on for 10 hours, blues and whites on for 6.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

[MSB123]

How old is the tank?
Those lights will most likely not grow any anemones.

 

[Hemmdog]

You should look into upgrading to proper lights. I think any anemone would struggle under that.

 

[Sapper Ski]

I was worried about lighting. Upgrading lighting is in my plans, but not until next year. The tank is new, about 6 months old. It cycled really quickly, took about 2 months. So I’m sitting at 4 months after the cycle. Have any suggestions on lighting? I’d like to stay away from MH and T5’s and stick with LED’s preferably.

 

[MSB123]

I was worried about lighting. Upgrading lighting is in my plans, but not until next year. The tank is new, about 6 months old. It cycled really quickly, took about 2 months. So I’m sitting at 4 months after the cycle. Have any suggestions on lighting? I’d like to stay away from MH and T5’s and stick with LED’s preferably.

6 months is generally too early for nems anyways. I would wait until the 1 year mark.
What is your budget?

 

[ccombs]

I was worried about lighting. Upgrading lighting is in my plans, but not until next year. The tank is new, about 6 months old. It cycled really quickly, took about 2 months. So I’m sitting at 4 months after the cycle. Have any suggestions on lighting? I’d like to stay away from MH and T5’s and stick with LED’s preferably.

It sounds like you are putting success and health of the animal over doing something right this instant, so that is already a great start!

I think you should look at some Kessils, Radions, or Aqua Illumination (AI) models. These are very well documented lights and very predictable and reliable.

As far as the anemone, I would wait until you are at least 6 months in (past the cycle) to add an anemone. Preferably you would wait even longer (to the year mark mentioned above). The idea here isn't that the tank does anything special, it just ensures that your tank is running stable parameters since these animals thrive on a stable environment.

Let us know more about your tank and we can start making gear recommendations.

 

[Gonebad395]

What size tank is it and I agree 6months I would hold off a bit give it to a year

 

[Hemmdog]

2 years would be even better

 

[Sapper Ski]

its a 90 gallon corner tank with a 20 gallon sump.
Reef octopus 150 skimmer
About 3,000 gph flow through the display tank between 2 circulators and the return pump
The beamsworks lighting mentioned earlier
Water parameters tested with an api base kit and other than the cycle, I’ve read 0’s across the board since I put in the protein skimmer. (I know I need more test kits and a better base kit, it’s going to be my next purchase).
I don’t use a uv sterilizer or any carbon filters, just have some chaeto in my sump and the protein skimmer. (A marineland led, no idea which model in the sump).
Livestock:
Coral beauty angelfish
2 ocellaris clowns
5 ish hairy mushrooms
Green star poly about the size of a silver dollar
Acan w/ 3 heads (recent purchase)
About 6 snails, I forget what kind, but they have the swirly shell.

If you need any more info, I’ll try to answer as best I can.

 

[LilElroyJetson]

Though probably not what you wanted to hear, the responses here are from some experienced reefers and are the best advice. I’d wait 6 months minimum and anemones need quality mid to high intensity light and a full spectrum, so in that time it would be best to research and save up for one of the lights mentioned. When you get to the point that your tank is established and you want to give it a shot, bubble tip anemones tend to be one of the more hardy anemones, but by no means is any anemone considered a hardy or beginner coral.

 

[dylana407]

First, upgrade the light. Go with Chinese blackbox if you don't want to spend too much. If you want to grow SPS and zoa fast, then you need better lighting. When can you add anemone? When your tank params are stable, and you can keep it stable. Stability is key. IMO, the cheapest and hardiest anemone is a rose BTA. There is no guarantee your clown will chose a BTA host though. Don't try a carpet until you have more experience. Buy a BTA from local reefer if you can. Here is my anemone tank under Viparspectra led. I added my first BTA after 3 months. Oh, make sure to run carbon. DM me if you need more help.

 

[Gonebad395]

Look at the hydra 52 great light kessil is also really good

 

[Jon Fishman]

I would just plan on a light as soon as possible. I agree that the black-boxes are a great bang-for-your-buck. I added my BTA at 3 weeks or so. I also have never given him food directly..... just light and flow.

 

[Jon Fishman]

On a side note, I wouldn't get too crazy attached to the idea of the clowns being hosted by the anemone just because you picked out a pretty one, and got it placed and happy etc. I have a very large Rose Bubble Tip and my clowns have never been near it..... I put an urchin the size of a baseball in my tank, and woke up in the morning to find them both rubbing all over it........

 

[Sapper Ski]

I want an anemone to have an anemone. I’d prefer to have one that is known to host clowns, but I’m not going to be upset if my clowns want nothing to do with it. I’d still like to have one.

I have to prioritize what I’m getting and other than a couple more fish, I can hold off on corals/anemones/clams until I get the right equipment to grow them.

At the moment, I’m looking into a new test kit for water parameters, then my next fish (possibly a yellow tang). At that point, I was going to start looking at nem pricing, but since I need a lighting upgrade, I’ll save for those first.

 

[Sapper Ski]

Coming up on a year since I’ve looked at getting an anemone and I feel pretty confident at this point.

I’ve upgraded my lighting to viparspectra 165w x2
My water parameters have been extremely consistent this past year.
calc - 400-440
Alk - 11
Mag - 1350
Temp - 77-78
Amm - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5-10 usually. Sometimes jumps if I feed heavily a few days (I can’t cut frozen food consistently to save my life, lol)
Phosphate - .05 - highest since I’ve started testing 6 months ago was .6 but I’ve brought that down since I started testing and dosing nopox.

I have gsp, mushrooms, acans, galaxea, monti cap, chalice, and a bird of paradise. The gsp and mushrooms have been in the tank for over a year. The acan I’ve had for 6 months and the galaxea, monti, and bird of paradise I’ve had for a month now and getting growth on all of them. Though it’s been slow for the sps so far. I’m chalking that up to acclimation at the moment.

Thoughts?

 

[SteveEreef]

It’s been a year if you still want a RBTA and are fine with the pros/cons I say go for it. It took my clowns over two years before they were hosted by the anemones.

 

[Sapper Ski]

Are RBTA’s bad about stinging corals? I’ve read mixed reviews saying they do and don’t hurt corals with their sting. I’ve heard they only sting sps. Just a lot of conflicting info on it.

I was also looking at carpet anemones, but they get HUGE. Also, rock anemones but they don’t host clowns (?).

 

[SteveEreef]

My rbta definitely killed some of my corals. It’s one of the negatives of them. Some days I love the anemones other days not so much. For a new tank I am setting up I will not be putting in rbta. Rock flower anemones won’t host fish but are very pretty in my opinion. Good luck with what ever you decide

 

[Alan_J_MN]

So...

New To reefing and new tank. We only have Petco within 70 miles, so that’s where we went for first fish - a couple of clowns. They also had several condylactis nems in the same tank. My wife wanted one to see what would happen. The clowns in the tank were ignoring the nems, so I didn’t expect anything. Only $13 for the condy, so why not. After acclimation, they went into the observation tank.

10 minutes later....