Reef GE
Active Member
Recently I added ocellaris clowns to my DT. In a few minutes, my carpet anemone caught two of these and pulled them in. One managed to escape. The other became lunch! I wrote about this in a previous thread.
My question is this: Due to the fact that I no longer want to lose clownfish to my carpet, I have removed the anemone for now and have him in my quarantine tank. (35 gal). How effective would it be to keep my carpet in that setup on a permanent basis? No skimmer, only a hang on back filter (Seachem55) with some bio filtration inside. Glass bottom tank - no sand, gravel, etc. I also have some chaeto growing in the corner to help with nitrates, phosphates. I have no other fish in there for now, so very light bio load. I'd like to allow my clowns to grow up a bit and then reintroduce a couple of saddlebacks into the QT to see if two of them can host the anemone and remain in that set up as a permanent "nano" tank.
Carpets are difficult per textbook descriptions, but if the bioload is minimal, will I have a problem housing him in a 35 gallon set up? He is 8-10" in size.
Second question...what lighting needs are necessary in that size tank? My DT has RedSea LED90's but I have nothing other than a typical fluorescent bulb over the QT. For the moment, I'm running a cheap, low watt, LED agro-light with some red/blue/UV spectrums to give at least some spectrum.
What relatively inexpensive lighting options do I have for this tank (35.5 in length) that would be sufficiently powerful for a carpet to thrive in? Please don't give me a lecture on the fact that nothing in this hobby is inexpensive. I already know that, but due to current budget concerns, a surprisingly aggressive carpet, and the need to get acquire something quickly to compensate while I figure out what to do with him, I'm looking into "lower" budget options for lighting that could also work for the long term.
Options must be able to fit on a 35" tank.
My question is this: Due to the fact that I no longer want to lose clownfish to my carpet, I have removed the anemone for now and have him in my quarantine tank. (35 gal). How effective would it be to keep my carpet in that setup on a permanent basis? No skimmer, only a hang on back filter (Seachem55) with some bio filtration inside. Glass bottom tank - no sand, gravel, etc. I also have some chaeto growing in the corner to help with nitrates, phosphates. I have no other fish in there for now, so very light bio load. I'd like to allow my clowns to grow up a bit and then reintroduce a couple of saddlebacks into the QT to see if two of them can host the anemone and remain in that set up as a permanent "nano" tank.
Carpets are difficult per textbook descriptions, but if the bioload is minimal, will I have a problem housing him in a 35 gallon set up? He is 8-10" in size.
Second question...what lighting needs are necessary in that size tank? My DT has RedSea LED90's but I have nothing other than a typical fluorescent bulb over the QT. For the moment, I'm running a cheap, low watt, LED agro-light with some red/blue/UV spectrums to give at least some spectrum.
What relatively inexpensive lighting options do I have for this tank (35.5 in length) that would be sufficiently powerful for a carpet to thrive in? Please don't give me a lecture on the fact that nothing in this hobby is inexpensive. I already know that, but due to current budget concerns, a surprisingly aggressive carpet, and the need to get acquire something quickly to compensate while I figure out what to do with him, I'm looking into "lower" budget options for lighting that could also work for the long term.
Options must be able to fit on a 35" tank.
