Which aquarium equipment
- Thread starter Clownface
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BeejReef
2500 Club Member
Great advise all around.
It's been alluded to, but I'll just say it plainly. Even once you get your equipment sorted and tank cycled, you're very unlikely to be successful with an anenome straight out of the gate. Conventional wisdom is 6 months to a year. I'm sure very experienced peeps can do better. I tried at seven months and killed the poor creature.
A clown/nem tank also has unique demands. If your goal is a nem dominant tank, you'll need to pay extra attention to your lighting and your flow. They have a habit of being blenderized by powerheads. So, that would be my equipment tip. Start with powerheads that can fit anenome guards from the beginning. See what kind of flow you can get with them, and keep a few soft flowy corals or lps for the better part of a year before adding a nem. If you want to go nem only, u can probably trade your small colonies in on one and won't have to stare at an empty tank.
Clowns are stupid and will host a plunger if you drop one in there.. lol.. they'll be fine til your tank is ready
It's been alluded to, but I'll just say it plainly. Even once you get your equipment sorted and tank cycled, you're very unlikely to be successful with an anenome straight out of the gate. Conventional wisdom is 6 months to a year. I'm sure very experienced peeps can do better. I tried at seven months and killed the poor creature.
A clown/nem tank also has unique demands. If your goal is a nem dominant tank, you'll need to pay extra attention to your lighting and your flow. They have a habit of being blenderized by powerheads. So, that would be my equipment tip. Start with powerheads that can fit anenome guards from the beginning. See what kind of flow you can get with them, and keep a few soft flowy corals or lps for the better part of a year before adding a nem. If you want to go nem only, u can probably trade your small colonies in on one and won't have to stare at an empty tank.
Clowns are stupid and will host a plunger if you drop one in there.. lol.. they'll be fine til your tank is ready
Clownface
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WELCOME!
Everyone will have a different approach.
You will need to cycle your tank first....
Get your tank and.....
If you are not going sump and you are using the canister filter from your freshwater tank you will want to add a heater a lot of live rock and sand to help with filtration. The usual amount would be 1# rock per gallon of water. Then about the same for sand or until its about 2"-3" deep. The canister filter should be able to turn over your tank 4-6 times. So if your tank is a 20 gal your filter should push 80-120 gph. Also remember that when a canister filter says it pushes 300gph you have to cut it in half because of all the media in the filter. Doing a saltwater tank on a canister filter is a different monster. Eventually you will want to add a HOB skimmer and HOB refuge.
Now fill your tank with rock sand and water and start your filter and heater. Many people start a tank cycle in different ways. The main thing is dont add any fish until your tank is cycled. Some people do but the fish will most likely die. If you haven't research tank cycling now is a good time to do that
Once your tank is cycled (usually 4-6 weeks) you can add your clowns and what's called a clean up crew. This will consist of snails and crabs possibly. Then let the clowns be in the tank for a few months before adding an anenome. Anenomes need an established tank to thrive. Yes you can add them early but if you dont know what your doing the nem will almost 100% die.
The other octopus looking things are polyps or zoathinds. Something you can add once cycled.
Hello MERKEY, Are you still here?it’s been a long time since I first joined. I’m finally gonna pursue establishing a saltwater tank. In your previous post you said:
”If you are not going sump and you are using the canister filter from your freshwater tank you will want to add a heater a lot of live rock and sand to help with filtration. The usual amount would be 1# rock per gallon of water.”
Curiously how big of rocks would you go with? My tank is
L20”x W13x H17 or approx. 20 gallons.thanks much
Last edited:
MERKEY
Cronies
Hey there!
Thats great to hear you are coming to the dark side
The rocks really depend on what you want your tank to look like. Aquascaping is actually a pretty big deal to some people. It becomes fun to pre plan what you want your rocks to look like.
Some take a card board cut out of the size of the tank and build the rocks on that first to see what it will look like...with a 20g tank you should be able to just put them in the tank before you add water and rearrange them as you like.
I always like to have an arch or cave or tunnel for fish to swim in and around.
Some times piecing together little rocks is easier to achieve this look.
