How can I convert my saltwater tank to include an anemone?

[bodie]

I have a 30 gallon tank that has been up for about 5 years without any problems. I've got Coralife 130 Watt Powercompact lights, a TRUVU Mighty Max wet/dry filter, Seaclone protein skimmer, and Aquanetics UV. The tank is home to 1 yellow tang, 2 percula clowns, 1 blue damsel, & 1 purple dottyback. At the current time it doesn't have live rock or live sand, but I will be getting 25 lbs of live rock soon. What do I need to do, besides adding live rock, to give my tank the ability to house an anemone? Also does anyone have any thoughts on what kind of anemone I could get that could serve as a host for the 2 percula clowns? I realize that my options are probabaly limited because of the size of my tank and strength of my lights.

My dream is to convert my tank to a full blown reef tank and get a better filter, protein skimmer, and live sand (right now the bottom is covered with Hawaiian puca shells), but I'm not really sure how I could do that stuff without losing my bacteria and fish. Anyway, I'd be satisfied if I could just get an anemone for my clowns.

 

[melissfish]

just watch the anemone cant get sucked up the filter, that is how i lost mine.

 

[sicklidkid]

You may wanna get some more live rock(10-15lbs) in addition to the rock you will be getting. Wit h your lighting you should e able to keep a bulb tip anemone. Also since anemones can be difficlut to keep, you may wanna get a coral that you clowns might like. Many people have taodstool leathers that their clowns like, I have a clown who hangs out in a torch coral. At first the coral used to pull in but now its used to the clown and my clown loves it!
HTH

 

[bodie]

Will a bulb tip serve as a host for perculas? I thought I read somewhere on the net that they wouldn't, but I could be mistaken. Also, do I need live sand? As I mentioned, I have hawaiian puca shells for substrate and I wasn't sure if that would work. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[lando]

Host pairing between clowns and anenomes in a home aquarium is not 100%. You can increase your chances by buying wild cought clowns and a species of anenomes know to host the species of clown in the wild. Tank raised clowns have most likely never seen an anenome before and have never had to rely on one for protection. I have a rose BTA and it hosts both of my true percs. However, both my percs also seek protection in my torch coral, hammer coral, toad stool and hairy mushrooms. It is very fascinating to watch. As mentioned earlier, some clowns will take to long tenicle corals instead of anenomes. Many of these corals are much ealier to keep then anenomes are. HTH...Lando[/u]

 

[seaham358]

Anemones can be hard to keep, water quality is a must to keep them happy. I would add the LR before you get the anemone and let the tank get used to the LR for a few weeks before you get the anemone. If there is any die off on the LR you may have a cycle and this could be harmful to the amemone. read up because as you already know clowns will not host with just any anemone. I'll look for a web site I had saved that was great for telling us what clown likes what anemone.
Water quality, how is it on a regular basis?

 

[bodie]

I was definitely planning on stocking the tank with LR for a month or so before I put any kind of invertebrates into the tank. My water quality has been pretty stable and my only concern is that my nitrates can jump up a little bit every once in a while and I know most inverts won't be happy about that. I'm actually starting to rethink the idea of putting an anemone into the tank because of the feedback that I've been getting on this forum as well as books that I've been reading. It sounds like they're pretty difficult to keep. I'll definitely have to do more research on the subject. I appreciate your input seaham358, if you can find the website you're thinking of I'd love to see it. Even if I don't end up going with the anemone I would still love to read up more on them. lando mentioned other inverts such as the torch coral, hammer coral, toad stool, and hairy mushrooms. Does anyone know which of these are easiest to keep? I'll also have to read up more on these inverts.

 

[sicklidkid]

I would say the easiest to keep are probably the toad and the hairy mushrooms, however my clown prefers my torch over my toad. I believe that the torch is harder but i think it's a lot easier than an anemone.
HTH

 

[seaham358]

bodie, do a search on google on anemone compatibility and you'll get some hits. Here is on site from there. Also adding a refugium to your tank will help keep the water stable so you may be able to get an anemone in the future.
http://www.bestfish.com/tips/032698.html

 

[bodie]

Thanks seaham358! I appreciate the link. I wanted to set up a refugium, but I'm not sure where I could put it. Unfortunately, I've been using a truvu mighty max wet/dry for the last 10 years and it hangs on the back of my tank and practically takes up all the space. I was going to ask for advice in order to see if there was somewhere else or some other way that I could create a refugium. I guess that's a question for another thread.

 

[sicklidkid]

Well once you get enough LR in there you shouldnt really need any other filters. Just powerheads to move the water around. So that could open up some space. I am not familiar with your filter but some people are able to convert their HOB filters in refugiums.
HTH