Oh, no, not boasting.. needing help!!!
A friend of my parent's decided to go from salt to fresh because they did not have the time or funding to keep up a saltwater tank. Well, I happen to have plenty of time and love for saltwater tanks and just not that much money. So they gave all their stuff which was 13 anemones, 1 snowflake moray eel, about 80lbs of live rock, and 1 tiny hermit crab to me weeks before Christmas. I already had a terrific base of live rock, 2 clowns, 1 damsel, 2 huge engineer gobies, 1 large hermit crab, 2 feather dusters, sponges of sorts, and snails. I do not have adequate lighting I've learned from my research and need someone's advice on how to get adequate lighting without breaking the bank. I have a standard tank 40 gal tall I guess it's called. The bulb is actinic blue 10k 48" single flourescent. I have a decent protien skimmer, power head, canister filter as additional filtering and frequent cleanings (twice monthly) and water changes (weekly). I have had these creatures, the new ones, for a month now and they have only improved in health if you can believe it (they had these creatures 3 years before I received them and when I received them they were sunken into rocks and were dark and sickly looking at best). I read that you can make up for inadequate lighting by feeding tiny portions of shrimp to your anemones each day but not so much that it dirties your tank. The hermit crabs appear to be taking care of the anemones while the clown fish help the engineer gobies build crushed coral mounds all over the tank. The snowflake eel just eats hand-fed shrimp when he's hungry and hides the rest of the time. So to all you saltwater experts, what am I doing wrong so that I don't lose what I've invested so much time, love, and money into? And, are these bad anemones to have? Just give it to me straight please.. don't worry if you think you are going to hurt my feelings, i need the help.. many thanks!!!