Jellyfish orbital tank

[Tang23]

Hopefully there's a jelly fish keeper out there!
I just purchased a 6 gallon orbital tank, maker Jellyfish art, 15" in diameter.
They say to use distilled water. This necessary? The cycle will take many weeks anyway & I will treat with chlorine remover..
Also, looks like the bio balls I have just sit on the bottom. Is this dangerous to the jellies?
Thanks
Ed

 

[Andy Sager]

Hopefully there's a jelly fish keeper out there!
I just purchased a 6 gallon orbital tank, maker Jellyfish art, 15" in diameter.
They say to use distilled water. This necessary? The cycle will take many weeks anyway & I will treat with chlorine remover..
Also, looks like the bio balls I have just sit on the bottom. Is this dangerous to the jellies?
Thanks
Ed

To be honest, a nano tank is not a good tank for jellyfish. Just because they make it does not mean it's a good thing to use. ( I refer you to the 6' tall 8" triangular tanks that were every popular in the 80s. The only fish they were good for were plastic ones. )
Jellyfish are tough to keep even in larger tanks. They need pristine water so using distilled or RO water is necessary and you need to keep the tank clear of obstacles the jellyfish can bump into so the bioballs need to be in the filter. If the filter isn't large enough for them, that should be a clue that the design of the system is flawed.
I used to sell the Upside Down Jellyfish ( cassiopeia) and they did okay in a regular tank as they didn't swim around a lot but they were always pulsating so it wasn't like there was no motion. Their sting is very mild if you get stung but unless you have a sensitivity or really deliberately brush the tentacles, they are basically harmless. In a " regular" tank, you can have better control of the water quality if you hook it into a sump so the volume of water is high while the tank itself does not have to be bigger than a 20 gallon. They are easy to feed as they are primarily photosynthetic so lighting is the only real concern. You just have to be careful what fish you keep with them as they can be picked on by certain species.

 

[Tang23]

Andy, thank you. However, there is no outside chamber for the bio balls to your point of a flawed design. Since I need the bio balls, is it better to lay them as is or will putting them in a bag make it more of an issue with the jellies?
Thanks again.
Ed

 

[Andy Sager]

Andy, thank you. However, there is no outside chamber for the bio balls to your point of a flawed design. Since I need the bio balls, is it better to lay them as is or will putting them in a bag make it more of an issue with the jellies?
Thanks again.
Ed

As I'm not familiar with this product, I went to the Jellyfish art site and don't see a 6 gallon tank so I'm not sure what you have. I did see tanks on their site with compartments for the bio filter on some of the tanks so if you can post a pic of your setup from the top and side, that should help see if you have a full setup.

 

[Tang23]

Sir
This tank is close to cycling so I will be proceeding with Moon Jellys. In your experience, can they eat live brine shrimp from LFS or are they too big? If so, I would have to hatch my own. Also, do you know about "Instant Brine Shrimp? Ocean Nutrition makes them.
Thanks yet again.
Ed

 

[Andy Sager]

Sir
This tank is close to cycling so I will be proceeding with Moon Jellys. In your experience, can they eat live brine shrimp from LFS or are they too big? If so, I would have to hatch my own. Also, do you know about "Instant Brine Shrimp? Ocean Nutrition makes them.
Thanks yet again.
Ed

Depends on the size of the jellies. If they are small, you are better off hatching out brine shrimp nuplii. Instant Brine is just hatched and preserved artemia and not what I would use for Jellies. The problem with dead foods is that Jellyfish do not "hunt" for food but instead happen upon food so if you feed dead food that falls to the tank bottom, the jellyfish will not find them later unless they are at the bottom of the tank ( which is not where they should be) and just be decaying the water quality. If you use live, the food will be in the water column with the jellies.