Gig ‘ems Anemone Dedicated Tank

[gig 'em]

I’ve been working on a species dedicated tank/frag tank system for a while now and I thought it would be a good time to share it. I have a custom built 50 gallon rimless that I have H. magnifica anemones in plumbed in with a 50 gallon frag tank and 20 gallon sump.

Magnifica anemones have always been my favorite, but it was difficult having them in my DT since they grow so large and have a powerful sting, devastating nearby Acro colonies. I devised to have a dedicated tank just for the anemones where they can grow and move around with no consequences. I needed more room for SPS frags too, so it seemed like a good fit to have them separated in two tanks plumbed together.

Eventually I would like to get a S. gigantea in my anemone tank too, but for now I have three magnificas in there. One mag I’ve had for a while, and two are new additions I recently acclimated.

The mag on the left has the most amazing coloration, I wish it was more visible. Here’s a picture of its brightly colored foot that you can’t see at the moment. I had to share this picture of it’s foot during acclimation to demonstrate what I mean. Hopefully one day it will extend higher out so its foot is more visible.

The small mag on the right came in a little washed out, but has a gorgeous purple base and the potential for green tentacles. I’m hoping it will gain some attractive colors in the tentacles over time.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Beautiful anemones!

 

[gig 'em]

Beautiful anemones!

Thanks!

 

[mimiboy]

it's very beautiful.just wanna know if you put it in a DT and treated it with cipro before putting into your display tank?

 

[mimiboy]

very beautiful anemones!amazing.H.MEG is my favorite anemone too.and I wanna know if you ever put it in a quarantine tank and treat it with cripo ?

 

[gig 'em]

very beautiful anemones!amazing.H.MEG is my favorite anemone too.and I wanna know if you ever put it in a quarantine tank and treat it with cripo ?

Thank you! I always treat and QT my mags when they come in. It's not worth the risk IMO, even when they appear to be happy and healthy. I've had mags look healthy when they come in and then decline a week later without treatment. When we're dealing with anemones with very slow reproduction, it's just not worth the gamble to go untreated.

 

[kinetic]

So amazing @gig 'em! Following along =)

 

[davocean]

Nice looking mags!

 

[Hot2na]

LIGHTING ??? great tank , BTW....

 

[gig 'em]

Lighting over the anemone tank is an Orphek Atlantik V4 inside a V1 body. I upgraded my original V1 earlier this year. I like the results so far, the anemones look great under it. Although when I initially set it up over clean white sand it looked like the rainbow bridge from Asgard with all the different colors dancing around [emoji38]

 

[Reefpuck]

Cool looking tank! This means you need a pair of black storm clownfish to compliment them nice anemones.

 

[gig 'em]

Cool looking tank! This means you need a pair of black storm clownfish to compliment them nice anemones.

Haha I steady have a pair of skunk clowns in there, just buried in tentacles.

 

[cracker]

What are you using for dip?

 

[gig 'em]

What are you using for dip?

I don’t dip anemones, I’ve never seen any parasites come in on an anemone. I’m not aware of any parasites for anemones to be honest. I do treat them with antibiotics though. We’re not completely certain whether these anemones come in with bacterial infections or if antibiotics just keep at bay bacterial blooms during acclimation, but a lot of people have had success with acclimating these larger anemones with antibiotics to improve survival rates. I’ve tried several antibiotics, but ciprofloxacin has had the best rate of success for me.

 

[MarinaP]

Beautiful setup!

 

[cracker]

Thank you! I always treat and QT my mags when they come in. It's not worth the risk IMO, even when they appear to be happy and healthy. I've had mags look healthy when they come in and then decline a week later without treatment. When we're dealing with anemones with very slow reproduction, it's just not worth the gamble to go untreated.

Ok what do You "treat" these mags with ?

 

[kinetic]

Ok what do You "treat" these mags with ?

Pretty sure he does the usual cipro or other anti-biotic treatment that you can find threads on:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-i-cipro.211822/

That thread spells out one of the best ways to treat new anemones that are recently collected/imported and have possible infections. I believe gig'em might use the same or slightly modified versions of that treatment.

Overall there's an observation period, though if it's bad enough you begin the cipro treatment immediately.

 

[Chasing-Coral]

This may be a dumb question but would there be an issue with keeping different kinds of anemones in a tank? For example say Magnificas and bubble tips?

 

[gig 'em]

This may be a dumb question but would there be an issue with keeping different kinds of anemones in a tank? For example say Magnificas and bubble tips?

Depends on the species, some can live together better than others. BTAs and mags have never been an issue in my experience.

 

[kinetic]

My Magnifica moved to a spot where my BTA's were thriving (I guess the spot was a good nem spot). One BTA moved right away, the other battled for weeks and ultimately almost died. It moved finally and is browned out, lost a lot of tentacles, and seems to be on the brink of disaster. It was pretty stubborn and wouldn't move. I don't think they can touch, but they can coexist. The magnifica would win every time, just depends on how badly the BTAs would want to fight.