keeping anenome

[Christian0505]

Dear Reef 2 Reef community,

I currently own a mixed reef, in which i do not dare to add an anemone. I still have a freshwater tank running, which is a 60x30x36 cm tank and i have a spare Kessil A160 tuna blue and some spare powersheads + cannister filter which runs the current freshwater tank. I was wondering If it is possible to convert this to a dedicated clown fish tank, with one pair of clownfish, and BTA anenome and maybe some rock flower anenomes.
Trouble some points for me.

- tank does not have an auto topoff, would this be recommended?
- tank does not have a skimmer, is this needed to keep just anenomes? Or would doing weekly water changes be enough?
- Do anenomes consumes Kh and such as regular corals? Or do they survive based on food, just like fish? As i understand the clown fish normally bring food to the anenome in trade for it's protection?

Kind regards,
Christian

 

[James M]

tank does not have an auto topoff, would this be recommended?
I would recommend you get one as keeping salinity stable is very important and saves time

- tank does not have a skimmer, is this needed to keep just anenomes? Or would doing weekly water changes be enough?
Water changes is definitely enough for a nem only tank

- Do anenomes consumes Kh and such as regular corals? Or do they survive based on food, just like fish? As i understand the clown fish normally bring food to the anenome in trade for it's protection?
They don’t depend on kh like a lps coral would but it does affect them. They survive off light and clownfish do bring food into th anemone sometimes.

In my experience a anemone only tank is very easy to keep as long as you provide the correct environment for them

 

[Christian0505]

What would you describe as a correct environment?

 

[James M]

What would you describe as a correct environment?

A mature tank with stable parameters and strong lighting

 

[BlennyTime]

Yeah, it should be easy to keep, but would recommend an ATO. You can build one very inexpensively. I used a dosing pump and float switch on one of my tanks for that, cost about $30.

Skimmer shouldn't be necessary if you keep up with water changes, but should still test.

 

[Christian0505]

A mature tank with stable parameters and strong lighting

Would you consider a Kessil a160 tuna blue strong enough? Especially since it's quite a shallow tank.

I have a piece of rock that i can easily pull for my mixed reef which has been running for years. Will probably ask my friend who's tank has been running for years as well if he has some spare rocks. That would make it a mature system right away correct?

 

[chizerbunoi]

The key is to keep everything stable. If you understand the chemistry of reefing then you should be fine. If it is an anemone only tank, then calcium and alkalinity dosing is not as important as long as your water changes can keep up with maintaining the proper levels. But to keep other parameters like nitrate, phosphate in check you need a good means of export.

My tank is mature and rock is over a decade old. I only use a hang on protein skimmer and run it whenever the tank has some trouble. This is maybe hooked up once every 6 months? But I have a very large bioload.

Apart from that I do weekly water changes. Water evaporation top off is manual but I do it daily as that keeps it stable. If I went on vacation then I would need a auto top off. Waiting until the end of the week to top off is too stressful for the anemones.I also feed once every 3-4 days to fish.

what were you looking to keep? That tank size would be small so you are limited in fish choices.

 

[Christian0505]

I would want to keep a very low bioload. Only a pair of clown fish and maybe some hermit crabs of they are compatible with the anemones.

 

[James M]

Would you consider a Kessil a160 tuna blue strong enough? Especially since it's quite a shallow tank.

I have a piece of rock that i can easily pull for my mixed reef which has been running for years. Will probably ask my friend who's tank has been running for years as well if he has some spare rocks. That would make it a mature system right away correct?

The light will be good on a shallow tank. You can pull rock from a established system but I would still give the tank a month or two to become stable.