Reef nutrition

Chosing the right anemone

(summary of all this is below so you don't have to red through it all if you don't want to...) So, as I've said a lot, I'm going to be taking down my 14g, cleaning it out, and setting it up again so I cant start new (all due to stupid, dumb hair algae!) Anyways, I'm going to be upgrading the lights in the aquarium to 72w PC which will be about 5w per gallon of light. I do want to keep an anemone in the tank, and I want to explore every single one of my options before I make a decision. I want my tanks to be different, so since I have RBTA and GBTA in my 34, I don't want to keep any type of Bubble-Tipped anemone. The next thing I was thinking about is a LTA, however the tentacles are a lot like the long tentacles of my roses in my 34g, so I'm not to crazy about getting an LTA. However, I really want to try a carpet anemone, but I've heard they are hard. Is it possible I could keep one (no other corals, just the single carpet and a clown or two) with the 72w PC that I'll be upgrading to? I'll probably have one 36w 50/50 bulb and one 36w 10,000k daylight. The next anemone I'd like to try is a Retteri, but I hear those are very hard. What would be the minimum lighting it could have in a 14g? I may upgrade the lights to MH (right now I'm trying to convince my mom to let my buy some.) What other anemones that are unlike LTA or RBTA/BTA can you guys suggest for the lighting I'll have (54w 10,000k Daylight & 18w Blue Actinics) and what anemones could you suggest if I decided to get MH?

SUMMARY: When I re-set up my 14g, I'm going to upgrade the light with 1x 36w PC 10,000k Daylight bulb and 1x 36w PC 50/50 bulb. I want to keep one anemone in the tank with no corals or anything else with it. Just the anemone and one or two clowns. I don't want RBTA, GBTA, or an LTA... Here's the ones I want...

1. Carpet (blue, purple, or green)
2. Retteri

I know they require lots of light and care, but which would be easier and what is the easier one's minimum lighting requirements?
What other anemones that are unlike LTA or RBTA/BTA can you guys suggest for the lighting I'll have (54w 10,000k Daylight & 18w Blue Actinics) and what anemones could you suggest if I decided to get MH?
 
Ritteri are they hardest to keep, even public aquariums have trouble with them. Carpets are right behind them, and they eat a lot of fish (very strong sting). Neither are "easier" and a 14g isn't really suitable for either. The collection of carpets is harming the wild populations from what reports I have seen. You could be getting a 500-100 year old animal that you'll kill in short order. Carpets are slow growers both in captivity and in the wild.

5watts a gallon is meaningless around these here parts.
 
As mentioned 14g is quite the challenge to keep stable, you had hair algae problems before, simply breaking it down and setting it back up is no guarantee you'll be algae free again.

My advice, don't put in any anemones into that tank, make it a softy tank, maybe some frog spawn or hammer corals, if you MUST have a clownfish they will happily host some of your corals most likely.

If you MUST have an anemone, take one from the other tanks and put it in there. IMO I can not stress enough how you should not keep either of those two anemone in a 14g tank. I won't even entertain the idea of letting you know which is easier.
 
Matthew, simply stated ... no matter how much you might want to do it, and even if you do hear from someone who says "sure, it can be done!", all our advice is ... don't do it. There are so many things that can go wrong that aside from the #1 issue of putting an animal in a space that is not intended for it, you'll end up tossing a lot of your time and money away. I know this may feel discouraging, but that 14 gallon is just not made for anemones.
 
Gomer said:
Actually, his sig isn't an advertisement ;)

No, its worse IMO ....some one trying to sell web traffic of people clicking on a link (not Matt, the actual website owner) :D
 
badbread said:
Don't carpet anemone's get as big if not bigger than humans?

Yes, really old ones can be very large, but I don't think the size of a human (but I could be wrong).
 
Oh ok... I missed that part! :)
If I upgraded the pump to a 300GPH and since I'll upgrade the lights to 72w do you think I could even keep a rose? If that is a definite no then I guess I could get a large torch coral.
 
Get a large Euphylia sp. and overpopulate the rest of the tank with various colored mushrooms. That'll be plenty for your desired clownfish to have fun in.
 
Euphyllia said:
Oh ok... I missed that part! :)
If I upgraded the pump to a 300GPH and since I'll upgrade the lights to 72w do you think I could even keep a rose? If that is a definite no then I guess I could get a large torch coral.

I second Phish's recommendation for a large Euphyllid -these can be quite impressive if the tank is set up correctly.
 
sfsuphysics said:
fingerwrinkles said:
I know this may feel discouraging, but that 14 gallon is just not made for anemones.

In case you forgot, or glanced over without reading.


I disagree with both posters above this post and FULLY agree with Robin in the above quote.
 
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