Reef nutrition

patrickb's Anemone Propogation Tank

Well I'm FINALLY getting around to doing a tank blog. Instead of doing a blog for my main display tank, I thought it might be more interesting to do it on the small, 20 gallon tank that I have right next to and plumbed into the display tank. The tank has been up and running for about 2 weeks now. Here's what it the setup currently looks like:



I got the tank and stand about 6 months ago after it was raffled off at a BAR meeting. I didn't win the raffle, Dudley did, but he was willing to part ways with it after I promised him my first born. The tank is a 20 gallon square acrylic tank made Kritter. The stand is made super solid and is made out of plywood and coated with a black lacquer paint. Pretty nice.

As a side note, it took me about 5 months to "earn" this tank from my wife. I got married in September and, as motivation for me losing weight for the wedding, my wife "allowed" me to buy a second fish tank if I ran a 1/2 marathon. I signed up for the SF 1/2 Marathon and 5 months later was at the starting line getting ready to run my race. Unfortunately, I was experiencing food poisoning and feeling like total ass due to eating chicken at a BBQ the night before (I knew I should have just stayed with eating pasta!). Anyways, I ran the half marathon but it took me 1.5 hours longer than I had planned due to my running in and out of bathrooms every mile or so. As motivation, I just thought about fishies and anemones to keep me going.
San_Francisco_Marathon.jpg


OK enough about that. Anyways, as I said before, the tank is plumbed into the main tank and therefore doesnt have any dedicated skimmers. Plumped underneath the anemone tank is a 10 gallon square plastic trash can that I filled with about 60lbs of size 0 aragonite sand.



The trash can doesnt have light and is simply meant as place where more biological filtration and where anerobic bacteria could grow thereby helping to reduce nitrates.

The tank is lit by a 21watt Nanocustoms Cree LED light (12000K). The light is connected to a 16 foot paper latern power cord that is hung from the ceiling over the tank



41wfqMjmqFL._SS500_.jpg




The plan for the tank is to raise and propagate anemones. That is why its completely empty except for a bunch of PVC piping. The idea is for the anemones to attach themselves to the pvc piping, thereby making it easier to remove them in order to clean the tank and to cut them in half with scissors. Those of you who have tried removing anemones from your tank know how hard they are to get off rocks--especially rocks with holes and crevices. This hopefully will make all of that easier.



Well, that about sums up the tank. Let me know what you think and what improvements you would make.
Patrick
 
Many anem tank's use marine carpet in them... but then you can't see into the tank. The carpet really makes it easy to remove them though.

Looking good, can't wait to see it in action. I like the story behind it as well, makes the tank a little more special to you :D
 
The Importance of Redundancies

Last week I learned a lesson that cost me about $100 and shocked the shitake mushroom out of me. I was messing with the height of the bulb over the tank when all of a sudden the screw that held up the cord fell out of the ceiling and everything fell into the tank. I immediately pulled the bulb out of the water and got a nasty little shock doing that. The bulb started making a clicking sound (the ballast I presume) and it wouldn't turn on anymore. I'd been using that bulb for less than a week. I ordered a new bulb and put a second more secure hook into the ceiling in case to prevent this from happening again

 
First Test Anemone

My long term plan is to propagate high end and rare bubble tip anemones. Like the flame tip rose (or candy corn anemone):
2360727flamebubble.jpg




the lemon drop anemone
a_lemondrop_bubble_tip_anem.jpg

ae89ffa1.jpg


and the colorado sunburst anemone


I plan on growing the anemones really big by feeding them tons of shrimp, clams, mussels and scallops. Then simply cutting them in half using a pair of scissor and letting them heal and then repeating the process. Jason Wong (eight) explained the process really nicely in an article in Reef Hobbyist Magazine last year:
http://www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com/archives/vol_4/issue14/pages/16.htm

Anyways, before starting out with super rare and expensive anemones like the ones above, I thought I would start with what I think is one of the hardiest and easiest anemones to propagate: the Dolphin Pet Village Purple with Neon Green Tips Anemone. Here is what the little guy looks like in my tank:
 
iCon said:
Instead of relying on a hook in the ceiling - Why not just use conduit over your tank or some other fixture? I have an upside down L shape piece of conduit with track lighting mounted to it. No more risk of lights dropping into your tank ... Scary :O

Also, just a thought - IME, those bulbs aren't enough to keep nems happy, even if they're just in there for propping... I have 3 over my prop/nem tank and I can definitely tell that they're not happy due to light. =

Odd, Jake had a Sunburst doing great in his under a single one (5g tank IIRC) for quite a while until he changed the set-up around.
 
iCon--I tried using some other fixtures but they just didnt seem to work right or look good. I tried the clamp light with the flexible gooseneck but the bulb was too heavy causing it to sag too much
143561-SM2.jpg


I wanted to use a floor lamp with a flexible gooseneck but there wasnt enough room for the stand behind or next to the tank:
Henrick+One+Light+Gooseneck+Floor+Lamp+in+Steel+and+Black.jpg


I was going use a simple desk lamp but again the bulb would have been too heavy and would have caused the lamp to easily tip over into the tank (I didnt want to glue the lamp down)
goodneck_table_top.jpg


What kind of fixture are you thinking of? Do you have pics of what you're talking about? I'm not a big fan of hanging it up there was well,

As for the strength of the bulb, I think it will be adequate. I've seen frag tanks about the size of mine and the problem was the opposite--that the bulbs were too intense causing the sps in the tank to bleach. I guess we'll see either way with the purple and green anemone I have in there now.
 
GreshamH said:
iCon said:
Instead of relying on a hook in the ceiling - Why not just use conduit over your tank or some other fixture? I have an upside down L shape piece of conduit with track lighting mounted to it. No more risk of lights dropping into your tank ... Scary :O

Also, just a thought - IME, those bulbs aren't enough to keep nems happy, even if they're just in there for propping... I have 3 over my prop/nem tank and I can definitely tell that they're not happy due to light. =

Odd, Jake had a Sunburst doing great in his under a single one (5g tank IIRC) for quite a while until he changed the set-up around.


Probably different optics? I'm using 60*, 5-6" above the surface of the water. Almost all of my nems are reaching for light. I used to have a 150w radium over it and they were plenty happy. Leads me to think LED's aren't all they're cracked up to be...yet.

Oh and my nems are everywhere from mid tank level, about 10" beneath the surface to within 3" of the surface.
 
Patrick... I haven't found a lighting specific gooseneck that can handle them, but, mic stand goosenecks most likely can handle them. I keep meaning to DIY one, meh, someday.
 
Instead of relying on a hook in the ceiling - Why not just use some other fixture? I have an upside down L shape piece of conduit with track lighting mounted to it. No more risk of lights dropping into your tank ... Scary :O

Also, just a thought - IME, those bulbs aren't enough to keep nems happy, even if they're just in there for propping... I have 3 over my prop/nem tank and I can definitely tell that they're not happy due to light. =
 
iCon. Absolutely! Literally and figuratively for sure. Trying to find one is really tough though. They're so rare and they get sold so quickly.

I'm using 40 degree optics on my LED bulb so the focused light should be a lot more intense than 60 degree (33% more??).

I got a "flame" anemone from reefhotspot.com but it was pretty disappointing--the tips were not nearly as yellow as I thought:
brose0233842.jpg

http://www.reefhotspot.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=51_63&products_id=4496

I'm more interested in getting this anemone from them when it become available:
kbubbletips23423.jpg

http://www.reefhotspot.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=51_63&products_id=5506
 
The only way to get a true flame is to get it from a Co dealer, like Gonzo or Reef Koi. I don't trust others and I know theirs are the real deal. CO has a ton of them, they need to learn to share more :lol:
 
GreshamH said:
The only way to get a true flame is to get it from a Co dealer, like Gonzo or Reef Koi. I don't trust others and I know theirs are the real deal. CO has a ton of them, they need to learn to share more :lol:
 
If you want a cheapy rose let me know Patrick.. if anything they do kinda sorta look like those Colorado sunbursts if you blast them with enough blue light :D
 
That would be awesome Mike. I've seen your roses and they're quite nice. Are you around either tonight or tomorrow? You're so close its only 5 min to your house.
 
Cool tank idea. :)
When you have some clones of the anemones let me know. I'm planning to get a nice, small anemone (RBTA or Sunburst/Candy Corn) in a year.
 
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