Easy Keepers for a Newbie???

[Guest Canter292]

I've had my first reef tank up and running for over 7 months now.  I have a Bicolor Blenny, Coral Beauty, and several hermits and snails.  I also have a brain coral that seems to be doing well after being in my tank for about 3 months.  I purchased a carpet anenome a few days ago and it's still moving around the tank looking for a place to take up residence.  I would like to know what other anenome & corals are pretty easy keepers for a new reefer.  I don't know what to get next???  Also, do you have any advice on how to get rid of bubble algae?  Thanks.

[Guest reeffoto]

I have had good luck with emerald crabs getting rid of bubble algae.

[Sph2sail]

Before recommending stuff for your system, can you tell us more about what your system is?  gallons, equipment (skimmer?), lighting, sump (or not?), filter system?

 

What are you feeding your tank?  This is another key element to what you can keep easily.

 

thx,

s

[Guest Canter292]

I have a 75 gallon tank with an Amiracle wet/dry filter system, Top Fathom skimmer, 3 power heads, and my lighting system has 2 150 watt 10K Metal Halide bulbs and 4 actinic power compact bulbs.  I only use distilled water I buy from the store - but a got a RO/DI machince for Christmas!!  Thanks for the help.

[Guest Canter292]

Oh I forgot, I feed Formula One frozen food.

[Guest x2minusblndfold]

Damsels are easy to care for also

[Aquariareview]

Zoos are a nice starter coral as are star polyps, most leather corals and mushrooms.

[Sph2sail]

I have a 75 gallon tank with an Amiracle wet/dry filter system, Top Fathom skimmer, 3 power heads, and my lighting system has 2 150 watt 10K Metal Halide bulbs and 4 actinic power compact bulbs.  I only use distilled water I buy from the store - but a got a RO/DI machince for Christmas!!  Thanks for the help.

Do you have any live rock and live sand in this system?

 

As for Damsels, be careful.  They are strong territorial animals so they can be quite aggressive w/other fish in the tank.

 

s

[Guest Canter292]

I have live sand and about 70 lbs of Fiji rock.  My Carpet Anenome doesn't seem to be doing well today.  It looks like it's sitting upside down and not moving.  Is it normal for them to do that at all?

[pez]

Carpet anemones are one of the more, if not the most, difficult anemones to keep alive.  You should check out Phil Henderson's article on anemones.

 

http://fins.actwin.com/articles/choosinganemone.php

 

You have a fair amount of light for the anemone, but you should probably have at least dual 250's to keep it happy.  It will also need to fed often - at least 2-3 times per week.  I have heard of anemones "spitting up their insides" as a normal acclimation process - is that what it looks like?  Where did you get the anemone?  How deep is your sand?

 

FWIW, you don't need the W/D with your LR and LS.

 

-Tom

[Guest Canter292]

It kinda looks like he flipped over.  The part that should be facing the light is face down in the sand.  I got the carpet from Roozens Nursery.  I told them I wanted something that was easy to care for and I told them the lighting I had.  I sure hope the poor thing doesn't die because it doesn't have enough light.  My sand bed is not very deep at all.  Why don't I need a wet/dry filter?  What should I have in place of it?  Thanks for your help.

[Sph2sail]

A system running a deep sand bed (4-6" in a 24" high tank) plus live rock and a protein skimmer is a fully natural system that will enable full processing of the nitrogen cycle.

 

A wet/dry system creates an artificial home for nitrifying bacteria, but does not enable a way to process Nitrates.  The LR/DSB systems do.  When running a w/d in addition to lr/dsb, the w/d competes w/the lr/dsb and essentially enables overcreation of nitrates in the system.  Eventually, you will have a high concentration of nitrates, which will start to hurt your animals.

 

Slowly removing the w/d is a good idea (e.g., remove some of the bioballs a bit at a time), then eventually just remove the w/d from the system.  You should see (if you have enough LR and a DSB) that there are still all zeros in your water testing for amm/nitrite/nitrate.

 

s

[michaelg]

On your feeding regime- mix it up some.  There are great dried foods, and for the fish you have, you need some veggies mixed into the diet.  See our pinned discussion on creating your own custom blend of food- it really isn't difficult (though messy and smelly) and is far more economical for the quality of food you can make.  

 

Michael