29 gallon anemone tank [More pictures of 29 gallon anemone tank]

Setup

Tank
29 gallon All Glass Aquarium setup during February of 2000. The tank is drilled with a bulkhead on the left side that gravity feeds into my 37 gallon reef. I used to have my mantis shrimp in here, but after watching it break a thermometer in this tank, I moved it to a dedicated 20 gallon acrylic tank. Prior to being a mantis tank, this tank was used as a refugium/ macro algae growout tank. I had very slow growth rates with the algae, and my long tentacle/sebae anemone was getting to big, so I set up this tank. I have Caulerpa Racemosa and bubble Caulerpa in the tank currently, and will see how it does with the increased lighting.

Filtration
Aqua C Remora Pro protein skimmer. I added this skimmer July 21 and removed the BakPak II from the 37 gallon reef tank to make more room. The BakPak II was underpowered for the water volume of the two tanks. Live rock and plenum from 37 gallon tank still contributes to filtration of this tank. Aside from the Remora Pro, the 29 gallon tank also has a 5" sand bed and about 10 pounds of live rock, most of which is one big piece under the long tentacle/sebae anemone. Some nutrient export takes place when Caulerpa racemosa algae is pruned monthly. I plan to try a faster growing variety of Caulerpa in the future to see if I can increase pruning. Update: I have been growing bubble Caulerpa with greater success.

Substrate
6" aragonite sand (5" now after the mess the mantis shrimp made), grades #0 and #1. The life in the sand bed has decreased noticeably while the mantis was in this tank. Most likely this was from the substrate being constantly piled up, dug in and shoved around. There are still lots of bugs running around.

Circulation
Circulation is provided by the pump to this tank in the 37 gallon tank, a Maxi-Jet 1200; the output from the Rio 1400 on the Remora Pro; and a Rio 800 that switches on for one hour three times daily. The Rio 800 kicks up stuff that settles out of site in the corners of the tank underneath the anemones.

Lighting
2x55 watt power compact fluorescent - 1 6700K and 1 7100K.

Temperature
Temperature is maintained at 82 degrees.

Specific gravity
1.025

pH
8.0-8.3 last time I checked

Livestock

• Dumb, puppy-like mated pair of True Percula Clownfish
  

Invertebrates

• 8" Anemone, carpet
  
• 4" Anemone, rose
  
• 14" Anemone, sold as Sebae Anemone. May be a Long-tentacle anemone.
  

Soft Corals

• Encrusting leather? and brown zoanthid polyps
  

Maintenance

Water changes are done weekly to bi-monthly, usually 4 gallons (about 10% of actual water volume) at a time.

Algae is scraped off the glass with a razor blade once per week.

Comments

Update! July 24, 2000:
This tank is now an anemone tank. My anemones were getting to big for my smallish reef tank. I got tired of seeing withered mushroom anemones and soft corals stung from the long tentacle/sebae anemone. Moving the long tentacle/sebae anemone was an experience.