anemones

[tanggirl123]

hey,
i was just wondering how long i have to wait before i can put anemones into my tank? i've had it set up for about 3 months i talked to some guy and he said like 6 at the least but will anyone do differently or do i have to wait?
~Kelly~

 

[alianated]

Ok.. heh I am gonna get SLAMMED for this.. I know it.. but hon, I have had my tank maybe 2 months longer than yours and mines a full fledge OCEAN already, lol
Here is what I did...
TESTS TESTS TESTS!!!!!!!!
Get a test kit. (Everything I am mentioning here happened in about 10 days.)
Day1:
I mixed my salt WITH my water IN my tank.
Added crushed coral, and turned on my powerheads and lights.
Day2(roughly 30 hours later):
I added 25 LBs Live Rock (50 gallon tank)
Day3: I added 8 more LBs live rock. And at the suggestion of a friend witha tank who claimed he could 'power cycle' a tank, I added 6 damsels. (Think about this, they are hard to catch later, so if you dont mind them, do it, if you wanna not have any damsels, might need another way to speed the cycle)
Day4: Tested my water, and had both ammonia and Nitrites at unhealthy, but not dramatic levels.
Day 5 & 6: Left tank as is and left damsels in there. Still no loss of life yet.
Day 7: Tested water, ammonia is in safe levels and nitrites are borderlining (hate judging the color on those kits!!)
Day 8: Still no loss of life, im convinced at this point that I could keep Damsels in a toilet if I provided salt and a live rock. - added 10 more LBs of Live rock
Day 9 - 10: sat on tank.. (not literally) just watching the tank do its thing, started noticing little feather dusters in the rock and a sponge growing out of it)
Day 11: Tested water, ammonia completely gone and Nitrites now only ONE level above safe on the color card. Nitrates are up tho.
Day 12: PAYDAY.. who could resist.... I bought 3 fire fish and put them in. (They were at ***** and I figured they would die either way, and had better chances in my tank) added 10 Lbs live rock.
Day 13: A damsel died, and I thought maybe things were gonna crash. Tested water.. to my surprise.. Nitrites and Ammonia levels fine. Nitrates are one color above 0. At this point I posted a message here asking what this all meant, and BurnNSpy (you da man burn!!) advised the tank had cycled and I should do a 50% water change. - done -
day 14 - 15: Left it all alone a couple days for good measure. Tests now showing good water conditions.. apparently Burn was right
Day 16: Added Star Polyps and a scooter blen.
The rest is history.. the polyps, damsels, firefish, and blennie are all alive. I have lost a couple mushrooms along the way and 2 leathers. But I have bubble corals, polyps, frogspawns, crabs, snails, starfish, etc all in the tank. My Xenia are already splitting into more and thriving. My water conditions are great. I seem to be doing better on the whole with the LESS HARDY anemones and fish than I am with the easy ones.. GO figure.
But my point would be this.. if your water reads fine, then you should be able to add something. I have heard that if your tank cycles fast like mine did, its not as stable on a whole. But a cycle is a cycle, and if your tank has cycled fast, well, waiting 6 months isnt going to make it any safer.. it still was cycled two weeks into it. Im beginning to believe that having a saltwater tank is NOT about hard or easy, its about commitment. If you are really willing to be anal (excuse the french) about water changes, testing water, spending the money, etc.. you should be fine. You hear lots of stories about crashes, but you have to figure most people arent about to say, "My tank crashed and by the way I hadnt changed the water in months because I was busy playing tennis" Instead you will hear, "My tank crashed out of the blue!!"
Personally, I would test your tank and if readings are fine (or close to fine) I would put a couple damsels in there.

 

[playtime]

Personally, I would wait 6. When I first set up my tank, after the cycle, I added an anenome. He didn't last long and neither did the others that I added as each one died. It has been almost a year and I have gotten better lighting and a lot more experienced and I have 1 anenome that is doing great. What type were you thinking of getting?
Playtime

 

[alianated]

Playtime.. here is a perfect example..
If you put anemones in your tank, and they died alot, you should have had something in your tests that would indicate why.
You mention things dying, but you dont mention test results.
If you test your water, and you have HIGH HIGH amonnia, or NITRITES, then YES.. you should wait, but once again.. good water, is good water.. cycled is cycled.
If I had noticed that my first polyps or damsels had died, then I would need to test the heck outta my tank and see what happened.
From the shound of things, you had an anemone, it died, you didnt ask why, and kept adding others that died also. I can GUARENTEE if you had posted here that you had an anemone and it died should you buy more??? Everyone would have IMMEDIATELY posted:
"What are the water parameters?"
See the link here?

 

[playtime]

Firstly, like I said, my tank was newly cycled. I am sure I didn't have adiquate lighting. My water has always tested great except when I had a bad test kit a few months ago. I fed them with microvert weekly, and frozen shrimp biweekly alternating. They usually did fine for a while then died. Even in my reef with the better lighting. No, I didn't ask too many questions because I was new to the hobby and figured it was lack of experience hense waiting at least 6 months. Some of them I didn't give the chance to completly die to avoid funking up my tank. I did have a green long tenical fall apart once. YUK!!! Of coarse, now that I found the board, I am far better off and I know it. I am appreciative of all opinions and take what I need from each. My biggest reason for telling tanggirl to wait was experience. 6 months should give her enough time to read and really establish her tank. Of coarse, these are just my opinions.
Playtime

 

[alianated]

I agree that one should read, but reading isnt experience. Like I said, a cycle is a cycle. Waiting 6 months wont make a tank re-crash, and re cycle all on its own. Once the balance has been made, its been made.
Good point on the lighting tho, cause if your tank was great on the readings, that could have been it. But then.. on that note, had you had the right lighting from the start, maybe you would never have lost an anemone, and if that was the case..
You would be agreeing with me right now saying you added anemones from the start and everything went fine.

(See my point?)

 

[tanggirl123]

thanks hehe my tank did actually cycle like yours alianated, but i tried to just add rock at fisrt after like 2 weeks i added 4 damsels and one died he is missed!! jk
but i want to get one because they were only like 10 dollars so i might just do it for the hell of it but i will wait and see if anyone else will mention anything but thanks to all ya'll
~kelly~

 

[skimmer768]

Tanggirl, I would go for it. I agree with alienated. A cycle is a cycle and I have had no problems. stay with the checks and changes and you will be fine. S

 

[playtime]

Alienated,
you are right. A cycle is a cycle. and No reading isn't experience but experience is experience. for example, how to feed, what to feed, feeling compfortable with water changes and testing. things of that sort. This board is also to get other's experiences that was my purpose. My anenome's did fine for a while too. does anyone know the life expectancy in captivity for anenome's? Maybe thats it. What about stress or illness. Many things could play a factor in reasons for my dying anenome's. If Tanggirl wants one by all means she should have one. Keep in mind that my opinions were from my own experiences and thats all.
Anenomes are great and I got many compliments when they were in my tank. I know you will enjoy yours Tanggirl. Good luck and have fun....
Playtime

 

[fishfreek]

tanggirl, just curious, how much lighting and what type do you have in your tank?

 

[oceanblue]

I'm agreed with both of them, its all about experience and commitment. I remember when I grabbed the "taboo" marine wheel and started up my first marine tank, I had run freshwater for years, and thought I had enough of a handle on water chemistry and fish observation to do ok..I was right. tank "balance" is a fluid and dynamic thing, people talk about using different filters all together for bio backup and such without thinking about how nature works. Fact is, you can cycle in 3 days or 3 weeks and it doesn't matter. Once the factors are in place, they'll stay unless a larger factor pushes them out(like a "crash"). we could go on and on about water chemistry and physics and biology and all the other factors in this aquarium equation, but very simply put you know the risks(killing life) tempered by knowledge(experience). If you know what to do to fix a situation you fix it, if you don't you mess up once and learn for the next time. I think the moral here is go as fast as you want, do you know how to fix really bad water? how do you keep things from dying during a cycle? Do you have all known requirements met? if you can answer these questions you're set to take on whichever method you choose, and succeed! In my words, take it at your own pace. peace, Dave

 

[alianated]

Well put.
The funniest thing about all this is that I have honestly not read a single book. hehehe
But (HUGE but)
I work at a national Internet Provider and one of the bonuses is that I get to surf the web all day. I have gone thru these messages like a mad man. Using that AMAZING (hehe) search option here, I have had all my questions answered so that I was prepared. So its definitely a mix. There are obvious things you should know before starting, but at the same time, if I had to say what I thought was the MOST important aspects, I would say dedication. Too many people read a book and then make a tank and think that if they ignore it for 2 weeks, nothing will happen cause 'they know what they are doing'
As long as you are dedicated to being Relentless with the water tests, dedicated to spend the money for the good lighting, dedicated to the water changes, and finally, dedicated to asking the questions here.. you will more than likely be fine 8 ) And the sad fact is, that even if you read 1000 books, and ask 1000 questions and you are a millionare and you purchase the Red Sea to keep your fish in, and you purchase a STAR from the milky way to light up your reef....
It could still crash next week.
The scary part is doctors say these things LOWER our stress level, hehe Guess a doctor never came into his room the next morning to find his tank buried in hair algae.. cause I can tell you, my blood pressure hit the ROOF!!