desprate need of some answers

fgcu14

fgcu14

Member
This site is awsome everyone has been great about answering my questions so far. But I still have a few more.
1. I thought bottled water would be ok to mix saltwater I'm hearing otherwise. What could be better than bottled water?
2. I want to go with live sand how thick of a layer should I put down in my 46 gal bowfront?
3. Aprox. how many lbs. of live/base rock should I have set up in a 46 gal bowfront?
4. what kind of lighting should I have for a bubble tip anename? or any anename for that matter?
5. Is it really nessessary to have 10-20 snails/crabs?
6. What is good for cleaning the sand?
Help with any of these questions would be awsome!!!!!! :help:
 
omgsaltwat

omgsaltwat

Member
1 bottle water is fine if its RO water.
2 I would put about 3 to 4 inches of ls
3 You want 1lb to 1 3/4lbs per gal
4 Not sure about the lighting
5 & 6 I dont think you 1020 of anything...Look at the cleaning packages this place offers its a really good deal...IMO ....HTH
 
team2jndd

team2jndd

Active Member
most bottled water isnt Ro Ive never seen ro bottled water in anything less than a gallon. You will need strong pcs or MH for the anemones. also need to feed them once a week or so. atleast 1 lb per gallon of live and live rock. 10-20 is way to many. I would do 5 of each to start with. They might not make it through your cycle though. I would cycle with just the rock and sand.
 
team2jndd

team2jndd

Active Member
oh and bullet gobies will clean the sand. Again dont by any fish or inverts until AFTER your cycle. Anemones wait a few months.
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
Originally Posted by fgcu14
This site is awsome everyone has been great about answering my questions so far. But I still have a few more.
1. I thought bottled water would be ok to mix saltwater I'm hearing otherwise. What could be better than bottled water?
Bottled water is fine. RO water is probably cheapest, and definitely best.
2. I want to go with live sand how thick of a layer should I put down in my 46 gal bowfront?
I would do at least 4 inches.
3. Aprox. how many lbs. of live/base rock should I have set up in a 46 gal bowfront?
You want about 50-60 lbs. of live rock in the 46 gallon tank.
4. what kind of lighting should I have for a bubble tip anename? or any anename for that matter?
As already stated, I would recommend metal halide lighting for keeping anemones.
5. Is it really nessessary to have 10-20 snails/crabs?
You don't neccessarily need snails and hermits in every tank, but if you do a sand bed, then yes, you must have them since you will not be vacuuming your substrate.
6. What is good for cleaning the sand?
For cleaning your sand, cerith and nassaurius snails work wonderfully.
 
torno

torno

Member
I disagree with the live sand answer OMGsaltwat gave. You either want to go 1-2" or above 4" for a Deep Sand Bed, not in between. I wanted to do the same thing but was advised against it because it will either do nothing for your biological filtration or it will have a negative effect on it. I'll try to find the exact answer I was given.
For live/base rock, you could do 40 lbs. base rock then 10-20 liverock, which will eventually make the base rock live, or you could do half and half. Using more base rock and less live rock is cheaper of course, but it will take longer for the base to become live.
As for the crabs and snails, it depends on your feeding amounts and how light/heavy you stock your tank. Another thing you want to keep in mind is either have hermit crabs OR snails, NOT BOTH. Reason being is that the hermit crabs will eventually kill all the snails for their shells, then move into them. If you do decide to do both though, I would recommend the scarlet reef hermits, as they are docile enough to be kept in with seahorses (not that you are keeping seahorses, just saying thats how peaceful they can be). As for stirring up the sand bed, you could use nassarius snails, sand sifting stars, etc. Any website you go to will explain in detail the jobs their clean up crews do. You may even decide to go with sand sifting gobies. It all depends on what you want in your tank.
Sorry I have no experience with anemones. I do hope I was helpful though!
 
torno

torno

Member
Yay I'm so proud of myself, I was able to find the reply as to "Why you should either have a sandbed of 1-2" or 4"+":
" A depth of 2-3 inches is generally not recommended, as it is not deep enough for denitrification to occur, and not shallow enough for nitrifying activities."
--Karen Gentry, administrator of seahorse.org
Therefore, you need to decide if you want a shallow sand bed, or a deep sand bed, but do not do only two or three inches of sand.
Good Luck!
Neil
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
I totally agree, Neil! If you do not want to do a deep sand bed, just do a shallow bed of aragonite so that you can still clean it regularly.
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
Originally Posted by fgcu14
all good advice thank you all! are the sand sifting stars hard to maintain?
Yes, they need a huge tank because they often starve in small tanks. Anything under a 150 gallon with a really deep sand bed is too small of a tank for sand-sifting stars. They usually will live about a year if not kept in adequare conditions.
 
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