purple tip anemone

chief26

chief26

Member
I am very new to this. my tank cycled for 2-3 months (cause i was afraid i would kill everything in it) I have a live rock, feather duster, cinnamon clown and a purple tip anemone. I have alot of questions about the anemone. 1) will it attach itself to something? 2) should I put live brine shrimp in the tank? 3) should I dim the light at night? 4) Is it normal for it to shrink its tenticles and blow them up to large bubbles and for the stem to bubble and shrink?
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
well anenome's need very good water condtions. and very good lighting. and good flow. basically if you are not set up to run a reef, you have no business housing anenomes. so what is your tank ? how big? what kind of lighting? water parameterS?
assuming you have that under control, the purple tip hatian anenome are notorious for rolling around tanks and not using their foot to grab onto anything. i have one doing that right now in my own tank! they eventually might find a spot in the sand or between some rocks and set up camp for a while. at that point yes, they will often inflat and deflate there tentacles.
 
T

thomas712

Guest
chief26 ~ If you wouldn't mind running down some tank specs I'll be glad to make some suggestions.
I'd like to know what size tank this is, how much live rock you have, and what your lighting is in detail if you would.
As to dimming or turning off lights, you should have a normal photo period of 8-12 hours depending on what you have and if this is going to be a reef tank, but with the anemone the 8-12 hours still stand.
It might attach to something, but that also depends on what type you have, do you know what kind of anemone it is? Some will attach to rocks and others will seat themselfs in sand beds.
Tips on feeding can be found in the top sticky of this forum, bottom post.
Thomas
 
chief26

chief26

Member
Over the last couple of days i have absorbed a wealth of information. i wish i had of found this sight before i started. I have a ten gallon tank with the filter it came with( carbon, sponge and rock) 2 bubble makers and I bought a pump 3 days ago to circulate the water. One "PG" by penn plax aquarium light on one side and a regular bulb on the other - both 25 watt/120volt. my anemone seems to favor the regular bulb???he stays on that side of the tank-could be another reason i dont know. I cant seem to find anything that has information on the box like what i have read on this sight. When i set up my tank i mixed my salt water, got what i thought were the right readings- after time - but didnt know what was suppose to happen-(i now know better) before i added anything my numbers were
salinity-1.022 nitrate and nitrite-0 alkalinity- 180ppm
my PH has always been low 7.5-7.6 ( thats what got me on the internet to find this place)
I didnt realize i needed to test for ammonia and I put all three ( feather duster, clown and anemone) in the tank at the same time.
my nitrate went up to 10ppm my nitrite -0 alkalinity 180ppm and my ph is still 7.6
I tested my ammonia and it was the highest on the chart so I did a 40% water change and used about 1/2 of the bottle directions of a detoxifier it is still reading high oh and i changed the filter inserts. after i added the premixed water ( different brand then my past water changes) my salinity went up to 1.023 ( before it always stayed the same) and my nitrate went down to 5ppm. tomorow i will buy a better test kit. maybe that is way off. my water is clear and every thing seems fine. friday will be a week since i put them in. I didnt see anything in my local store for calcium. to check it or add it. my premix water has it in it. Should i add bacteria at this stage. I am apparently going to learn the hard way. However i feel like i have a better resource for information so i dont have to give up. oh my live rock was alittle over 2 pounds. Temp fluxes between 78 and 80. I now know i screwed up by putting to much in at one time. i hope i can recover.
 
crox

crox

Active Member
Originally Posted by chief26
One "PG" by penn plax aquarium light on one side and a regular bulb on the other - both 25 watt/120volt.


And only 2 lbs of LR!!!!!
 
T

thomas712

Guest
OK we are moving way to fast on this system.
1. Did the tank ever fully cycle?
2. A 10 gallon tank is no place for an anemone.
3. An anemone is a photosynthetic animal, and all of the hosting types will require PC, VHO or in many cases MH lighting in order for them to survive. Standard lights are not strong enough, nor in many cases have the proper spectrums for an anemone to live long term.
4. Ammonia is a killer, if you can't control it fast then:
This applys to 2,3,4 my suggestion would be to take living things back to the lfs if you want them to live.
You have to have a fully cycled, near mature tank if you want an anemone, then my suggestion there would be to have at least a 29 gallon tank if you must have an anemone. you must also have proper lighting for the type of anemone you want, and even that is subject to debate on the lighting.
I'm glad you know your mistake was moving to fast, and please slow down. your certainly not the first and you won't be the last. Just take it easy from now on, and if ever in doubt check here before you do or add anything. Lots of good folks on this board willing to help you not make the same mistakes that many of us have when we first started.
Thomas
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
yeap chief, listen to what thomas says, he's right on the money, as usual! you are lucky he found you so early in the game, i suggest you take advantage of this and ask all the questions you have been meaning to ask, and even further more, answer all the questions he asks you! the short of it is you have been given some not great 'information' from your LFS to get you out the door with a tank and some stuff to put in it. take your time with it and keep learning. good luck.
 
chief26

chief26

Member
ok stupid question coming- what is PC, VHO and MH. I looked at my local pet store and nothing seem to indicate full spectrum. I did find a sunshine flouescent that says full spectrum. so I hooked up 2- 24" F20 ( 20 watt, 875 lumens, 5000k). when I did that he became very active, opened alittle wider, little tenticles stretched toward the light.
I thought the tank had fully cycled. when i set it up i put fish food and alge tabs in it and tested the water every 1 or 2 weeks and let it sit after everything said normal except the PH ? I didnt want to put anything in it till the water had normal reading then i still waited longer. I didnt know it was called cycling. My girl friend had a salt tank and she told me to put a fish in there that was suppose to die to level the numbers. but that just seemed so wrong to me. I figured I kill enought unintentially on my own and would throw food in there to contaminate it. I did that before i read that you could. my readings stayed the same for 4-6 weeks before I added anything. i thought maybe i had to add something to get the PH to come up. (exempt for ammonia cause i wasnt testing for that) But why would my ammonia be high but there be zero nitrites and zero to 5 nitrates. shouldnt they coralate. maybe I'm not getting this. I am in the process of getting a bigger tank. next stupid question- when i set up the bigger tank, if i use already mixed water with bacteris in it, does it need to cycle the same??? Oh and i need to learn from you guys and girls. because my pet store is full of warm bodys that need gas money. i ask a question and they look at me like i have 3 heads.
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
lights:
in a nutshell what you are asking is
VHO - very high output flourescent lighting. basically the starting point. you should have lights of at least this power to run a 'reef'
PC - power compacts, very similar to VHOs, they are like next generation. more power, better lighting.
MH - Metal Halides. this is the best type of lighting you can get, it closest resembles what the sun produces, and with these you can sustain basically all corals.
there is much more to lighting but thats what they stand for.
 
chief26

chief26

Member
thanks :cheer: next stupid question 875 lumens low? medium? high? very high? 2 together make it any better, does the words full spectrum on the box make it any better?
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
um lumens i dont know that much about. but i do know that to not trust what the lighting packaging says. there is no easy cheap way around getting the lighting you need. you cant get the full spectrum from a MH / PC set up with some 30 dolla flourescents that say 'full spectrum for all of your reef fish' those are just garbage. for reefs people usually have at least 2 bulbs. one between 6500 and 20000 kelvins - which is a temperature of color, the higher it is, the whiter, the lower side is bluer. that is usually combined with what they call an actinic bulb that provides the photsynthetic organisms - as i understand it- the other part of the light spectrum that they need to to thrive.
LR - i usually have around 1+ lbs / gallon. in my 75g i had about 100 lbs, now in my 150g i had about 250 lbs, but have since removed some and replaced the bio balls with what i took out....
 
keith burn

keith burn

Active Member
Lots of good folks on this board willing to help you not make the same mistakes that many of us have when we first started.
Thomas
Dito
 
chief26

chief26

Member
ok i have 2 24" full spectrum with 5000k each. still need more? yes? live rock questions?? if it is in a tank at the store, is it curing there ? already cured? do i need to cure it in a different tank?? I know i am asking alot of questions(sorry)
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
that is what the site is for. asking questions, so dont be sorry.
if you are attempting to keep a reef, as in corals and even anenomes then the kelvins need to be at least 6500k. otherwise its not doing anything. the rock in the store's tank is 'curing' but could be in any phase / stage of the game. if your tank is already cycled, then you really want to cure it elsewhere. you can kill two birds with one small piece of LR (hehe) by cycling a 10g tank with the uncured LR, so when you are done cycling you have a 10g quarantine tank and some LR that is good to go.
 
chief26

chief26

Member
thanks for everyones help. my lr has what looks like a salamander or long worm with a thousand little legs. help what is that??? I will try to send a picture.
 
T

thomas712

Guest
It's just a bristle worm, nothing to worry about. Feel free to use the search function and look them up, tons of posts here about them.
Thomas
 
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