BTA for Nano tnak

[Julian.Rad17]

I have the Red Sea reefer nano and wanted to see what your opinions are on adding an anemone to a small tank like this. My concern is that the anemone will always wander around the tank and sting all my corals. Would it be better if I bought a small anemone 2-3 inches so that it could move around the tank with less risk of stinging my coral? Will I constantly have to move corals out of the way? If any of you have any experience with BTA's please let me know. Btw the tnak is 4 months old and has been very stable with water chemistry.

Nitrates-0.2
Phosphates-0.03
Calcium-440
Alkalinity-10
Sg-1.025
Temp-80

 

[Pufferfish3]

If your corals are peaceful don't do it. A anemone will wipe out your corals. If you do try adding an anemone make sure you have an alternate home for when it gets big or starts harming other corals

 

[Tautoga]

A nano tank is too small for a BTA. They grow big.

 

[JeffyT]

From past experience and current experience, I have a 20g AIO system and I have never been more successful with keeping an anemone. My old system was 30gs, not much bigger and at one point I had a 20g attached to a 30g sump fully decked out with equipment.

The setup I currently have is a patch job of all the old tanks I've had.

20g JBJ Frag Tank turned into Shallow Reef. (All in One System No Sump)
- Chopped up Marine Pure Block during cycle, I cut them into plates, but you can buy plates
- AquaC Remora S Hob Skimmer - rated for I believe 75g, possibly 90. It's two years old
-AquaClear HOB 70 (Carbon Bag and Mechanical Sponge)
-Filter Floss and 100ml baggie of Purigen. I'll run CHemiPure Elite on and off to clear up the water but avoid stripping the nutrients.
- 4bulb 2 channel t5 sits on the legs not hung up on the ceiling.

My honest opinion for you, forget what other people say because the hobbyist inside of you will want to do it regardless. It's like the tang police. Just make sure your anemone is happy. Generally people put the anemone in first, let it choose its spot then they start arranging their coral accordingly. Now it's not a guarantee that the nem won't move but its a precaution a lot of people take. Also cover your power heads so you dont end up with sushi.

As for size, an anemone will not grow as rapidly as you think unless you feed it. It's a very slow process of growing just from photosynthesis. You can do the research on what to feed and how much at a time on the forums. Lots of great info about keeping them if you decide to.

Breeders or Cloners keep their water at a certain temp and salinity to promote the anemone to split. So you can read about that as well. Again no gaurantee any of your methods will work, but they do work so try it. If you want you can just grow ur little nem and let it split so you can sell it or trade.

Good luck!

 

[Julian.Rad17]

Thanks for the informative and helpful response. It's good to hear someone with experience saying that it is possible to have an anemone in a tank like this. Hopefully it goes well if I end up getting one.

 

[JeffyT]

what size is your nano?

 

[Julian.Rad17]

28 total (7 gal sump, 21 gal display)

 

[Sapelo]

Your tank is too young for a nem.

 

[ravenr108]

I would hold off.. It will get way to big and they love to move.

 

[JeffyT]

28 total (7 gal sump, 21 gal display)

i would agree with one thing, maturity of the tank is important as well.

my tank was in full cycle with no shortcuts.

keep in mind my system is 20g, which means its less bc of the 20lbs sand and 8lbs of live rock in my tank. i don't know what the displacement on that is, but you can probably consider the tanks total volume to be less than 20g.

I cycled with just a bottle of Dr. Tims. This is however the first time I am experimenting with Marine Pure for bacteria surface area. I did a lot of research on the block and people use it as a sub for Live Rock. It's so that I can have a minimalist look in the DT.

I went about 4 weeks with just a block of Marine Pure and Bottle of Dr. Tims.

Then When I cut the block up, I added about 20lb FIJI PINK (Wet Version) and 8lbs of cured Live Rock and let that cycle for another 4 weeks.

I started running the Remora S the same time I added the rock and sand. This pulled out whatever gunk I was expecting from adding these things since prior to that my tank was just clean water.

I had zero blooms in diatoms because I let the tank cycle with no lights.

It's been about 3 weeks since I've added my BTA and fish, ive had 3 clowns die, but I suspect a bad batch or a sick batch since my Brother in Law bought from the same LFS and the same batch and his wasn't eating either.

I have a cheap captive bred $15 ocelleris that is doing great.

I went through the troubles of telling you all this, bc despite what everyone says I am successful in keeping one. You can PM me for a status in a few months and hopefully I can tell you a good story.

Temperature is kept at 78.7 but will increase throughout the day to 80 because of my t5 bulbs.

 

[mav3rick478]

Here's my experience with my RBTA, 26 gallon bowfront tank with 30 lbs of rock (started off dead) and about 2 bags of sand one of which was live. HOB Reef Octopus Skimmer, Reef Breeders Superlux LED and 2 powerheads. My tank was 7 months old at the time and that included the time it took to do the fishless cycle. Bought the anemone from my LFS who had just gotten a few of them 2 days before. I figured best to not let the anemone settle in at the store and then buy him a week later because they did offer to hold it got me. At the time I had a Coral Beauty, PJ Cardinal and a Percula Clown, Grandis Palys, Pink Zipper Palys, Frogspawn and CUC.

Took him home, acclimated him for about an hour and out him in a spot I had picked out from the moment I sup the tank and did the rock work. Lower left part of my tank there is a rock that has a crater in it a few inches weird and about an inch deep, I placed him there and held him there by hand till he stuck and he has not moved since. I used to feed him 3 times a week, then down to twice and then to one a week, now I don't feed him and just let him catch floating food particles and he seems happy as ever. He has been hosting my Percula for months.

I try to keep my water pretty stable with water changes every 2 weeks, about 5 gallons. I only dose Kalk. I keep my calcium in the mid 400s, alkalinity about 8.4-9.0 and magnesium around 1300, PH is 8.3 and salinity 1.023-1.025.

Now the tank also has a bunch more zoas and palys, a War Coral, Chalice, couple Acans and a few SPS frags and a Chrysus Wrasse and a Melanurus Wrasse. Everything seems to be happy and growing and my anemone is still in his spot and has doubled in size. Tank is now about 15 months old.

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[jml1149]

I have a 29g tank with two anems (used to be 1). They wander and cause destruction.

They exacerbate problems. If you make a mistake, they get ****ed off and wander. So not only do your corals have to deal with your mistake, they are getting stung by a wandering nem. In my opinion, not worth it.