Hubby Wants an LTA

[Mynx]

Hello everyone! As the title says, my husband has fallen in love with LTA's and I'm hoping to get a lot of good info on them, and some help picking for our tank. I understand they're a sand lover, is crushed coral safe for them? If not, could I make them a sand garden in a "appropriate" place where it would be happy?

We have a 29gallon with a Aquaclear 50, and a small powerhead, we've got some life right now, 2 Peppermint Shrimp, a Cleaner, Snail, Banded Brittle Star, a Toadstool Leather, a Ricordia (Just the tiniest little thing, haha.) and a Blue-Green Chromis for now. Some mushrooms and zoas too. Lots of rock with not much on it (Except sponge, algae stuff like that.), if any of them like rock?

We're new to the hobby, but have a few experienced reefers around us able to help if need be! So perhaps a wonderfully hardy LTA if there is one? (Honesty from experience would be preferred.)

Thank you in Advance! :wave:

 

[Mynx]

So went on a hunting spree for research and it looks like our lighting just isn't enough for an LTA, only running one T8 for now.

How do they do with LED? Still interested in the information, but now for future thought, if they do good with LED.

 

[sh0ck]

Well, for that size I would really suggest H. Malu anemone if u want sand one.
This is my LTA in 220l tank (~50g) with ~80W of custom LED with 1:0.7:1 White:Blue:RoyalBlue balance.

You see it is huuuuuge. I was keeping it little, but after it eaten my dollabela snail nem exploded to such size....

PS:you can open image in new tab to see it in full size as I resized it in for post by html tag.

<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8097634/IMG_0173.JPG" width=864>

 

[Mynx]

That's a sweet tank sh0ck! :O Thank you for sharing!

Know of any that do good in Crushed Coral? Or are they all sand lovers?

And hurray! LED's are loved!

 

[homegrownREEFER]

I think sand is preferred since it is soft, the lta might have trouble digging into crushed coral. Also the minimum sand depth for a lta is about 3 inches since it likes to dig in and attach to either the bottom of the tank or under a rock, once in a while my lta will disappear into the sand and all you'll see is a tentacle or 2. Most of my tank is 2.5 inches but where my lta is I added more sand so it's around 3.5 inches. If the sand depth, lighting, or flow isn't sufficient it won't attach and just roll around.

 

[Anemone12]

If i were you i would get the evergrow led light. I'm surprised the soft coral you have is still alive. And with a led you can have ALOT more coral. And LTA are awesome haha.

 

[DarthNater]

how long have you had your tank set up?

 

[Mynx]

I'm surprised the soft coral you have is still alive. And with a led you can have ALOT more coral.

I'm not, he's a trooper. It's crazy insane what the poor guy has gone through in his life. But he's looking great and has a happy little fishy friend it seems.

how long have you had your tank set up?

A month, used established rock, 25% established water, and coral.

Thank you everyone for the info, it's really helpful and has made us decide that further on in the future we're upgrading tanks to be able to house beautiful LTA's and allow my toadstool his own big space... I really don't want to frag him, he's my favorite. <3

 

[Mynx]

Woooo! So I get to revive this, It's been decided we're getting an 80gal for all our wonderful ideas, Dual-T5's with LED Nights. <3 It's going to be awesome, so with that in mind!

What are the good choices for our up coming tank? I wanna get my ears to the ground before we're ready so that if the LFS gets some in close to when we're ready they can keep them off to the side for me! Just thinking maybe 2-3 not huge, but not tiny either.

 

[OrionN]

Stock lights for tanks are not very bright. Dual T5 over a 80 g tank is not very much light. You need to upgrade the light if you want to keep anything more than minimally light requiring soft corals.
For anemone, even LTA, you need at least 200 Watts LED or 300-500 W MH over a 80 g tank. (Two lights one on each side of the tank. Around 100 W LED or two 150-250 W MH.)
What is the dimension of your soon to be tank?

 

[homegrownREEFER]

Agreed, you would need a 4 bulb fixture minimum, I had a 6 bulb T5 over mine and I now switched over to 240 watts of led. I have a 75 gallon. You need more light, ltas reside on the bottom of the tank so you'll need more wattage so it can absorb the light.

 

[Mynx]

What is the dimension of your soon to be tank?

If I recall correctly it's 60"x18"x18"