Need help planning shallow anemone tank

flasher1

flasher1

New member
First things first, I am looking to build an anemone tank with either a gigantea or haddoni. Here is what I am looking at equipment wise


Possible dimensions - 24 x 24 x 16 high (island - viewable from 4 sides)
30 x 30 x 16 high (island - viewable from 4 sides)
36 x 24 x 16 high (peninsula - viewable from 3 sides)

Pump - I was looking at a snapper returning 3 ways, but am open to suggestions

Lighting System - I want to get a 175w pendant, but if I can't find one then I will
settle for an Ocean Light 150w for the island tanks or a 36" t5
ho fixture over the peninsula tank. Always open for suggestions

Skimmer - I dont know whether to do a refugium or a kicka$$ skimmer. I am
going to do a 4-5" deep sand bed in the display which should help with
nitrates. I am looking to keep this as efficient as possible. Any ideas?

Any help would be appreciated on this as this is my first species tank. Thanks for looking.

Mike
 
i was thinking about almost the same build for a cube tank...it'll be interesting to hear response as for i'm clueless too and am open to any and all suggestions...i'm even considering a closed loop system...
 
I have 2 gigantea's in a similar setup so I can maybe share you some lessons learned.

My 40g carpet tank is 24x24x12. All in all this has been a good size to date but now that the 2 carpets are getting sizeable (3 and 4 years on with these guys, it was inevitable), the one real drawback to this tank is that it's almost *too* shallow now. 16" would make a good size.

The other drawback is that since I have 2, the square-ness of the tank isn't optimal. I'll be switching the tank over soon to something longer. I'm going to stay shallow, although going up to 16", but longer and wider. I'm thinking 30" wide and length is going to depend on how much space I have to work with in my upcoming tank room but will be at least 48".

The thing is you want to have space enough for decent aquascaping, plan for growth with either species (ESPECIALLY if you go haddoni - they get enormous - be prepared! I had to let go of a gorgeous haddoni a few years back because it had gotten to 24" diameter! Talk about wall to wall carpet!)

Personally I like your 2nd and 3rd option sizes. One thing to consider is if you went 36" you could sneak a wavebox in there (Tunze has a nano wavebox coming out soon - but I think you still need minimum 36" to get the wave effect). Not that the wavebox is OK for flow on its own, you'd still need supplemental flow but nothing beats that back-and-forth effect especially on anemones.

Lighting - 175's should be plenty on a shallow tank, although if you go 30x30 or 36x24 you may find you need 2x175 (or 2x150) to maintain a consistent intensity throughout the tank. OTOH if all you plan on is the anemone you can have it as a spotlight effect in the centre.

Personally I would go with kick-butt skimmer AND refugium if I were you. Although if I had to choose, I'd go with skimmer. (I've never really had a lot of luck running refugiums - I've probably never made them big enough.) I found my haddoni tended to need to be fed a lot, and would eat heavier items like a chunks of prawn of 1" squares of fish (raw) fillet and this contributed to a large nitrate buildup.

I don't really seem to have a nitrate problem with my gigantea's but they are part of a larger reef system so it's hard to say if they put out a lot of load or not.
 
delphinus - thank you this is exactly the kind of information i am looking for

sk8rreef - that thread gives me some interesting ideas
 
Before you get too far into the build of this, I think you should decide which anemone are are going to get.

There is a huge difference in the amount of flow b/t a Haddoni and a Gigantea. All of my Haddonis are very sensitive to too much flow, so if you are planning a closed loop and a 3 way you will have to take that into consideration.
 
Breeder Tanks

Breeder Tanks

I think they are the way to go with the shallow tanks.

My 30 breeder with a gignatea lets me get it optimal flow and a BIG foot print for it to fill.
 
I only have experience with Haddoni's. I have read that gigantae is usually found in shallow sand beds that experience tides as low as 8 cm, which I would imagine is extremely turbulent flow.

Does anyone have pics of gigantea's? I would be looknig to do an extremely colored carpet if this helps todd
 
gigantea, are actually found on the rocks, compared to on the sand bed. So that is another thing to consider.
 
decide on the anemone first!! Gigantea and haddoni are way different.

I just set up a tank for gigantea (i had a build thread, but I am lazy and flaked out). It is 48x30x17.5. 2x175w MH and 1x250w MH. 2 vortech=6000gph, 1000gph return, and MJ1200. Barebottom for ease of maintanance. If I were setting up a hadonni tank, I would have skipped the vortechs, skipped the 250w halide, and added a DSB. Very different setups indeed.

FWIW, it is much,much easier to find healthy haddoni than gigantea.

Not the best pictures, but here is my brown, with purple tips gigantea.
IMG_2413.jpg

IMG_2415.jpg

 
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One thing you could do is if you wanted a haddoni with a DSB is go with a slightly taller tank, but a lower stand. In fact, make the stand cover the bottom couple of inches to mask the "ant farm" look you get with DSBs.

Agreed that a BB tank is an easier option for a gigantea tank. My 24x24x12 is BB. Sand in a high flow environment is an absolute PITA.

I never really noticed that my haddoni preferred subdued flow, in fact it ended up in some fairly high flow SPS-dominant tanks after I sold it and it seemed manage OK, but I've never had a haddoni and a gigantea at the same time so I guess my perceptions are slightly flawed that way (in that I don't have a common frame of reference for comparing the two).

One thing to consider is that haddoni, when smaller, tends to like being on the rock, only migrating down to the sand substrate as they get older/larger. At least that was the case with mine, but I've also heard that mentioned from time to time. They (haddoni) can completely bury themselves in the sand when disturbed.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12757741#post12757741 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by flasher1


Does anyone have pics of gigantea's? I would be looknig to do an extremely colored carpet if this helps todd
Click to expand...

IMO, haddoni have better coloration. Red, blue, green, and many multicolor variants, Gigantea have fantastic shape and tentacle movement. Some have great color too. But many, like mine, in high flowhigh light conditions look more brown...
 
Last edited:
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12758214#post12758214 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by flasher1
If someone could show me some pics of both I might be able to decide a little easier
Click to expand...

My green Haddoni,

HiddenHaddoni5.jpg


My blue one,

BlueHaddoniflash.jpg


Top down of it,

bluehaddoni3.jpg


And lastly my tan one,

Haddoni4_15_08.jpg
 
Re: Guess the Color of my Gigantea

Re: Guess the Color of my Gigantea

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12758334#post12758334 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefvette
IMG_2103.jpg



IMG_2097.jpg
Click to expand...

Pink? What kind of light is it under?
 
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