Saltwater Aquarium Guys ! Need Help

Ripper

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Anyways, was checking to see if anyone else has a saltwater aquarium. My dad has one and recently his Sea Anemone died. The clown fish that came with the Sea anemone is still living though but has no shelter. Was wondering what are some alternatives to Anemones for Clownfish too live. Since this place has answered just about every stupid question i've ever asked figured i'd try here. Been looking on the net and really can't find anything except not to buy Anemones so was looking for a coral or something for the Clownfishes next habitat. Possibly a descent forum or website about Saltwater Aquariums, or Clownfish.
 

2003 Silver

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Ripper said:
Anyways, was checking to see if anyone else has a saltwater aquarium. My dad has one and recently his Sea Anemone died. The clown fish that came with the Sea anemone is still living though but has no shelter. Was wondering what are some alternatives to Anemones for Clownfish too live. Since this place has answered just about every stupid question i've ever asked figured i'd try here. Been looking on the net and really can't find anything except not to buy Anemones so was looking for a coral or something for the Clownfishes next habitat. Possibly a descent forum or website about Saltwater Aquariums, or Clownfish.

Didn't you see Nemo??!?!? He'll get out of that tank anyway in due time...might as well put him back in the ocean where he belongs. :bored:
 

slow_rider

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when was the last time the water chem levels were checked. The only reason for the anenomes (sp?) to die is the levels in the water are off. they actually start to shrivel up when they get unhappy due to bad water content. This usually means that you might need to do a partial water change (20-25% a month)...

As for the clown fish... if you don't buy another anenome it is fine. My clown fish never like my anenomes and I had about 6 different kinds trying to make the stupid fish happy.... :bash: As long as there are smaller places for the clown fish to hide in (if necessary), they will be fine. AND as long as there are at least 2 clown fish they will be happy.

How big is the take they are in (just our of curiousity)?? If you have any other questions, I have had many tanks and worked for a pet store that specialized in Salt Water setups...
 

Bass

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reefcentral.com will be able to answer any questions you have. but also the clown will be fine but you should definately check all the levels to be safe, go get another anemone, and wait for the clown to host.
 

Ripper

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slow_rider said:
when was the last time the water chem levels were checked. The only reason for the anenomes (sp?) to die is the levels in the water are off. they actually start to shrivel up when they get unhappy due to bad water content. This usually means that you might need to do a partial water change (20-25% a month)...

As for the clown fish... if you don't buy another anenome it is fine. My clown fish never like my anenomes and I had about 6 different kinds trying to make the stupid fish happy.... :bash: As long as there are smaller places for the clown fish to hide in (if necessary), they will be fine. AND as long as there are at least 2 clown fish they will be happy.

How big is the take they are in (just our of curiousity)?? If you have any other questions, I have had many tanks and worked for a pet store that specialized in Salt Water setups...
It's a 50 gallon tank. He has a seperate small tank to the side now filtering for the main tank. Not really sure what that tank does except keep the algae out of the main tank. Was looking at buying Xenia coral? Anyone have any expierance in growing any sort of coral ? Probably just buy another clown fish (non maroon clown fish) before trying to harvest say live coral. Thanks for the links.
 

Ripper

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slow_rider said:
when was the last time the water chem levels were checked. The only reason for the anenomes (sp?) to die is the levels in the water are off. they actually start to shrivel up when they get unhappy due to bad water content. This usually means that you might need to do a partial water change (20-25% a month)...

As for the clown fish... if you don't buy another anenome it is fine. My clown fish never like my anenomes and I had about 6 different kinds trying to make the stupid fish happy.... :bash: As long as there are smaller places for the clown fish to hide in (if necessary), they will be fine. AND as long as there are at least 2 clown fish they will be happy.

How big is the take they are in (just our of curiousity)?? If you have any other questions, I have had many tanks and worked for a pet store that specialized in Salt Water setups...

He definatly shriveled up. Was there when we thought he actually ate the clown fish. He folded up on him and we didn't see him for an hour or two, but he finally opened back up. Two weeks later he died :(. Was a neat thing watching the clown live with the anemone though.
 

Ripper

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Bass said:
reefcentral.com will be able to answer any questions you have. but also the clown will be fine but you should definately check all the levels to be safe, go get another anemone, and wait for the clown to host.

Wow ! There is alot of neat ass stuff on that site ! Didn't know how much went into these tanks !

Also checked out that marinedepot. I'm just getting my mom a gift certificate. Let her buy some coral, or another clownfish if she wants it. I'm starting to get the itch to get in this hobby though. Maybe in a month or two i'll take the plunge and buy a system, how much does it usually set you back starting out and any tips?
 

DKS2814V

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I had a couple salt water tanks a few years ago. Clowns and the anemone are awesome to watch!

What kind of lighting do you have? My first two anemones died because I didn't have sufficient light getting to them. They need that specific kind of $40 bulb, I forget what the name of it is, but its close to UV.

The water content is HUGE. Saltwater tanks are a pain in the ass to take care of, and you need to make sure the salinity is always in the right range. Do you have one of those gauges? I'm assuming you do, by the sound of your filter. That specific filter you have is designed for keeping the water aerated as well as filtering it out...

My first saltwater tank was a 29 gallon that I built my own stand for. I paid about $200 for the tank and some wimpy filter (Skilter) and some other crap. What you really need is a 55 gallon tank with a filter like your Mom's.

As for the coral, I filled my entire tank with live rock. You usually pay about $4/lb and its rock where stuff grows on it. I had a brain coral and lots of fan looking sponges grow on mine (but you need the right light)... The rock looks bad ass, and if you get an anemone, it will attach itself on to the rock and will flourish (given the right light and water)....

I could go on and on. I love saltwater tanks... Mine was filled with the Percula clowns and lots of Lionfish. If you don't have any small fish in your tank, get a lionfish, its the most amazing fish to watch. Gobys are the shit to watch when they dig their holes, and a few perculas and a nice white anemone looks sick. Make sure you have one UV light and one UV blue light for the color.

Sorry for the long post.
 

slow_rider

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I had a 125 Gal saltwater with quite a bit of live rock and substrate. a few clown fish, a goby (cool to watch), starfish (always lost them cause the bury), dwarf lionfish (kept trying to sting me but awesome to watch), and a few other things. Plus I had shrimp and other non fish things... It was great to watch.

The bigger the tank the easier it is to keep the salinity and other levels good. My anenomes kept getting sucked into the filters..

Wasy way to figure if the anenomes are dead is when the loose their stickyness... Speaking of the anenomes, did you ever feed them?? I used to feel mine 2-3 times a week... it was cool to watch them eat... but always had to watch for the stupid lionfish... lol..
 

Bass

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i cna also go on about salt for ever. im runnin a nano reef right now and it is so much work. if you are going to do a system do some research on reef central and be prepred to put some time in. but it can be so rewarding.
 

DKS2814V

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To add, the lighting that you can buy will range greatly. You can get a $250 set up if you wish with these giant ass bulbs, but then takes away from the asthetics of the fish tank.

I personally think the percula is the best looking clownfish, but I think out of the many that I had over the years, about half of them came adapted to the anemone. Its not guaranteed that a clown will become accustomed to it and use it as shelter, which sucks 'cause its awesome to watch.

lionfish12hi.jpg


trueperculawmc1p58110hl.jpg
 

DKS2814V

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slow_rider said:
I had a 125 Gal saltwater with quite a bit of live rock and substrate. a few clown fish, a goby (cool to watch), starfish (always lost them cause the bury), dwarf lionfish (kept trying to sting me but awesome to watch), and a few other things. Plus I had shrimp and other non fish things... It was great to watch.

The bigger the tank the easier it is to keep the salinity and other levels good. My anenomes kept getting sucked into the filters..

Wasy way to figure if the anenomes are dead is when the loose their stickyness... Speaking of the anenomes, did you ever feed them?? I used to feel mine 2-3 times a week... it was cool to watch them eat... but always had to watch for the stupid lionfish... lol..


Lol, yeah, I feel you on the lionfish. Most of the time, they stayed away from me, but apparently the sting is pretty nasty. When I had a couple dwarf lions in my tank, I had a little 1/2 gallon tank with an aerator underneath the stand that bred little shrimp. They were about 1/2" long and I would drop two in at a time. Its absolutely awesome watching them eat. They'll shoot their back spines up and their side spines will "float" out and they will just hover above the prey for a second.

When you get an anemone, there is little supplements you add to the water that will help them survive. It makes the water a bit murky at first, but its some sort of calcium if I remember right. I also fed them a shrimp occasionally when the shrimp was hopping around trying to get away from the lionfish...

All this talk makes me wanna go buy a tank now....
 

Ripper

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Here's a pic. The pic makes it look cloudy but actually the glass looks crystal clear? Took the pic on my Camera Phone w600 ! ? She's had it since christmas ! They have a freshwater tank also. My dad is getting up there in the years and he seems to really enjoy working on it with my mom which is why I would like to get them something for it. I like it so much I would love to try and start one in a few months even though they seem like alot of work at first with getting the ammonia down and everything else that goes with them but seems like it is worth it. The anemone was the neatest thing i've ever seen honestly. Really makes you think about evolution and adaptation. They have live rock now, next step is coral, and then bigger and better fish.
 

DKS2814V

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I see that you got little pebbles and rocks at the bottom. Go pick up some sand for 'em. Some nice white sand makes the tank look really nice. You'll have to pull some of the live rock/coral out, lay down a fine net over the pebbles, and then pour the sand in. Probably good if you take the fish out for a couple hours while you're at it.
It was the single best thing I did to make the tank look better. The "ground" of the tank, literally sat about 4" off the bottom of the tank (if that makes sense). It really makes for a good looking tank.
 

DKS2814V

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I had two of these. They're about three inches long IF that. Both of mine were about two inches long.



png03_g0468.jpg


Had one of these. Pretty cool little guys. I got one that was about 1" squared and it would just get pushed around the entire tank. Fun little guys, but they get stressed out too easy. I think I stressed mine out too much that he eventually ended up dying.
ocubicjuv3vy.jpg
 
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Bass

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ripper if your going to do a reef tank figure at least a pound or more of live rock per gallon of water, and like said above definately use a thick live sand substrate. also don't spare on the light setup it is VERY important. if you want hard coral you need metal halide lights soft corals will do well with power compacts or flourescents, the lighting is usually about 5 watts per gallon.
 

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Thanks for the link to RC, I've been wanting to learn about reef tanks for a while and wanted to start a nano so with plenty of material I think I may start one in the future :beer:
 

Lightning LA

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I just bought a 55 gal tank and i'm going to go with Salt Water, i think they look 10 times better than fresh water. The Fish are a lot better looking also,i need to do some research before i get started. I don't like to just jump head first into something, without learning as much as i can about it 1st.
 

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