dsoz

LPS and SPS are NOT real classifications in terms of biology. Both are grouped together as stony corals. SPS and LPS are convienences for and by people in the aquarium hobby. There are some genera (plural of genus) of coral that contain BOTH SPS and LPS corals.

People put them into these categories because, in general, the smaller the polyp the more exact the water conditions need to be. Although this is a misnomer because there are more tolerant and less tolerant varieties of both SPS and LPS.

HTH

dsoz

Anemones usually either grow or shrink (and die). No matter what size tank they are in they will grow if the conditions are right (light, food, etc.).

A 29g tank is on the small side to keep an anemone AND corals. Expect to loose one or the other.

You can keep the anemone artificially small by "fragging" it when it gets too big. I have split anemones many times and BTAs are some of the easiest. There are many youtube videos you can watch to learn how when/if you need to.

dsoz

Good. They look like shell-less snails and come in black or light tan colors.

They have a shell, it is just very reduced and flat like a shield. It covers about 1/2 the back.

I have tried picking them up before and they tend to "drop" their tail that is not under the shell. I have seen the front half live even after dropping the tail, but the back half does not. A defence similar to some lizards I believe.

dsoz

By definition, specific gravity is a certian amount of mass salt dissolved in a certain mass of water. Since most of the salt brands that we use are trying to get close to "natural sea water" at a SG of near 1.023 to 1.025 then they will pretty much be close to 1/2 cup per gal. Not all salts try to be equal to NSW, so that is why some of them are a little more or a little less.

dsoz

I start at about 1/2 cup per gal of water. Then I check with a refractometer after about 20 minutes of mixing and will add more salt or water to get it in check. But 2 1/2 cups in a 5 gal bucket usually gets right near 1.023

dsoz

Welcome to the forum and the addiction.

Besides books, I spent 100s of hours reading on the forums before getting wet. This one is good for local. Nano-reef.com has a lot of good ideas about how to get things working in small tanks (75g does not count, but some of the ideas will work for you too). Reefcentral.com also has some good ideas, but unless you are a paid member all the functions do not work (most important is the search function).

Good luck and take a lot of pictures as you are setting up.

dsoz

Don't put in sand or rock. If you do end up medicating, then the carbonate sand and rock will absorb the medication so it does not work like it is supposed to. Then it will release the meds back out into the water once you do a water change. If you use copper based meds, this can be detrimental to any inverts.

Are you thinking as a QT for fish or for corals? If it is for fish, just the HOB filter with some floss. Fill with water from your tank when you start it up, then empty in between new arrivals. Be sure to dump a bit of water (10% or more up to 50% for a small QT) or so every couple of days and replace with water from your display. Then new SW into the display. This will help with the nitrogen cycle in the QT.

If the QT is for coral, then you want a descent set of lights that is somewhat close to what you have in your display. Even a bank of PC or T5 lights could be enough for corals for a few weeks while they are being watched for signs of nudibranchs, acro-eating flatworms, zoapox, nuance algae, etc.

dsoz

Get a photobucket.com account. Upload your photos there, then copy the IMG code under the photo and paste it where you would type your message.

HTH

dsoz

I have torch and frogspawn that have grown together so the tentacles touch. No problems yet and it has been several months.

dsoz

This is what I replied to your PM, I am posting it here in case it will benefit someone else in the future.

They may be trying to cluster together for protection. It looked like the one you had was small (compared to the 9 inch diameter one that I have in my tank and 12+ inch diameter ones that I have seen in the fish stores). So splitting probably was a sign of stress from moving from one tank to another. Just let them heal and don't mess with them for a few weeks. Once they heal and start puffing up more they will probably both wander until they find a good spot. This is a dangerous time because they can get sucked into powerheads and that can be bad.

If you can catch one of them on the move, they are easy to remove and you can put it where you want it to go. The best spot would be a hole in the rock that is slightly larger around than the base, and slightly deeper than the height. That way it can suck down into the hole if it feels threatened. This is a double edged sword because if it likes the hole and it sticks in there, you will not be able to get it out easily, but it will stay there and not disturb your other corals.

Once they heal you will be able to feed them. Get some frozen silversides (fish smaller than your finger) from the fish store. Patrick at Fanta-Seas usually has them in, and most other LFSs have them too. It looks like the nems that you have will end up with a "foot" smaller than a quarter. Break up the silverside so that it is not too big for the nem to ingest. You will need to learn from experience, but a good rule of thumb to start with is about 1/2 the diameter of the oral disk. Feed as often as once a day, or as little as once a week. The more you feed the faster they will grow, but they are sloppy eaters and a lot of the nutrients in the fish end up also feeding the algae in your tank. So the more you feed the more water changes you will need to do, and the larger CUC you will need to get.

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask. PM me or make a thread on the forum.

Good luck!

dsoz

I thought about 2 gallons of cold water all at once to kinda shock them into quiting.....

Is that called the "cold shower" method of stopping spawning? LOL

Good luck with that tonight. I hope you can make it to a LFS to get some water in the morning.

dsoz

You may even be able to have a montipora in there. But most of what Rick said is true. Put a yes next to candy cane (Rick said maybe).

There is nothing from keeping you from having an interesting softy and LPS tank. You will just be limited to no "fuzzy sticks"

dsoz

Not a good idea to move a BTA so soon after splitting. You can draw a name, but let the clone heal for at least 3-4 weeks and it is eating before moving it.

dsoz

Congrats, dad. An anemone that small usually does not split unless it is stressed out (like Rick said). If it is new to your tank, it could be from the shock of changing lights, water salinity, or other water parameters. Watch both of them carefully if one of them deflates and stays that way for several days you may want to give it the "sniff test" and if it smells like old tidepool, nasty, or rotten then it could be dying or dead. Let's hope not.

dsoz

Is the coral hard or soft? If it is hard it could be an Acropora. If it is soft... ??? Maybe a leather coral or colt coral of some sort.

dsoz

Genius! (rock2) That's what I'm looking for - a quick fix. The HOB filter swith-a-roo is a great plan' date=' and I will consider that for the future. For my purpose now - this is great. Thank you very much![/quote']

 

You're welcome. Just know that eventually the suction cups stop working and the basket falls down. I finally gave up and put it on top of the rockwork in the back. After a while it gets covered in coraline. Mine now has xenia and anthelia growing all over it.

 

dsoz

Looks like it may be a purple long tentacle. But I could be wrong, I don't have much experience with anemones besides BTAs and Ritteri.

dsoz

Wal-mart. Go to the bath section and look for a clear plastic "soap dish" with suction cups on it. I got a large one (for holding shampoo bottles) and stuck it in the back of the tank. There are enough holes in it for water exchange, but it is protected enough to keep most fish from eating the chaeto. It is even cheaper than a HOB filter.

I now use the soap dish as a sheltered area for attaching frags instead of as a refugium. Some sand and gravel on the bottom, throw in the xenia, zoa, mushroom, kenya tree, (insert soft coral name here), and let the coral attach to the sand/gravel. Then the sand or gravel can be glued wherever I want it to go.

dsoz

Nice. I hope that they do well for you.

dsoz

If you have a magnifying glass, you can try to use it with your camera to take a better picture. It takes some getting used to with using both hands.

Also, if you step back a bit and use the zoom on your camera you tend to get clearer pics. There is a minimum focus distance on most cameras. The other trick if it is not a DSLR is to put it into "macro" mode. On most cameras you turn the knob to what looks like a flower (I think).

If you have a tripod, use it to make the camera steady (#1 best tip I ever had given to me for aquarium photography).

dsoz

There's an idea' date=' WTB? What to bring threadDOH!???[/quote']

 

WTB = want to buy...

 

Around here it is BYOB (or whatever). (whistle)

 

dsoz

Think species like "dog". Very general term, many "breeds" and "colors" available, but they are all "dog."

Candycane is a common name like "dog" and there are different "types"

Even Oregon Tort and Cali Tort are the same species (Acropora tortuosa), they just have different color patterns that "breed" true when they are fragged (oregon tort is a rich blue and cali tort is more purple...).

dsoz

I have seen clowns that will only host a powerhead.

I have a pair of clowns that started hosting frogspawn coral after about 2 years.

BTAs and sebae anemones are not "natural" hosts for false percs. To have the greatest chance of success with your clowns, use a Ritteri (Heteractus magnifica) anemone. It is the anemone that false percs will naturally host in the wild. The only problem with H. magnifica is that they are poor shippers (many will die from stress of shipping), they need BRIGHT lights, and they do best under point sources of light (MH instead of PC or T5). They also like to pearch on the tallest place that they can reach, and love high flow areas. They are considered for "expert" reefers only.

If you want something to host your BTA, choose maroon clowns. Sebae clowns would be ideal for your sebae anemone.

I have heard that if you put pictues of clowns outside the tank near where the anemone is then the clowns will tend to want to "protect" their territory, and start hosting quicker. This method did not work for me.

dsoz

Dude' date=' what is that elephant skin? I've never seen that before and it looks cool as hell.[/quote']

 

He does not frag that one very often. When he does you need to jump on buying the frags. It looks great under high K lights and actinics. I have a piece of it under my T5 lights that are more in the 10K range with not much in the way of actinic, so the piece that I have is more plain orange color, but it has good growth.

 

Info on the elephant skin coral.

 

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/reef/sm_stony/PachyserisRugosa.php

 

http://www.themarinecenter.com/corals/coralssmallpolypstonycorals/elephantskinpachyseriscoral/

 

dsoz

maroon clowns naturally host BTAs. Oscellaris and percula clowns do not naturally host BTAs in the wild (the range does not overlap) but will sometimes substitute host in a BTA.

I had a false perc from Dave's clown house and it started hosting a H. magnifica (Ritteri anemone) within 5 minutes of being added to the tank. Then the magnifica was removed and a RBTA was added and it took it about 3 days to start hosting the RBTA.

I have another pair of false percs that did not host anything for almost 2 years, then they started hosting ONE of my frogspawn corals. They won't host any of the other frogspawn, hammer, or torch corals that are in the tank. Maybe because the one that they host is the largest one, or it could have a different feel to the stinger cells. Whatever... clowns are dumb. LOL

dsoz