Newbie asks: what worked/didn't work for you? Crispa and BTA

[Waylah]

Hi there! I'm new! Nothing in my tank yet, but I'm thinking ahead.
I am not an impulse buyer and I won't be putting anything in my tank I don't know how to care for, so no stress!

The plan for our new 200 litre cube is an SPS tank, a pair of clowns and a pair of bengai cardinals.

I am in the process of deciding what clown and what nem species.

I think at this point it's either going to be ocelaris and BTA or no nem, or percula and sebae (crispa), but I still have an inexplicable affinity for clarkii ...

I'd love to see hosting behaviour, and from what I've been reading, I'll have my best chance with perculas and a crispa.

Now I've read that they are more 'difficult' than a BTA, but if that just means BTAs are a bit more tolerant of non-ideal water conditions, then that doesn't mean much to me - even if getting a BTA I would want to make sure I was giving it ideal conditions.

So, what do I need to know? I know to keep poking and prodding to an absolute minimum, and I know underfeeding is a sure way to a short life. What else are common mistakes to avoid?

[joshky]

Difficulty for anemones isn't as cut and dry as water quality, I mean that's partially the reason, but the biggest concern with anemones is infection. The "easier" to keep anemones such as BTA's, RFA's, Maxi-minis etc. (last two aren't hosting anemones), are much less likely to become infected from transit or any type of trauma or stress.

If I were in your shoes I would skip SPS at first, I would get some nice LPS, softies, and leathers. After your tank starts to thrive and things start to stabilize (6-12 months minimum), I would consider getting an anemone and let it settle in. You could start buying SPS for your tank at this point and maybe even slowly sell off some of the other corals you started your tank with. It'll be much easier to go this route and not feel nearly as intimidating, you may even save money this way as putting SPS in your first tank in the first year could yield very bad results. This is your first tank, you're not perfect and you'll probably make some mistakes, keeping things that can take some punches would be wise.

Just IMO of course, take it or leave it.

[Waylah]

Thanks for the tip. I totally get the reasons for the 'easy first' approach.
A lot of people understandably would like to see something pretty in their tank while they learn. We on the other hand, would rather do our learning first, and are happy for the tank to sit empty while we learn all the different aspects of reef keeping. We know that we intend to have this as an SPS tank, so we're optimising our system for that, from the start.

To us, prevention is better than the cure. Rather than making mistakes to learn from, we are leaning from other peoples' unfortunate losses. We're reading and watching everything we can. I'm getting prepared for dealing with fish diseases. Understanding the life cycle of ick. We're preempting algae problems. I'm getting comfortable with all the chemistry (there is a lot of chemistry!) In short, we will be prepared for any organism we add, before we add it. I'm not saying once we've done learning, we'll start reefing and learn no more. Of course, we'll keep learning as long as we're reefing. We're just trying to minimise the amount of painful 'learning from experience'.

So, back to anemones! What can be done to reduce the chances of infection? If an infection occurs, what can be done to increase the chance of recovery? I know these things: Don't rip them off a rock when buying. Don't feed them anything that isn't super fresh and safe. Use a QT for everything going into your DT. Anything else?

[joshky]

Starting off with easier to keep corals will help you balance out your chemistry more than the approach you want to take, it'll also give you some hands on experience with corals as well. The first year your tank is setup your tank is most likely going to have nutrient instability, easier corals are way more forgiving and help you by consuming some of the excess. It's not just about putting something in your tank to look nice, even though that's an added benefit. Trust me when I say you will not, absolutely will not prevent every mistake; you're going to make some, that's just human nature. I don't think anyone in this hobby can say they don't make mistakes here and there, when you do you pick yourself back up and you try your best to recover and learn from it.

You can do it your way and be successful, I have no doubt, just don't think it's going to be perfect when you do start adding SPS. You might lose a few pieces as you go, even tanks that are mature lose SPS from time to time, just keep that in mind.

Here's a great thread to read about infected anemones,

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2271385

follow the treatment protocol early into suspicion of an infected anemone and chances of survival are pretty high. I would change "Don't rip them off a rock when buying." to don't rip them at all, a torn foot can be really bad but still fixable if caught early.

[Waylah]

Thanks for the anemone treatment info, that's awesome stuff.

Here's someone else explaining the easy/hard thing perhaps a bit better than me:

(around the 20 minute mark)
https://youtu.be/-BJfCty_deQ?t=19m50s

(oh and yeah, don't rip an anemone ever - Sounds like a plan )

[Dkuhlmann]

In addition to what Josh has said I'd like to add to it.

There really isn't anything you can do to eliminate the Ugglies stages of a new tank, all of the different kinds of algae, the bacteria Cyano and it's lovely usually red snot that is left behind for you to clean up. These are all a part of the process of a tank maturing. It's all going to happen and like I said there really isn't anything you can do about it. It's also not something worth stressing over. Most all of the uggly stages of a new tank clear up within a few weeks to a month or two anyway without intervention on your part. Of course with the GHA you can get one or two Mexican Turbo snails that are fantastic at eating GHA. If you get too many of them, they'll die after your algae is gone. For instance I bought two of them for my 40b tank and now only have one. My tank can support one along with other snails but your tank will adjust what you get as conditions improve.

Mature tanks can also get rid of nitrates due to bacteria that has matured to reliable numbers from hardly any when tank is first cycled. Sure ammonia and then nitrite "eating" for lack of a better word, bacteria grow in numbers as you add more life to your tank. This is all part of the maturing of a saltwater reef. Just remember that nothing good happens fast in this hobby, take it slow and have plenty of patience.

So sit back and study all you can which is a good thing, but don't stress over things you have no control over or very little control over. It's going to happen so embrace it

[OrionN]

In order to see good good aenemone/clownfish interaction you need to have the natural host of the fish species. While the clown fish will accept surrogate hosts, their interaction, and affinity, with their natural hosts really a sight to see IMO.