Add Anemones and Soft Corals before fish?

[Pimps]

I plan on adding a Bubbletip and a Saddle Carpet anemone as well as a pair of easy soft coral (undecided atm) to a 35g tank when it'd finished cycling. I have a few questions before adding anything:

- Would it be best to add the anemone & soft corals before adding fish? I plan on having a pair of Ocellaris clowns as my first 2 fish, hence the addition of the anemone, and my thoughts are that it might be better to have established anemones and soft corals before introducing them.

- When adding both anemones and soft corals, how exactly do I position them on the rocks where I want them? Will they just root themselves to the first rock I put them in contact with or do they actually have to be mounted (ie - epoxy)? I know anemones will roam, so is it best to let it find a spot it likes than place my corals as far away as possible? Sorry if that's a silly question, but I have looked all over the net and cannot find an answer.

Any other beginner's advice on anemone's and soft corals introduction would be appreciated! Thanks.

[ludnix]

I can't speak to carpet anemone's sensitivity but generally you want to wait until the tank is well established (six months to a year) before adding anemones to a tank.

The soft corals you can add at any point, I don't think there will be any difference as to whether you add them before or after the fish. Most soft corals will root themselves down as long as they stay in the same place long enough. If they are already attached to a rock you can either wedge the rock within yours, or epoxy the rock down. As they spread they will root themselves down and you won't have to worry about it. With most soft corals you can even just rubber band the coral down to the rock and they will attach within about a week or so.

Zoanthids will usually come on plugs or rocks which will have to be mounted with epoxy or placed somewhere very secure. They won't attach their own until they have spread to cover beyond their original rock, most other soft corals can attach at any time though.

So to recap, I would add the fish or soft corals and wait for the anemone for a while. The clownfish do not need an anemone so they'll be fine without it.

[plyle02]

I may be wrong, but would hesitate to have 2 anemones in a tank that small. Both of those anemones have the potential to outgrow the tank, don't want to sound discouraging, just make sure you have a solid nutrient export method in mind... Anemones if fed well can dirty up the water pretty quick. Good luck, keep us posted!

[Pimps]

Thanks for the quick replies!

That answers a TON of questions for me already, as I could never find any info about how to place corals.

As for the anemone, I'll take your advice and WAIT and limit this tank to 1 BTA in the future. I've been reading quite a lot of horror stories of how people have had them take over a tank much larger than mine, so I should have known to not even think of adding 2! As long as the clowns can thrive & survive without the anemone than I have no problem waiting to introduce it.

Thanks again all!

[lougotzz]

Your tank is small to have two different types of anemones, as far as I know thats always a bad idea. If it were me, id add my rock, sand, let some of the bacteria in the tank spread out, make sure my parameters were stable for a couple of weeks, than add your cuc slowly so it wont starve. than iif parameters were still not fluctuating, id add the anemone of my choice. I dont really get the whole wait six months to add an anemone. if we are talking cured LR, when you get it, it already has A LOT of bacteria on it, than adding the cuc will have created waste, have the above bacteria feed on the die off on the rock and waste, and growing from it. Ive done this with two tanks now, and honest to God ive never had ammonia in my tank except from the begining when my rock was shipped and had a little die off. I have a rose anemone in a tank, with no protein skimmer, that has been up for about two months now, and is doing great. My water has been stable since my cycle has been over.

Just make sure you have good lighting, feed it every other day or so, and id put it in before other corals so it finds its spot. Fish would be the last thing added to prevent the spread of ich.

I think if you did it like that youd be fine.

[davocean]

Agree, keep to one, unless you go w/ just a nem species tank, same species, maybe 2.
Diff nems have diff needs for light/flow as well.
Same species can touch, sometimes others may be OK, but don't really recommend.
Keep in mind that those occs may take a long time to accept a nem as host, if they ever do.
Personally, in that size tank, I'd go w/ a soft coral as an alternative to a nem, say hammer or frogspawn or similar.
Less of a pain, quicker to add, and they don't wander.
My sps/mixed tank has PNG/Onyx percs hosted by frogspawn.

[Pimps]

Awesome advice guys, I really appreciate it.

The first thing I added was the sand bed, 2 inches black tahitian, and ran the tank for 2 weeks before adding cured Fiji rock 15 lbs which I did 2 days ago. So far, so good on params.

Tbh, if I don't have to add an anemone for the clowns, I won't. From everything that I've read on the net, it implied that clowns needed an anemone which is why I felt compelled to add one. The last thing I want to do is add a pair of clowns who are unhappy w/o one. If I can get away using hardy, soft corals that the clowns will enjoy than that's a perfect alternative to me.

Off topic question: I plan on using epoxy & pvc to aquascape my fiji rock that is currently in my tank. When I take the rock out to work on it, what precautions do I need to take before putting it back into my tank so I don't destroy my params?

Thanks again all you rock!

[davocean]

Yeah, clowns don't need a nem to be happy at all, and in fact, my exp is they get more territorial w/ add of a nem.
As for scape, I prefer acrylic rods for pillars, check DIY forum.

[lougotzz]

You dont need an anemone to have clown fish. My clown fish ive had now have not had an anemone until i added m RBTA a couple of weeks ago. They arnt hosting with the anemone yet, and idk if they will since its apparently hard to get RBTA to host percula clowns. Maybe it takes more itme who knows.

Ive never used pvc for rock work, always stacked it, than added sand and was fine.

[Pimps]

Originally Posted by davocean

Yeah, clowns don't need a nem to be happy at all, and in fact, my exp is they get more territorial w/ add of a nem.
As for scape, I prefer acrylic rods for pillars, check DIY forum.

Acrylic rods? Awesome will check it out! Thanks!

Originally Posted by lougotzz

You dont need an anemone to have clown fish. My clown fish ive had now have not had an anemone until i added m RBTA a couple of weeks ago. They arnt hosting with the anemone yet, and idk if they will since its apparently hard to get RBTA to host percula clowns. Maybe it takes more itme who knows.

Ive never used pvc for rock work, always stacked it, than added sand and was fine.

Thanks for the reply! How tall is your tank or how high did you stack?

[Raggamuffin]

on a personal note, my old clown which I had to give away when I left the hobby a couple years ago is now with one of my friends who is a local. The clown is now hosting in a 12"+ gigas clam when I had him he hosted in a devils hand soft coral.

[Pimps]

Originally Posted by Raggamuffin

on a personal note, my old clown which I had to give away when I left the hobby a couple years ago is now with one of my friends who is a local. The clown is now hosting in a 12"+ gigas clam when I had him he hosted in a devils hand soft coral.

That is awesome!

[lougotzz]

Originally Posted by Pimps

Acrylic rods? Awesome will check it out! Thanks!



Thanks for the reply! How tall is your tank or how high did you stack?

I stacked like 15 inches high, its pretty secure foundation cause the rock is sitting in about 4'' of sand.

[Pimps]

Originally Posted by lougotzz

I stacked like 15 inches high, its pretty secure foundation cause the rock is sitting in about 4'' of sand.

Ah, ok that's double the depth of my sand bed :P

[Pimps]

Question: When removing LR for Aquascaping (epoxying, etc) is there any precaution I need to take before re-adding the LR back into my tank? Also, is there a special type of epoxy that should be used for aquarium only?

[seapug]

Originally Posted by Pimps

Question: When removing LR for Aquascaping (epoxying, etc) is there any precaution I need to take before re-adding the LR back into my tank? Also, is there a special type of epoxy that should be used for aquarium only?

just try to limit the amount of time the rock is exposed to air. Soak some newspaper in saltwater and cover the rocks if you let the epoxy cure a bit before returning to the tank.

Soft epoxy often makes your skimmer go nuts, but apart from that you shouldn't have any major water quality problems from it. Just be sure to use a 2 part epoxy that does NOT contain copper or any "anti-barnacle" additives for boat hull repair. I use a generic brand I get from Ace hardware that works great.

[Pimps]

Originally Posted by seapug

just try to limit the amount of time the rock is exposed to air. Soak some newspaper in saltwater and cover the rocks if you let the epoxy cure a bit before returning to the tank.

Soft epoxy often makes your skimmer go nuts, but apart from that you shouldn't have any major water quality problems from it. Just be sure to use a 2 part epoxy that does NOT contain copper or any "anti-barnacle" additives for boat hull repair. I use a generic brand I get from Ace hardware that works great.

Great info, thank you!