anemone question

[Ram_Puppy]

thanks Tim, Well, I guess I may hold off on the mandarin for now. They are awesome looking fish, and I am sure everyone in the hobby is infatuated with them at some point... I think, perhaps for now, I will put it off. When we get a house in a couple of years I am planning on putting in at least a 150, maybe a 200... that will be the time to get him though...

it is sad really, my two favorite fish in the world are mutually exculisve, radiata lion, and mandarin... no biggie... the clowns are awesome too!

[Tim Marvin]

I'm not saying don't get the mandarin, just be ready to feed live brine or trade/sell/or give away if need be. Don't wait until it gets too thin to recover. With lots of rubble you may do fine. I would only recommend for a tank of 75gallons or larger with a good pod population.

[Ram_Puppy]

i understand completely Tim, I think perhaps it is not in the cards for now. maybe later, I will have one, just htinking this tank is not the right choice.

[Instar]

I have to compliment you Ram Puppy for your excellent preparation to do such a thing and for having the discipline to wait some more. That will pay off big time in the long run for you and your reefing. One comment on the refugium: You didn't specidy a plenum substrate size. If you start out with about 6 to 7 inches deep of course aragonite substrate and don't plug it off with a fine sand, and then the rubble on top, very well oxygenated water circulating across the top of the rubble, you'll have a great refugium. A pair of maroons in a 30 hex will own the tank. They will defend about that much area as their home nesting site from all comers. Almost all other fish in that sized tank with a pair will meet with rapid demise. It would work out fine in a 200 though as thats plenty of space for the maroons and other fish too.

[Ram_Puppy]

thanks Instar, that means a lot. Preperation to me, is the end all be all of a goo danything, you lay a good foundation, you will build a good house.

My mind is swirling with options right now, I am building the stand my hex is going to sit on, which I have realized, does not mean I need to conform to wha tis out there now... I think I am going to build a cabinet/case which will allow for a much larger refugium.. .I am not sure yet, I may stick with what I have... the odd shape of the tank (hex) leaves little room for work in a normal stand, so I was going to buy another 30 hex and use it as the main tank (no scratches) and move the old hex into the stand. I figured the verticle height in and of itself would lend itself well to a DSB and a refugium.. I believe the sides are 9 and 1/2 inches * 6, not sure what the square inches work out to be on that.

Also, I talked to my wife, while we are sure we want to see an anemone/clownfish relationship going on, we aren't dead set on the maroons... last night I showed her some pictures of clowns I liked, and she picked out some black perculas. I think those would work well, and if membery serves, they host in e. quadricolor as well, and I have not read that they are overly agressive. while that is all that we plan on putting in there now, it does leave us open to expand a little more than the maroons did... I was careful to pick inverts that won't bulldoze corals and what not, so I am certainly not going to put a fish with a scrappy attitude in...

I guess I am also right in the thought I need to get the anemone in before any corals so that it settles in to a local and won't move around stinging everyting?

I am not planning on any hard corals at this time, some xenia up top probably, some zoo's, and mushrooms down low... maybe a clam...

I will be getting a larger tank in the future, but, I don't want to back myself into a situation either where I have to get it, or trade out a specimen because it has outgrown the system. Slow and steady wins some races.

[matt]

True percula clowns will sometimes host in E. quadricolor. I don't think it's a natural host for them; unfortunately, the only natural hosts are H. crispa, H. magnifica, and S. gigantea. The common carpet anemone, S. haddoni, is not a typical host for perculas. All of these anemones are extremely difficult to keep alive for more than a few months in an aquarium. (Less than 5% survival rate after a year) But, lots of people have reported success in getting true percs to host in E. quad. And, as you undoubtedly know, you can get tank bred E. quads.

As far as the mandarin goes, you might have better luck with the spotted mandarin in terms of feeding it frozen food. In your initial post that I replied to earlier, you made no mention of feeding your fish frozen/flake food. That's why I replied as I did.

A 30 hex will not work well for a DSB; it lacks the space for a strong enough population of sand bed animals to perform the denitrification duties of a true DSB. And the shape limits the surface area of the sand, and thus, the sand/water interaction. For a refugium it's fine, and as long as your stocking is conservative your caulerpa growth will probably keep your nitrates manageable, especially if you have a good skimmer removing waste before it goes through the nitrogen cycle.

[Ram_Puppy]

I have not yet, but I am planning on putting a remora pro on, a little big for the setup, but I plan on 'growing' so I figured I would buy big the first time.

I had the same thoughts on the DSB, to little surface area. I was thinking better to try than not. I have also been playing around with my design over the last few hours (on paper) and think I like the look of a cabinet, and I realized I have a twenty tall out on my parents ranch, I am thinking if I use this as a sump that overflows into the refugium, then I have added to my volume easily enough... heck, if the canopy ends up looking nice enough, I may just sell it and move up to a larger tank now.

I need to stop thinking and just commit to a design and go!