Marine Newbie Wowes

[rabbut]

Hi,

As some of you may know, I'm thinking of going marine, and particularly want to keep anenomies. I have just been reading the pinned thread on them... This has lead to a question arrising

The thread states that powerheads aren't ideal for keeping them... This was how I planned to get my flow, and the thread surgested "closed loop" systems to get the flow. What are they?

Is there any way of adding a guard to a powerhead, to prevent them getting chewed up?

I don't doubt that some more questions come to mind in the run up to me setting-up the system, and the 12 months run up from then to my pruchase

Thanks all
Rabbut

 

[rabbut]

Just to add. I member partisipating in the anenomy advise thread stated that captive bred bubbletip anenomies are the best starting point. This makes me secptical, as it is the only one that my supervisor at work has claimed to have issues with.... I was origionally planning a Malu, now I'm unsure...

Thoughts, advise, opinions?

Thanks again

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, regular hard plastic powerhead covers are very good at chopping up the foot of an anemone that crawls over it. You CAN get foam covers for many types of powerhead but these get clogged quickly, decreasing the speed of the pump and increasing its energy consumption. Not a great idea if you can avoid it. Plus you have to constantly clean them and it becomes a royal PITA.

A closed loop involves using a larger external pump. You drill a very large hole in the bottom of the back glass behind where you're going to stack rocks. Then you find something like a pool filter strainer to go on the inside of the bulkhead. These are pretty big (which is why you hide them behind the rockwork) and their size lowers the suction at any one place, allowing the anemone to walk over the grating and not get sucked in if it so chooses. Then outside the tank, you plumb the bulkhead to the external pump inlet, then the pump outlet is plumbed usually to a pair or series of other bulkheads (or sometimes through the hood) back to the tank, creating a closed loop different than a sump loop (no gravity this time).

Edit: Its strange to find anyone who thinks bulb tips are not the easiest nem out there to keep. They are really easy, especially captive raised ones. Malu's are pretty easy too but have the drawback of being exceptionally strong and quite capable of catching/killing/eating a clumsy fish

 

[rabbut]

Is it not possible to add the pool strainers to the powerhead? I am quite a "hands on" fish keeper, so I don't mind too much about having to clean the foam elements. Should I take steaps to stop such an element going biological though, as my supervisor at work has warned me against getting any biological media in a berlin system? So many questions, and so much to learn before starting lol.

Thanks
Rabbut

 

[Colin_T]

I just use Aquaclear powerheads and put a Quickfilter attachment on them. Inside the Quickfilter I use an Aquarius filter sponge and this stops the anemones getting sucked into the powerhead. But any decent pre filter will help to prevent them getting sucked up.

If you use a course sponge they don't clog up as quickly as a fine sponge, and if the tank is well maintained then they don't get that dirty. And if they do you simply wash the sponge out each week.

Captive bred anemones don't exist as such. Some anemones divide in captivity and people call these captive bred. In reality they are simply clones from another animal. There are a few places (universities & government research facilities) that are actually breeding anemones but I don't know of any that are doing it on a commercial basis and supplying the market.

Sand or carpet anemones are just as easy to keep as bubbletips. The biggest killer of all anemones is poor water quality and lack of light. Bubbletips often crawl under rocks and don't get enough light. Then they bleach and starve to death. Most of the carpet anemones prefer to bury themselves in the substrate and are quite happy having their disk and tentacles exposed to light all day.

Good lighting is required by all species. If the anemones start to fade, lose colour, then they need more light. Healthy anemones that are getting enough light are well coloured and often have green luminous tips to their tentacles. This is just a green algae (zooxanthellae).

You should also feed anemones every few days or even every day. They don't need much food, about the same amount as what you feed one clownfish and that is all. They have the ability to ingest an entire whitebait (fish) but they rarely digest it completely and several hours later they expel it. Then the partially digested fish rots in the water causing the ammonia levels to go up.

 

[SkiFletch]

If you're a hands on fishkeeper then by all means, go for powerheads with sponge inlet covers and clean them every week. Make sure you wear gloves when cleaning them cause bristleworms like to hide in the sponges and you don't want to get stung by them

The pool filter strainers I'm talking about are BIG, like 4" diameter at LEAST. A little too much to practically affix to a powerhead inlet and certainly unsightly

 

[rabbut]

Are bristle works just stingers, or can they do more? What type of gloves are we talking? Gardening or latex?

I see what you mean by the pool strainers not realy being practical now, they are quite large

I've been given a book by my Grandad about the marine aquarium, but it dates back to the 1970's, and it's dated to say the least. It surgests that liverock is a waste of time, skimmers keep things to clinical and that UGF is the way foreward I presume the stocking information would be irrelivant now also? TBH, I'm not sure I realy want to keep reading it if it is out of date, I'd rater use the net to find more relivant and modern advise, along side this forum, but if it has anything useful it, I will skip to the useful bit. Its called "The Tropical Marine Aquarium by Vincent B. Hargreaves"

Thanks again SkiFletch

 

[Colin_T]

The old books are always good to read because they give you an insight into how fish keeping was done many years ago. It also shows you how far we have come and the advancement in the technology.
Read the book and then read a more modern book and look at the difference.

 

[SkiFletch]

Their bristles are irritating, kind of like a mild rash or mosquito bite. Not harmfully poisonus, but not comfortable either . Any plastic glove would be fine. If you do go the latex route, go with powder-free

 

[rabbut]

Chears I have edited the title (or are in the process of doing so) to reflect that I whish to use this thread as a running advise thing, rather than opening a new thread stating the same things over each time I want to ask a question, such as the one below;

Skimming;

Wet or Dry? Are there any benifits to either?

Thanks
Rabbut

 

[SkiFletch]

No hard data on this. Some people swear wet skimming removes more DOCs than dry. I dry skim myself cause I'm lazy and don't want to clean the cup often

 

[rabbut]

OK, so for hands-off keepers, mebe go dry and hands-on can choose their own is basically it then? Fair enough, that makes you the third person to express no feelings of advantage other than that dry skimming is less work cleaning out, so I'll probibly go dry...

Back to powerheads I'm afraid. The Maxijets, if they were shoved into the rockwork, hidden from view, I suppose they would still need a sponge on the inlet? If so, I may get some Tunze or Korellas since I don't yet have the pumps. Anyone know of the cheapest supplier of these in the UK? Also, one two or three? Is it better to get the flow from more than one source?

Thanks again
Rabbut

 

[kj23502]

More than 1 source is good. Ideally at least in opposite corners or something along that nature. It alleviates dead spots/areas

 

[SkiFletch]

Having stuck maxijets in rockwork to hide them, I can honestly say its a ROYAL pain in the rear to maintain them like that and will never do it again...

And its better to have two powerheads both for different water movement, but more importantly in case one does quit on you you aren't up the creek without a paddle

 

[rabbut]

OK, I'm starting to piece together equipment for the tank now.

I am bidding on a 3X24W T5 liminare on Ebay. I'm going to see how it goes, but I'm not bidding high. I realy am more tempted to bid on a liminare that won't finish untill next weekend, that has 4 24W T5's That means to me that I will have about 5.3 WPG. The 3 tube version comes just below 4... In a way I hope the three tube luminare falls though, as I suspect that the 4 tube version will be better.

The luminares are both supplied with 10,000K tubes. Are these ok, or do I need different ones?

Next up, protien skimmers. I'm looking at something along these lines... http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...A:IT&ih=005 I understand from talking to my (now ex, he's resigned ) supervisor, that these need a driving pump to put water through them, on top of the pump that adds bubbles to the reactor. Two questions, am I correct in that it needs a driving pump? Second, is this particular one any good? There are two re-circulating skimmers at work, one fab, the other c*!?, so apparently these vary on performance a lot from brand to brand. I've also been looking at Deltec MCE 600's on ebay, but as of yet, nothing that doesn't need work has come up. Since I have no expreience with skimmers, I think I would rather get one that works from the start :roleyes:

Thanks all
Rabbut