50 Gallon Carpet Anemone Tank

[Bruce Spiegelman]

Better late than never on a tank build post. This tank is two years old but only recently reached a pretty healthy equilibrium. It was neglected for a long time (not totally, but not full maintenance). It was recently moved, and since then I have devoted a proper amount of time to it; it's responding very well.

It's a 50 gallan Innovative Marine Lagoon (I love IM tanks - have for over 15 years now). Stanks, sump, plumbing, etc is all Innovative Marine. For a long time I ran Chaeto in the sump and it was healthy and growing, but it became too much of an issue with chaeto escaping into the DT. The point of this build was to make it as simple as I copuld. 20% water changes twice a month. A lot of snails and many species.

Livestock:
*Hadonni Carpet (Hard to tell from pics, but he's about 14" when spread out).
*(3) Darwin Clowns
*(1) Banggai Cardinal
*A lot of bristleworms.
*Zoas
*A number of Rock Flower Anermones
*A few other misc small Anemones
*(3) Clams
*A few rainbow chalices
*A few other softies.

Equipment:
*Tunze ATO
*Kessil A500X
*Netune Controller but limited. Just for pump temperature, PH probe, and Kessil on/off.
*Empty space in sump is full of live rock.

The only dosing I do in this tank is 35ml of white vinegar 5X a week and 10mil of Phyto 3X a week for the clams.

 

[FinalPhaze987]

Love the color on that haddoni

 

[Darkxerox]

Was waiting to see pictures of this tank @Bruce Spiegelman ! Love seeing the rock flowers happy sticking out of the sand too. The carpet is so much better suited to a biotope like this.

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

Love the color on that haddoni

It is one of the brightest reds I've ever seen. It's even brighter in person. My poor camera skills don't do it justice.

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

Was waiting to see pictures of this tank @Bruce Spiegelman ! Love seeing the rock flowers happy sticking out of the sand too. The carpet is so much better suited to a biotope like this.

Unfortunately, I lost some of the flowers when the tank was moved not long ago. The ones that are left are doing great. I assume that the ones that didn't make it ended up with damaged feet no matter how hard I tried to remove them gently.

I need more.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

That red haddoni is BANGIN!

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

That red haddoni is BANGIN!

Everything I have is bangin! Except my wife. Wait -- that doesn't sound right....

 

[grizfyrfyter]

It is one of the brightest reds I've ever seen. It's even brighter in person. My poor camera skills don't do it justice.

I've seen some "red" ones but they were always on the purple side of the spectrum where yours is on the orange side and I believe the camera doesn't do it justice.

Did you have to do any isolation or treatments before it was happy or did it arrive super healthy?

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

This one was at the LFS for two months before I brought it home. That was partially at my request, as I literally had to buy and set up a new tank for it. In general, I wouldn't recommend doing it this way as the old rule of thumb about putting nems into a tank that's not at least six months old is a good one, but I've kept enough Nems over the years and "quick" set up tanks enough times that I felt somewhat comfortable. It was also the only thing going into the tank besides a handful of Darwin Clowns for a good while.

I made sure I had an isolation tank prepared just in case and had cipro on hand.