Our 50 gallon tank from the beginning

[OurFishies]

I have the pics set up in order so that you can scroll through them on the http://ourfishies.com/gallery page (everyone is welcome to create a gallery account of their own on this site if you want somewhere to share pics, I started it to send to family and friends that were interested in our progress - plus pics of our puppy that came home from the pet store when I went to go buy coral...)




Our first attempt at a Xenia tree (it didn't make it)















We added four feather dusters, so I need a newer picture, but the big snails in our tank knocked a lot of coral down that I need to put back up (grrrr big snails grrrrrr).

[yote]

Thats a great looking system.
I see your anemone like the top rim.

[Piggy]

Tank is looking good.

[OurFishies]

Thanks guys! Yes the anemone loves the top, it went from the other side at the top to this side at the top (the hatching feeder is near where it decided to park itself this week).

We also had a problem with black hairy bacterial slime in the right corner for a long time. We finally got it cleared up and coral likes it over there these days.

[Oscarsdad608]

What kind of lights are you using and how old is your tank?

[OurFishies]

The tank is about 3-4 months since we switched it back to saltwater (the tank has been saltwater before). We started out with freshwater with mollies and added salt.

The lights are 10k Ocean sun (2), we have lcd's for nighttime, and I will have to ask what the lights are that we switch from daytime to nighttime lighting. We don't have halides...

[Oscarsdad608]

The reason I asked is because I wanted to know if you had enough light for your anemone. I think that is why it is always at the top. Good luck with it in a new tank and low lighting. Keep an eye on it. It is probably just a matter of time before it gets stuck in one of your powerheads.

[Bifferwine]

Oscar's dad is right, anemones need more light than most types of corals. Staying at the top of the tank on the glass is not normal behavior for an anemone. The lights you have won't support an anemone long term. If it starts to look bad, take it out right away. So many tanks have crashed because when anemones get sick or die, they tend to poison everything else in the tank.

[OurFishies]

My husband has had an experience with a dead anemone, ewwww, he does know what to look for when it is not surviving. Hmm, we were thinking about putting in an actinic bulb, but would have to set up a cooling system. The hood and stand were built by his grandfather.

The anemone opens up all of the way up there, and has looked healthy. The coral has also been growing fairly rapidly (we have limited the coral purchases to lower light corals I believe. The duncan needs the most light out of all of them). This is a lot more light than we had when we started the tank. We could possibly swap one of the "dawn" bulbs that are on all day for another regular bulb (there are a total of 4 lights up there).


I will have to check with our friend that works at the fish store and helps us maintain our tank (he maintains tanks outside of the store also). Maybe he can let me know on the light situation. He had us purchase really nice lights, but I wasn't aware that they weren't enough.

[yote]

To really keep the anemone happy,You should shoot for at least 9 watts per gallon unless you have T-5s.Then 4 to 5 watts per gallon would do good.