Carpet anenome

[ZOOT098]

Hi all
well my 175 is up and running now for about 2 or 3 weeks +/-
This is my question
i used all my live rock from my 90 and 72, filled my 175 with 50% old saltwater and 50% new, and used 50% old sand and 50%new, and with a few powerheads and my overflows im turning water a little over 20x per hour

all params are great, lighting is plenty

how long should i wait before purchasing a carpet nem???

 

[dustin_P74]

id give it a month or two of testing to see if the parameters stay stable then id say yes your good

 

[daugherty]

at least a few months

 

[stagofdoom]

yeah I wouldnt risk wiping out the whole tank with an anemone.

also Ive heard carpets are one of the harder ones to keep alive so I would definitely wait a little while.

 

[dustin_P74]

also Ive heard carpets are one of the harder ones to keep alive so I would definitely wait a little while.

of course that is all relative since all anemones are hard to keep

 

[ZOOT098]

i have read that the carpets are one of the more user friendly nems
it just goes to show that no matter how much reading and research you do, you will get conflicting info

im planning on the end of august, and im still undecided between a carpet or a bubble tip

 

[dcantucson]

They move around a lot. I would wait 'til around at least a year! IMO

 

[dustin_P74]

i have read that the carpets are one of the more user friendly nems
it just goes to show that no matter how much reading and research you do, you will get conflicting info

im planning on the end of august, and im still undecided between a carpet or a bubble tip

i dont see any problems with that

 

[Phroger]

it just goes to show that no matter how much reading and research you do, you will get conflicting info

This is definitely a hobby where opinions and and thoughts of how things should be done vary a lot. What works for one person might not work for somebody else even with almost identical tanks. The only thing everybody seems to agree on is water parameters - and even then there is still debate about temp and salinity. If you do your research and compile the general consensus of everybody you should be fine.

As for the anemone, I couldn't tell you anything about carpets but my bubble tip is very easy to care for. My cinnamon clown actually feeds it and I give it a raw jumbo shrimp about once a week. The only movement around the tank was when I first put it in, it attached to the nearest rock. Other then that, I just let it be.

 

[cthegame]

i have read that the carpets are one of the more user friendly nems
it just goes to show that no matter how much reading and research you do, you will get conflicting info

im planning on the end of august, and im still undecided between a carpet or a bubble tip

There is only one type of carpet that is "hardy", the rest are very difficult to keep. I moved last month and managed to take 70% of the original water but the moved caused me to lose 2 corals, 2 shrimps and a bunch of cleaner crew. Because of this, i gave my anemone to LFS because i figured it wouldnt have much of a chance to survive unless the tank "re-matures". Id say wait as long as you can...at least 6 months.

 

[Navarchus]

I am not a big carpet fan. In my old setup I had a carpet anem, but it ate my prize fish (among other things as cthegame mentions). I now have a bubble tip, and it is being a good citizen. I added him about 3 weeks after my params normalized. He moved around a lot in the beginning, but has finally settled down in a little nook in my LR.

 

[yote]

If your dead set on keeping a carpet anemone,give the tank at least 9 months to settle back in.
Carpets are one of the most aggressive anemones you can keep.No fish in the tank will be safe.Even the clowns the carpet is hosting can become a meal.
The last anemone I kept,ended up costing me nearly $1,000 worth of SPS colonies,not frags,but 6" to 8" colonies.All because I moved one powerhead and the anemone decided to take a stroll across the tank during the night.

 

[ZOOT098]

ok so what im hearing is if i absolutely have to have a nem...go with a bubble tip???

 

[ndepratt]

fo sho homey!

 

[yote]

Pretty much

 

[ZOOT098]

cool
the only reason im leaning towards a nem is i have had a mated pair of alardi clowns for about 10 months and they have taken to my toadstool, slowly destroying it

thought it would be cool to atempt to get them to host a nem

the other thing i have going for me is that my new tank is big and not heavily stocked with coral, so if it did move around when first put in, i could let it do so and get settled before my coral colonies get to big

 

[BigH55]

Bubbletips are great but the carpet nems should be kept in the ocean. IMO.

 

[ZOOT098]

sorry bigh i read bubletips then got fixated on your avatar :D

 

[yote]

cool
the only reason im leaning towards a nem is i have had a mated pair of alardi clowns for about 10 months and they have taken to my toadstool, slowly destroying it

thought it would be cool to atempt to get them to host a nem

the other thing i have going for me is that my new tank is big and not heavily stocked with coral, so if it did move around when first put in, i could let it do so and get settled before my coral colonies get to big

My bubbletip didnt move at all for a little over a year.Then I redirected the flow from a powerhead one evening,changing the flow around.The next morning,the BTA was on the other side of tank,and several colonies of SPS were just white skeletons.
There will never be another anemone in my reef tank.

 

[Navarchus]

There is only a slight chance that your mated pair of clowns will host your anemone. I got my bubbletip for the same reason, and the clowns won't go near it.