New to this hobby

Beta173

Reefing newb
I have been fumbling through this hobby now for 5 months, I have been lurking on this site for about the same amount of time. I have learned a great deal on reef keeping and know that I have way more to learn. I love my corals and my yellow carpet anenome. I have never been able to keep a fish but my clean-up crew is awsome.

here are a couple of pictures that I would like to share.


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i like the ric in there, what kind of lights are you running and what equipment are you running on the tank. if you have been lurking here for a while you should know that you tank isnt mature enough for an anemone. also what do you mean by you cant keep fish. and welcome to the site too
 
Welcome and enjoy! I also agree after killing a sebae and a carpet, that anemones are for mature tanks only. How long have you had it? trust me, if he's staying alive, there is no reason you shouldn't be able to keep fish
 
I have a 250 watt metal hailide 10,000k w/65 watt actnics,

I have had the anenome for about two months, he seems to be happy, very sticky i feed it silversides twice a week.

now fish I have had no luck, it seems when ever I get fish they just end up crab food after about two weeks, I have good water quality no nitrates, ammonia, nitrites, ph is around 8.3 consistantly, calcium hangs right around 400/ppm that is all i test for right now. water temp is from 76 degrees- 79 degrees never varies more than 3 degrees in 24 hours. I keep my lights on 6.5 hours a day and I have 4 led moon lights.

I sure hope I don't loose my anenome that is definatly my favorite.
 
you dont really want a temperature swing of more then one degree over a 24 hour period. also you might want to find a new fish store if you cant keep their fish alive, because anemones are amazingly hard to keep alive so if you can keep it alive you can keep fish
 
Thanks Reeffreak and Dustin, I don't really have two many LFS that i can choose from, we do have some nice reef shops but they don't really have fish for sale. at least not starter fish. I could probably get my temp. swings down a little more i will work on that.
 
Hi and welcome!

Your corals look nice and healthy. One suggestion though, they would prefer to be on the rocks, not in the sand. I would recommend moving the xenia, mushrooms and hammer to the rocks. You can wedge the rocks in place and get them to stick using some epoxy putty from the hardware store.

I agree with the others that you should be able to keep fish if you can keep inverts. Were you adding more than one fish at a time? If so, that could be your problem. Also, were you adding fish that are known to be difficult to keep and sensitive?

I suggest adding one hardy fish and then don't add any more fish for a while.

One reason that your fish die could also be the anemone. Carpet anemones are known to catch and eat fish, or at least sting them until they die. They are probably the least fish-safe anemone in this hobby (or at least, anemone that is commonly sold in stores).
 
Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome. Biff I am going to move my corals and you suggested to get some epoxy from the hardware store, is there any special epoxy that i need to use do you have any brand names or specific products that are aquarium safe. thanks
 
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