We have an IBC under the house' date=' there are a couple of local suppliers who collect and deliver seawater to your house so we get a delivery maybe once in 6 months.[/quote']

Are there issues with storing seawater for a period though ?

We collect our own sea water and store it and have never had a problem. I do recall reading somewhere that somebody would put chlorine in their stored sea water to oxidize any organics that may have been in the water. But nobody that I know has had any troubles with stored NSW.

Could you hypothetically say fill a tank with sea water running a uv filter for like a week then put it in marine tank ?

I had the same question BB but apparently its not a problem.

Oz i think the reason most seawater is collected so far off shore is to reduce the possible chemical contamination from beaches and runoff etc.

The part I like the most about Reefkeeping is there is no right or wrong way - well of course there is wrong ways but let me clarify, there are many ways to achieve the outcome.

I have had three marine tanks before my current one. I have done the sea water thing and gone through a few brands buckets of salt to end up where I am today. Personally I use Red Sea Coral pro and can recommend it hands down the best we can get in Aus.

My tank was dry base rock seeded with Zeovit bacteria - tank had coral and fish go in 9 days after filling up. I have never looked back- that said for Marcus tank purposes he needs to go through a cycle and build his bacteria colony. The wish list he proposed of anemone and clowns will be a great start although my imagining those bare stag horn coral covered by some amazing zoanthids in no time at all. :)

I used to collect my own seawater for the beach, away from any boat ramps or boating activity, then I used to run my skimmer through it for 24 then use it for WCs, I got the idea from the LFS I worked in as they did the same thing to the stuff they sold. I also used to get the supplier from the shop to fill the tanks I installed too, always very quick to cycle too. :encouragement:

Just an update... Purchased the Redsea Cycle Kit, and up to Day 6/21 :-( Tank Cycling is over rated ! LOL

Purchased the Juwel Protein Skimmer (matches the tank, not great reviews, BUT design for upto 500 lts, and my tanks only 100-120lt), additional live rocks, and added more water movement.

Sure you never ran a chop shop before? You re-birthed that freshie into a tidy marine! Now where did you hide that skimmer you mentioned?

Looks good very very good!... Have you found any of those lighting clowns you wanted?

Sure you never ran a chop shop before? You re-birthed that freshie into a tidy marine! Now where did you hide that skimmer you mentioned?

Drained 30% of the tank! and cut the foam background to fit the protein skimmer.... Thought I'd regret leaving it in the front RH corner' date=' and it's now or never as the tank is still cycling.....was wrecking my brains aldvshlouqdb, but glad I did it :happydance:, as it also gave the tank more available sand base for the anemones.

Looks good very very good!... Have you found any of those lighting clowns you wanted?

yeah, SMS the company, and they told me to post it on Facebook, so will be doing that tonight :-)

You managed to source lighting clowns?? Where did you find those?

Also what anemone have you decided to go with?

You managed to source lighting clowns?? Where did you find those?

Also what anemone have you decided to go with?

My bad.....looking at the snowflake clowns....from Photon (Brisbane)....Matt_95 suggested them.

Have reserved some carpet anemones, blue, purple, green, tan & red, although the red is still some time away, as the seller is splitting it this week, fingers cross. How long does it normally take for them to be sold/healed to be available for sale ? So looking for bright yellow, pink ? .... what other colours are there ? Hoping they will all be OK in my 120 lt...I know it's too small to house all of them, but I'm very good at nano setups :worried:

Ooooh, that would be me :p They've got a new batch ready soon so you're getting then at a good time :)

What kind of carpet anemones are they? The only ones that would fit your tank are the mini maxi carpets. They're also the only carpets you can split so I'm assuming you're talking about those? They shouldn't take to long to heal up, they're very resilient. Do you mind sharing your source for them? They're hard to find over here, I got one, but it died due to the way the LFS removed it from it's rock. You will be able to house a great deal of maxi mini carpets in there, they dint get very big and they play nicely with each other. Having lots might be dangerous with your clowns though, they're not a host species and they could eat the clowns which I wouldn't want to risk with such expensive fish.

Haddoni carpet anemones will host the clowns, but they will get way to big, 60cm+, they can't be split either so you can't keep them smal. If you had a wider tank I could easily collect you a baby and send it up, they're very common here.

Oh wow I didn't know minimaxis where not good for hosting clowns :worthy: Thanks for that info Matt_95.

They were sold as hddons anemones.....the seller is a local private collector and ONLY has another large blue anemone for sale.....I think approx. $2k. She has 5 anemones all side by side, together, and a clown fish swimming through it. They weren't fed frequently, so growth rate wasn't the best... hoping to house them all together, with a pair of clowns..... the seller split the blue last year with success, but failed on a green :-(

I need to read more about anemones and their types/families...

I wouldn't advise putting even a single haddonis carpet in there, as I said in the other thread, they get HUGE. I'll have to take a picture next time I'm out on the tidal flats where they're found. I've never heard of a successful split of a carpet anemone other than the minis and mini maxis, that's really interesting.

IMO, the best host anemone for your tank would be either a BTA or a H. crispa. Neither are the natural hosts for the clowns you're getting but Peter has a pair in hosting a BTA and H. crispa is the natural host of the closely related percula clown.

So are all carpet "looking" anemones haddonis ? The ones you mentioned on the tidal flats, what colours are they ? If they're so common, why are they so expensive....heard a blue carpet was sold for $3k (dinner plate size) over east a few weeks ago ?

Also, when I say split, i meant cut into halve......sorry still getting my lingo right

I used to have a crispa for my occys even though they are supposed to be for perculars. Heteractis Magnifica is also a good host for occys, they have an amazing purple coloured body & some have blue tips, only problem is they grow way too big for normal tanks. Stichodactyla Gigantea is another host but, as the name suggests, they are also a very big one. Apparently the bubble tip(E. Quadricolor) is also a host, but I've never had success with them & occys, only Premnas Biaculeata(maroon clown), but in saying that, occys aren't meant to use H. Crispas as hosts either & mine did. :encouragement:

Not all of the larger carpet anemones are S. haddoni, however most carpets in the trade are. Their tentacles are shorter and stubbier than S. gigantea and I have never seen the third carpet that sometimes appears in the trade to compare. The ones on the flats we have seen green, brown, yellow and blueish. The blues purples and reds are more expensive because they're less common and because people will pay it.

Yeah I got that :p I've never heard of them splitting naturally or being cut and surviving.

Have you seen the big magnifica they have at Sea World Squiggle?

Clowns in captivity will often be hosted by coral as well if no anemone is available, corals like elegance, torch, hammer, frogspawn and Duncan's can make a good host and are often taken up by clowns. I am hoping mine will be hosted by my elegance. Clowns in captivity can sometimes take ages before they will move into a host as well as there is less of a need to use one for shelter.

I think I have seen that one last time I was at Sea World, massive, about a meter wide! :)

My clowns used to swap between the crispa & some Euphyllia all the time, pretty sure the coral wasn't a fan of it though, lol. :encouragement:

When I used to have my akindynos pair they hosted a coral to death. Our percs hosted a toadstool and bubble coral with no ill effects though, I guess it depends on the temperament of the clowns, some can be very abusive towards their host!

My snowflakes look to be moving into my elegance, I'll have to keep an eye on it to make sure they don't bother it.

Love to see pics of your snowflakes.......can't wait to have them.

Spent the last 2 hours reading about carpet anemones, and the volume of contradicting information is madness....found this article which I thought was great reading http://http://www.carlosreef.com/download/54/

Also, looking to getting some hannah checkers....Any advise on which ones to get ? Just got the Redsea Reef a Foundation Pro Test. Kit (Ca, KH & Mg).... Know where I can purchase a "marine pack" like this ?

I'll take some in a second.

I did some reading last night about splitting them last night as well, lots of contradicting information but it looks like a small percentage may survive.

I don't use test kits so I don't really know sorry, I live on the water so if anything looks off a large water change fixes everything. I do at least 50% weekly. I do know that a few of dad's friends got their Hanna tests directly from Hanna though.

Hahaha, you & your gadgets BB! :rofl:

Here's some crappy iPhone photos, the sand bed isn't that dirty, it's weird shadows from the LED. LED lighting makes taking pictures of a tank impossible sometimes.

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