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Tank feeding, general coral care


gstein

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Hi everyone, I have recently gotten into the lovely hobby of reefing! my 10 gallon nano has been up and cycled for about 4 months now and I am slowly adding corals and inverts, not super interested in any fish at the moment, I figured I'll get to it later ( i would love a watchman/shrimp combo or a clown for my anemone). I run a top fin 10 gallon filter, a protein skimmer, 50w heater and current marine led light. I will eventually move to a larger tank because isn't that the way it goes, more more more. So far in the tank I have:
2 peppermint shrimp
2 micro brittle stars (came with the LR and I only ever get a glimpse of them)
Pulsing xenia (started as a frag with 2 little heads and has flourished)
Flower pot (I just got from the LFS)
some zoanthids that came on the big live rock and a baseball sized colony that I just purchased (I found it at the LFS, had a tri-color BTA on it and I picked it up for a steal.)
small clam that came in on the LR
Tri-color BTA (moved behind my HOB filter the night I got him)
1 small red sea star, I think it is a red fromia starfish (probably not a good choice in hind sight)
1 Astrea snail
1 turbo snail
1 fighting conch (keeps my sand and bottom few inches of my tank clean, love watching him)
3 scarlet hermit crabs (also fun to watch)
a tiny, tiny blue mushroom coral with red spots, showed up out of the blue.
(I have seen a few other creatures that hitched hiked on the LR like bristle worms, pods and fan worms. I had a crab that died a little after the cycling of the tank.

Anyway my question is feeding, without any fish being fed regularly I'm afraid that there isn't enough food for everyone. Occasionally I will feed my shrimp (the swim up to my fingers and eat what I have pinched between them, it's awesome) but besides that the only ever time I have fed the tank was when I first got the colony of zoanthids with the bubble tip and I tried to feed them both some super finely chopped tilapia and some liquefied fish pellets (not sure if its a good idea, I'll probably get some reef roids or coral frenzy in the near future).

My BTA is looking better than it did when I first got it and I feel like its more open than it was at the LFS but it could just be the way the tank magnifies things. Part of the zoanthid colony isn't doing too well, it's starting to have that melting appearance but the other half is looking alright.

Just some more information, I try to do a water change once a week, at least 25% I originally did 50% water changes every week but in the interest of keeping the water perimeters more stable I have gone to the 25%.

I really love this little tank and i can see why everyone who gets into the hobby loves it, it really brightens up any room and I enjoy just sitting and watching my tank (I think my roommate thinks I am a weirdo but I always seem to find some new little creature in the LR or learn something about the behavior of the creatures that I already have in the tank).

Any help and advice would be appreciated, I'm always trying to find some way of improving the environment I have created for these little guys and want to see them flourish into wonderful colonies and a beautiful nano reef, thanks everyone. below is a shared google photos album of my little tank.
https://goo.gl/photos/zzfor92GT4xKAiBX9

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Hey there! Fellow 10 gallon reef guy here.I'm running the same lighting,but I was advised that clams and anemones needed a stronger light,because I too was going to get an anemone.how is your anemone and claim doing under the light?how long have they been in there?are you having to dose yet?just questions I have because ive been wanting to get those same animals.But I'm going to go look at 40 gallon breeder tanks tonight so I'm going to upgrade,but have had my ten gallon for a year and four months.good luck!

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Get some rods coral food or cyclops or other coral and filter feeder food and feed that once a week or so. The coral and inverts will all benefit from it. Also, because you have the shrimp, hermits, and the conch, you definitely should feed something like a frozen coral food or even pellets or they will starve and/or start eating your coral or anemone. The conch also needs a lot more food than you're giving it. Honestly, they often have a hard time surviving long term even in well stocked, well fed tanks with robust sandbed fauna. Unless you plan on feeding the tank a ton, I would suggest rehoming it for the sake of the conch. There's very little chance it will survive in a tank without many food options.

 

I've seen it many times where shrimp or crabs don't have enough to eat and rather than starve, they decide that coral is an edible alternative to perishing...

 

Edit, on the food survival topic, the fromia starfish isn't going to survive, period. These things post about a 99.999% mortality rate in home aquariums even in a few months. I realize you may be un or ill informed in this one since I routinely see these even in good LFS's, even Drs Foster Smith lists them as moderate care, but they honestly have no business being removed from the wild. The only ones I've seen make it to even close to a year were in massive, well established, high nutrient skimmerless tanks. I researched a few years ago and was not been able to find evidence of anyone keeping them for multiple years in home aquariums, even 6 months is almost unheard of, yet they easily live for years in the wild.

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I've had the anemone for less than a week, so as far as how well it's doing I don't have a huge frame of reference but it looks okay to me so far. The clam was just a basic little clam, there is pictures of everything in the album. What brands of frozen coral food or pellets and feed those on the same schedule as the other coral food you suggested?

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Welcome,

 

The light you have is probably not strong enough for the anemone. They need very strong light and very stable water conditions.

 

Is it a clam you have(they need very strong light as well) or is it a bivalve?

 

The zoas may be melting depending on where they are placed, it could be too much light or not enough nutrients in the tank.

 

The red star fish i agree with you, they don't often survive, especially in small tanks. There simply isn't enough food for them to survive.

 

I would get reef roids to feed the corals and feed fish food for the hermits and such.

 

Getting a small fish like a clown would help.

 

Are you testing your tank?

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What light would you recommend for the anemone, I want to do my best to provide a good environment for the anemone. The clam is just a bivalve I believe, pictures in the album. I'm thinking maybe getting like an AI Prime or something similar, I'm just not super sure what to spend the money on. I test the tank every other day my water parameters are as follows

 

80 degrees F

PH 8.1

Ammonia 0ppm

Nitrite 0ppm

Nitrate 5.0 ppm

It's right before my water change. So I should probably feed the corals once a week and the hermits, shrimp and conch with the fish food every few days?

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I wouldn't rush on getting a light. I would research and see how many have success with anemones with that light.

 

The Ai Prime is a very nice light and you can use it if you upgrade. Ppl have it on 29g cubes, and tanks that are 24" long.

 

You need to start testing alk, ca, and mag as well. Those are very important for corals etc.

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I vote ai prime.

As for your anemone, Clown79 has made good points, but make sure not to blast them with light right off the bat. They will die from too much light as, if not more, easily than too little

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RIP Sebastian

You shouldn't have an anemone in your tank until the tank is at least six months old. Sounds like you need to do some research it's the foundation of this hobby.

 

Nick

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