Saltydaddy7 Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Hey there everyone I'm new to saltwater as in today I started. My kids and I were out beach combing during the minus tide and thought it would be cool to take some stuff home. I thought how hard would it be. How wrong I was. Because now the anemones are closed tight and the water temp is climbing. It's in my living room. I don't know if Im setup for this! Anyway help would be appreciated. There isn't much info out there and this seems like one of the only places to get it. And yes I already know I shouldn't have collected them as I have been reading this site and now know. But what now I don't want to kill anything. Link to comment
castiel Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Some more info would be useful. - Where did you collect? - What exactly did you collect? - What equipment do you currently have? Link to comment
Psychosis Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Well, I can tell you everything is probably going to die. I'm sorry. A list of your current equipment would help me try and help, but your tank is going to cycle (denitrification cycle) and that's going to be too rough on the 'Nems. This is just the tip of a gigantic iceberg of information that I'm going to refrain from dumping on you all at once. Any way, what do you have set up right now? How does it look? Where these critters collected from tropical or temperate waters? Do you have any kind of test kit? Link to comment
AquaticEngineer Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 How far from the from seawater are you? If not far and the animals haven't been exposed to any foreign creatures (ie: stuff from a seafood market) I would probably take them back to the ocean. If you really do want to keep them long term, and only want to do it in a small scale I would look into getting a tank from www.Micro-Reefs.com They make a 2 gallon temperate ready tank and are releasing a 6.2 gallon all in one temperate ready tank. With that said, you may want to get the tank up and running for a while and then get livestock But, depending on what species of anemone you collected they may make it. I have a couple aggregating anemones that have been living in a jar full of phytoplankton and tigroprius in my window since December Shoot me a PM if you have any specific questions or if you wanna chat about tank setups Link to comment
Nemcrazy Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Hey looks like your in mukilteo that's only 25 min from me. I'm new to Coldwater stuff but maybe I can help look at what you got and what you don't. The guys at Coldwater marine are an excellent resource also. But let me know. Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 your best bet might be to stop in a local petstore that has saltwater........not petco there knobs. air,salt level,tempeture,light if theres coral. Link to comment
Saltydaddy7 Posted June 5, 2012 Author Share Posted June 5, 2012 Thank for the help guys. I have them in my sons 10 gallon that had his neon tetras. With the old gravel and filter. And the stock screw in lighting. I was looking online last night and think I have a painted anemone. And a couple others I'm not sure about some purplish crabs and a couple hermit crabs. But they are not opening which isn't good. And how do I test the water? and what for? Hey nem crazy I might take you up on the help I'll shoot you a message. You said your close? Link to comment
Deleted User 3 Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Thank for the help guys. I have them in my sons 10 gallon that had his neon tetras. With the old gravel and filter. And the stock screw in lighting. I was looking online last night and think I have a painted anemone. And a couple others I'm not sure about some purplish crabs and a couple hermit crabs. But they are not opening which isn't good. And how do I test the water? and what for? Hey nem crazy I might take you up on the help I'll shoot you a message. You said your close? buy a test kit API marine, it has all the tests you should need, if the water temp is too hot put some ice cubes in a bag and float it to cool it down if possible. Go get an actual saltwater ready tank, with a filter, heater, good lighting, etc... Link to comment
TheUnfocusedOne Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Hey there everyone I'm new to saltwater as in today I started. My kids and I were out beach combing during the minus tide and thought it would be cool to take some stuff home. I thought how hard would it be. How wrong I was. Because now the anemones are closed tight and the water temp is climbing. It's in my living room. I don't know if Im setup for this! Anyway help would be appreciated. There isn't much info out there and this seems like one of the only places to get it. And yes I already know I shouldn't have collected them as I have been reading this site and now know. But what now I don't want to kill anything. I have them in my sons 10 gallon that had his neon tetras. You have it in a freshwater tank? Link to comment
iball1804 Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 I have them in my sons 10 gallon that had his neon tetras. Link to comment
TheUnfocusedOne Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 :facepalm: Recomprehension fail. Shut up ballsack. Link to comment
JoshColdWater Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Since she collected all tidal animals she will probly have better luck with it than one would expect due to the nature of how these animals live is exactly why we like them more for home aquaria because of the hardyness to salinity swings and tempeture changes. Just remember summer is coming up quick so I would get a micro chiller from Mike at micro-reefs asap! If you have any quistions feel free to contact Stew or myself directly as we deal just with sub tropical and temperate animals, you can reach us by going to our website and clicking on the contact us button. Josh Link to comment
Nemcrazy Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 I'm off this morning but tomorrow I have my nems coming from Coldwater marine tomorrow. But I can put my eyeballs on it. And I can bring some spare equipment if need be. Link to comment
C-Rad Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Here is my advice: First, get a GFI or CGFI (Ground Fault Interrupted) power adapter or socket, and plug all the stuff for the tank into it, never directly into the wall. Without it, if your hands are in the tank, and the light, or any electrical thing, falls into the water, you will be electrocuted, maybe even killed. 1) Do a 90-100% water change immediately, and every two or three days, until you learn about how to "cycle" your tank. 2) Don't feed the anemone (much). Food that get's eaten becomes poop (toxic) and food that is not eaten rots (toxic). If you're doing #1, then I guess you could feed a tiny bit the day before every other water change. Anemones look big, but they are mostly just balloons full of water, and require very little food. I guess that 1/8 of a teaspoon of flake fish food, every 5 or six days is plenty. If you notice the anemone getting smaller over time, increase feeding amounts a little. To feed an anemone, I first turn off the water circulation pump in the tank so the water will be still, then I soak 1/8 teaspoon of flake marine fish food in a small glass of tank water until it gets water logged and sinks to the bottom of the glass. Then I suck it up with a turkey baster (or plastic syringe with clear tubing on the end) and blow it right into the anemone (which must be open for this to work). Turn the water circulation pump back on so that any bits that were missed will eventually flow by and get eaten. 3) Keep the water temp under 72 degrees most of the time, and always below (about) 75 degrees. Keep the tank uncovered, and replace any water that evaporates with freshwater (not salt water). Use distilled water or RO (Reverse Osmosis) water, not tap water. Evaporation will cool the water, so a little fan constantly blowing on the water's surface will cool the water a few degrees below room temp, but require topping off the water level with fresh water one of more times per day. 4) Get marine water test kits for Ammonia (very toxic) nitrite (moderately toxic) and nitrate (toxic at high levels). Use them to monitor the tank water, so you'll know how long you can go between water changes. Also get a thermometer. Also get a small Koralia brand water pump to circulate water in the tank. Live marine animals consume food, and oxygen from the water, and produce waste (poop). To keep them alive at home, your tank needs a way to keep the waste levels from building up to toxic levels in the water, and to replace oxygen that gets used up. You also need to keep the water temperature down to around the natural level most of the time (but tide pool animals can endure higher temperatures for a day or so, but probably can't handle higher temps on an ongoing basis. The simplest way to keep waste levels from building up in the tank is to feed as little as possible (an anemone can go days, or weeks, without food), and to replace most or all of the water in the tank every day or two. (I said simple, not easy) Sea water will keep at home, in the dark, for weeks (at least), so if you had a way to store sea water at home (50 gallon plastic drum?) you could replace 9 gallons of water every other day go get more water when you run out. (45 gallons would last 12 days) That method will keep things alive while you learn the correct long term solution. The correct long term solution is to "cycle" your tank. That's a huge complicated topic, but the bottom line is that you need to provide a place in the tank for beneficial, waste eating, bacteria to grow, and wait for them to grow in numbers until they achieve a population size that is sufficient to consume all of the waste that the animals in your tank produce. There are many ways to cultivate a population of these beneficial bacteria, but the easiest and fastest would probably be to buy about 10-15 lbs of cured "live rock" from a tropical fish store. Arrange it loosely in the tank so that water can circulate over the entire surface of every piece (as much as possible) i.e.: minimize dead spots where water can't easily flow. And get a little Koralia brand water pump to circulate water around the tank. the beneficial bacteria live in the pours on the surface of the live rock, and depend on lots of water flow. Link to comment
Saltydaddy7 Posted June 6, 2012 Author Share Posted June 6, 2012 Thank you everyone for the great advice. I will be using it in the future but after reading up on what I could find on the Internet and I decided to redraft. A local reefer (thanks nemcrazy) released most of them yesterday at low tide. I kept a couple aggragating anemones to start out with. And gave a couple that were different to him. He also brought over a powerheads with a sponge out of one of his tanks. So now I will start fresh. I already did a waterchange. Thanks c-rad I will stick to that program! Link to comment
Genj Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 First, get a GFI or CGFI (Ground Fault Interrupted) power adapter or socket, and plug all the stuff for the tank into it, never directly into the wall. Without it, if your hands are in the tank, and the light, or any electrical thing, falls into the water, you will be electrocuted, maybe even killed. Just be aware that there is always the potential for the GFI to trip while you are away, thus resulting in a dead tank. It's a risk that you have to decide on how to deal with. Link to comment
JoshColdWater Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Or you can just buy a Nano tank from micro reefs and do it right the first time! Link to comment
Saltydaddy7 Posted June 7, 2012 Author Share Posted June 7, 2012 Or you can just buy a Nano tank from micro reefs and do it right the first time! I think you have the right idea. And I am leaning that way. Link to comment
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