So it's been some time since the last update to everything or even a just a general post on something haha. Things have been pretty busy around here with work, moving my roommate out and finally getting things back in order in the apartment. The last post I did revolved around the baby rock flower anemones that I had, ~120 in total. Sad to say they didn't make it. Due to a huge hair algae outbreak in the tank, they were smothered and the ones that made it past the outbreak got lost in the rocks because they were to small for me to save.
When the outbreak started, I didn't think it would be that big of an issue. I moved what babies I could reach to a dish in the tank so I knew where they were and could target feed them when I fed the rest of the tank and they would, hopefully, stay away from the algae that was covering the rest of the rocks. Soon that wasn't even enough. As I fought the algae, I moved the babies to a breeder box on the side of the tank. That was a bad move. Soon the algae was in there as well. I then decided that I would move the remaining babies to their own 3 gallon tank. I don't know if it was the move or something else, but they soon disappeared...
I dismantled the 20 gallon in attempt to rid it of hair algae. I had some nice rock that was curing in a bucket that I decided to use. New sand was bought and an internal filter was made using acrylic and put into the tank. There's the overflow compartment that I can put a filter pad and a Phosphate remover pad in. Under that is an area for Cheato, since it's growing like a weed in the sump of the 75 Gallon, then there is the return section with a powerhead for a return pump.
The goals in doing this:
To be able to house the cheato in the tank to help with the algae.
Get rid of the ugly HOB filter.
Increase flow in the tank to kick crap out of the rocks and keep it suspended to get sucked into the overflow.
Give the tank a "cleaner" look.
Most of all: set the tank up the right way from the beginning...
When I first set this tank up I did so in a rush. I wanted an awesome Rock Flower Anemone garden. What I ended up with was a massive headache and a major mess I was always trying to clean up. Learning my lessons, I let the tank go for a month without anything in it. Then added the Cheato when I started to see algae growing on the rocks. ~20 small Limpets and ~30 small unknown snails were added to the tank shortly after that from the 75 display to start reproducing and help with the algae. After I was sure everything was good to go, I added the anemones to the tank with a couple other snails to clean up the remaining algae and keep it gone. One month later, everything is going great and will hopefully stay that way.
I'll be looking to add to the 6 Anemones in the tank to make a nice little colony of them with the hopes of them reproducing again and being able to raise some of them to maturity. Not much is out there as far as breeding these guys in our tanks. Most of it is just luck. I'm hoping to be able to put my experience with it all on here to help those who might want to do it as well. These little guys really are a great addition to a tank for people from expert hobbyists to the new people getting into the hobby.
