anemones and SPS - seperate but connected

[ben&bobbi]

Ok, we are planning to move our anemone tank from our room to the livingroom. However, i also want a SPS grow out tank. So our argreement was for both!

I am thinking of using 2 tanks - a 39g tall and a std 29g.

one of them will be the display where i will put a our purple LTA and RBTA. THey are currently in a 20g tall for almost 1 yr together. the RBTA was opened about 15in last night!

the second tank will have a frag rack set as high as possible and also used as the sump. I will have a small HOB DIY refugium (aqua clear 100 modded) and i will try to find a used HOB skimmer. I will be able to shut off the connection between the tanks if needed to treat the SPS's.

So my question, do you know of an issue keeping the anemones in the same water conditions as SPS's? the flow will be much slower in the anemone tank. I do not believe there will be a problem, but wanted to ask.

[GSMguy]

anemones and SPS like the same thing, clean water.

[garygb]

I can't speak from personal experience, but some would say that chemical warfare (allelopathy) is a concern between sps and anemones, especially in small volumes of water. From what I've read, allelopathy is a greater concern between soft corals and anemones. Since this is shared system water, it doesn't matter than the two are not physically in the same tank. On the other hand, lots of people successfully keep a mixture of corals and anemones. This is an area that is controversial with both camps defending their position. I've read some articles that say that inhabitants can get used to one another and it no longer be an issue. Heavy skimming and activated carbon is also suggested to reduce the amount of chemical warfare between species.

[ben&bobbi]

i know about the warfare between softies and SPS. Didn't come across anything on anemones chemically thru the water attacking.

I do know they will physically sting SPS. I stuck a tri-color and a digi in the tank, and both have good battle wounds!

carbon is another debate that there is no debate winner- yes / no / for brief periods / replace daily/weekly, etc.......

[timrandlerv10]

i've found all the same info that gary discussed. the one thing that came up that seemed to be useful was ozone, although there was not a large amount of info supporting or detailing it. i would assume that if you are keeping two dissimilar nems together they have found a way to cope chemically, and that if you can help them with the new process, they seem to be one of those 'yeah but mine dont' pairs, and that bodes well for you.

if it were me, i would consider running carbon between them, or having ozone/carbon on the sump inlet and skimmer/carbon on the outlet, or some variation thereof. they may be in the same system, but if you run all the water entering their subsystem through some type of polyfilter/ozone/skimmer/carbon/magic carwash you would improve your chances of success.

all things can live together, but if you have show nems in small tanks and want to grow out sps frags, you dont want 'live' you want 'excel' but i think you can do it!

keep me updated, as i'm always arguing with people about combining things that obviously dont go together, and i need all the help i can get!

good luck,
tim