Ideal Anemone Tank

[scbauer]

Hey Everybody, so it's been about 2 years since I lost everything in a move. I cleaned most of my equipment and put it into boxes. I have decided to start up a new tank. This time, however, I'm going to try to avoid the temptation of corals and crazy tanks and keep it somewhat simple. I would like to build a tank that is dedicated to a single anemone and a mated pair of true percs.

The first fish I ever bought (besides the damsel to start my cycle) were a pair of mated true percs, and they were with me through 3 moves (one of which involved them riding on the front seat for 2 days across the country). They were great! When I was new to the obsession... I mean, hobby... I had 1 or 2 "sebae" anemone's that didn't make it (probably had to do with the fact that the LFS told me my 20W NO flourescente bulbs were fine). Most recently, I had a really nice RBTA that was doing great before the move.

(for those interested, I moved from Northern California to Las Vegas and it was snowing... I had a power head and heater in a 30-gallon rubbermaid trash can. Everything was great when we left. Unfortunately, when we arrived the power head and heater were not working and the water was probably in the low 50's. Reef inhabitants don't like this too much)

Anyways, I digress... So I want to put together a tank for 1 large anemone (proabably a red or blue carpet) and a pair of true percs. I'd like to get the input of everybody who is really into anemone's and clowns as to what the best setup would be.

I believe I have the right equipment to make a really good environment. My equipment is as follows:

SLS Reef Optix III+ Pendant
250W DE Phoenix 14,000K
IceCap 250W E-Ballast
Iwaki MD40 Pump
Oceans Motion 4-Way
EuroReef Skimmer
AquaController Jr.
DIY Automatic Top Off
DIY Power Station

I also have my custom-made 29 gallon acrylic tank and stand, but I think I will be starting over with the tank. I'm thinking that the tank should be between 12" and 18" deep. Length and Width will probably be 24" to 30" square mostly because I would like to light the tank with the single MH pendant.

So, if you had that equipment list and an open mind to build a tank, what would you build?

I look forward to everybodies help in this.

-Scott

[Peter Eichler]

I would do a 24x24 or 30x30 tank that is around 18" high and use the 29 or similar tank for a sump. Then a few good size pieces of live rock without building up much of a rock structure and Halimeda growing in the sandbed. I don't see any reason why you couldn't do all that wth the equipment you currently have. If you want to go a cheaper route a standard 40 breeder would be another option.

[scbauer]

So the next question would be... how would you set up the tank?