New college reefer

[Stephen Zawacki]

Hi y’all I am going to start a saltwater tank for my dorm room. I am going to be getting the SCA 50 gallon starfire complete package. Also I am going to be getting the kessil tuna blue light. With these two things is the tank big enough for a pair of snowflake clowns, and can it support an anemone. Thx

[Lemon]

12 hours ago, Stephen Zawacki said:

Hi y’all I am going to start a saltwater tank for my dorm room. I am going to be getting the SCA 50 gallon starfire complete package. Also I am going to be getting the kessil tuna blue light. With these two things is the tank big enough for a pair of snowflake clowns, and can it support an anemone. Thx

welcome to the forum. I don't have any saltwater fish yet but I think a 50 gallon could have a pair of clownfish, and I haven't researched anemone's all I know is some move

liveaquaria says 20 minimum

here is a nano-reef thread about clownfish tank size: https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/304349-clownfish-min-tank-size-10-20-30/ 

[FrozenFins]

Now I'm no expert in saltwater, but from researching a bunch in saltwater

• Yes two snowflake clowns can go perfectly in a 50. Infact some keep them in smaller tanks like 10-20 gallons. 
• As far as the anemone, it all depends on the clownfish. Sometimes the clownfish will start hosting the anenmone right away, sometimes it will be a year before they start hosting it. Your best bet is to get a clownfish thats already hosting an anemone in the fish store and get both the anemone its hosting as well as the clownfish.
• Bubbletip Anenemones are one of the most common anemones for clownfish to host.

 

[Steph’s Fish and Plants]

It’ll definitely be big enough for some clowns and nems long term. Now, I’ve been researching saltwater for over a year and a half, and I’ve had a tank running since mid January this year, so I’ve got a bit of knowledge/experience but I’m still very much a noob. That being said, I’ve seen a lot of other reefers struggle with anemones, especially early on, so i would recommend getting the tank really established and getting a lot of other corals under your belt. Anemones are technically an invert, not a coral, but have very specific light requirements. The tuna blues I’ve heard good things about, but I have no idea what you’d need to set them to (I use an AI prime, and a much smaller tank). If you’re not already, I’d highly recommend getting onto the ReeftoReef forum, since it is saltwater focused and been around over a decade, so there’s a Ton of good info on there and it’s really well organized. I’d also recommend checking out Saltwateraquariumdotcom on YouTube and BulkReefSupply on YouTube as they have a Ton of good info for beginner reefers. Maintenance wise salt is very similar to fresh, but there’s a lot more chemicals to keep track of and a lot more problems that can occur.

good luck and enjoy the build!