Anemone in a new tank

[DaFishNerd]

Hey guys, just getting back into the hobby after a few years and set up a brand new 12 gallon reef tank. Everything was put together on Wednesday so its only 4 days old. I Kickstarted the cycle with live rock, some filter media from an established tank and a healthy dose of turbo start 900 for good measure. All that is in the tank so far is a few hermits and a very small clownfish. I planned on getting a duncan coral from a friend tomorrow and they said they have a very prolific bubble tip anemone and wants to throw one in for me. My tank is still far too new and in my opinion also not really big enough for a bubble tip but they insist on me taking a little one off their hands. Is there any way it could thrive? If its possible im going to say go for it because it would be cool to have but it seems like something that wouldn't work.

 

[James M]

Try it and if it dies you’ll know why

 

[Backtolifemassage]

Hey guys, just getting back into the hobby after a few years and set up a brand new 12 gallon reef tank. Everything was put together on Wednesday so its only 4 days old. I Kickstarted the cycle with live rock, some filter media from an established tank and a healthy dose of turbo start 900 for good measure. All that is in the tank so far is a few hermits and a very small clownfish. I planned on getting a duncan coral from a friend tomorrow and they said they have a very prolific bubble tip anemone and wants to throw one in for me. My tank is still far too new and in my opinion also not really big enough for a bubble tip but they insist on me taking a little one off their hands. Is there any way it could thrive? If its possible im going to say go for it because it would be cool to have but it seems like something that wouldn't work.

 

[Backtolifemassage]

You’ll never know until you try. Little guy might just surprise you. Good luck

 

[CBonito]

Don't do it. The tank is too new.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I think it will be interesting to see what happens. I think many of the reasons that folks with new tanks have issues relate to two things:

1. Starting a dry rock tank with a bunch of ammonia consuming bacteria in a bottle is a very poor way to establish the microbiome in a reef tank.

2. New tanks are often maintained by new aquarists, who often do not know what to do in various scenarios, and by the time they respond appropriately, the problem is much worse.

Thus, I think tanks started by experienced aquarists with ocean live rock (best) or live rock from an existing successful tank have a big head start over dry rock tanks. These may well be ready for harder organisms quite quickly where the dry rock tanks with inexperienced aquarists are not.

Several of us are trying to demonstrate such effects with our current builds.

 

[DaFishNerd]

I think it will be interesting to see what happens. I think many of the reasons that folks with new tanks have issues relate to two things:

1. Starting a dry rock tank with a bunch of ammonia consuming bacteria in a bottle is a very poor way to establish the microbiome in a reef tank.

2. New tanks are often maintained by new aquarists, who often do not know what to do in various scenarios, and by the time they respond appropriately, the problem is much worse.

Thus, I think tanks started by experienced aquarists with ocean live rock (best) or live rock from an existing successful tank have a big head start over dry rock tanks. These may well be ready for harder organisms quite quickly where the dry rock tanks with inexperienced aquarists are not.

Several of us are trying to demonstrate such effects with our current builds.

I think ive set it up for a pretty good jump start, Im keeping the ammonia at 1ppm and detoxifying it. It's only been 24 hours since I added the media from an established tank since the live rock wasn't showing nitrates yet so we will see if I can get this cycle kickstarted soon enough to not have ammonia when Im given the BTA. I have a lot of experience with reef tanks but im a little rusty and never had an anemone.