Corals in a quarantine tank

[mrbacony]

I have a friend that is selling me a Waterbox 25 for very cheap. He is giving me all the corals in his tank. He has lots of euphyllia and I would like to keep them. However, the catch is his corals are full of aptasia. I mean it is infested with it. I already have an established tank and obviously do not want to put the corals in my tank I was going to set up a small 20 gallon quarantine tank and put the corals into it and treat the aptasia. Can I put this coral directly into a new tank without having cycled it? There will be no fish, only corals.

 

[Maxx]

The corals will have bacteria on them to begin with, so the tank is not sterile. Try adding some rock from your buddy's system as well to add more biological filtration.

How are you going to treat for the aptasia?
Personally, I'd add several peppermint shrimp. I've had good results by adding peppermint shrimp and either not feeding the tank or severely reducing the amount of food available, so the peppermint shrimp were hungry and looking for food.

 

[mrbacony]

This is a great suggestion! I was actually just going to start treating it with Aptasia X, but I do like your suggestion. I will probably do both.

All of his rocks are encrusted with corals, so I will be getting all of the old rock as well

 

[Maxx]

I would not treat with Aptasia X.
First, in my past experiences with Aptasia X, I started with 4 small aptasia and finished with ALOT of small aptasia.
So my limited (one-and-done) experience with it was unsuccessful.

But the 2nd and more important reason I would not use something like Aptasia X is that it kills off the aptasia without removing it so you now have decaying matter in the QT. When you were already concerned about having enough bacteria/biological filtration in the QT to begin with, I don't like the idea of adding decaying matter to mix as well. Peppermint shrimp will add to your bioload, but they will dispose of the aptasia so that nothing is decaying in the QT.