Feather dusters what do I need to know

[Redbird5]

I have a nano I'm wanting to turn into a reef tank. One of the animals I'd like in it is a feather duster. The aquarium is currently cycling.

I've read that feather dusters need a mature tank to live in. I have a 45 gallon aquarium that's been running for 6 months now. Can I add water to the nano aquarium to jump start the maturity of the nano? I have rocks from the older aquarium.

I feed the nano aquarium with phyto every day. There's no fish or inverts in it at this time other than maybe copepods.

I've been dosing bacteria every day this week.
Since this will mainly be a invertebrate aquarium (coral, a rock flower nem or 2, and a few soft coral, sexy shrimp, snails and crabs) and a few small fish. What invertebrate can I add first?

 

[Fish Fan]

Adding water from your existing tank will do little to help establish the biofilter in your new nano tank. The bacteria largely populate on rocks and sand, and there's very few just floating in the water.

Adding rocks from your existing tank to your new nano tank will indeed help minimize the nitrogen cycle. If you use enough rock, you can skip the cycle altogether.

Last night you mentioned that your ammonia in the nano tank was~0.50 ppm, how high was it initially?

 

[tbrown]

Feather Dusters are filter feeders. I've never had long term success with them but there are many on here who have.

 

[BryanM]

short of live rock there's no real short cuts in our hobby.

Feather dusters came on my live rock... and they seem reasonably hardy to me.

 

[Redbird5]

Adding water from your existing tank will do little to help establish the biofilter in your new nano tank. The bacteria largely populate on rocks and sand, and there's very few just floating in the water.

Adding rocks from your existing tank to your new nano tank will indeed help minimize the nitrogen cycle. If you use enough rock, you can skip the cycle altogether.

Last night you mentioned that your ammonia in the nano tank was~0.50 ppm, how high was it initially?

Yesterday was the first I tested it. I've been having issues with the pumps and heater so I had to replace them.

 

[tbrown]

short of live rock there's no real short cuts in our hobby.

Feather dusters came on my live rock... and they seem reasonably hardy to me.

I think he's referring to the larger feather duster rather than the micro dusters.

 

[Redbird5]

I think he's referring to the larger feather duster rather than the micro dusters.

One of my LFS charges $40 for feather dusters.