Hi I am in the process of cycling a new 20 gallon tank and I’m not trying to rush things I was just curious to know if I actually have to wait at least 6-12 months after my tank is cycled to be able to add an anemone to my tank??
Adding anemone
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TankLife86
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What method are you using to cycle your tank?
While some of that stuff may or may not speed up cycle, it still takes time to achieve real stability, in fact often most tanks go through another funky period around 9months or so in, so even the 6mo minimum is pushing it IMO, but can be doable if you are dilligent w/ maintenance and WC's and such.
Starting up w/ established LR or doing a swap up in tank size w/ established rock is another story and can stabilize somewhat faster, but still, should not rush, and in a 20g your tank will be more vulnerable to swings and less stable than larger systems in general
WhalesLovePineapple
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Hmm I havent heard of this 6-12month rule for anemones. I thought they were more resistant than other corals to water quality?
Jason mack
Monti madness
I wouldn’t say it’s a rule ... more the general consensus. You stand more of a chance of keeping a healthier anamone in a more mature tank .. Lighting is also important ... as anamones need a lot of light generally.what lights are going on this tank ..?
WhalesLovePineapple
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This is good to know - as my tank is about 3 months old, just finished cycling & confirmed with test kits. Are some species of anemones hardier than others?
Jason mack
Monti madness
My advice .. wait ... the more patient you are now the beter in the long run imo ,start with some easy corals , if you like movement in your tank think about frogspawns ,hammers , torches .. add things slowly .. and research everything ... nobody on here will tell you you can’t add an anamone ... it’s your tank and your responsibility.. people will only offer friendly advice speaking from experience...
Jason mack
Monti madness
In this hobby stability is everything , a young or new tank is not stable and has things like the ugly stages .. you will battle algae outbreaks your parameters can be up and down as you learn and tweak and try new things or methods .. around a year old you will see the difference as it settles stabilizes .. this is how it goes ..
Reefbuds
Valuable Member
To give you an example. This is my tank after about 17 months. Added the carpet anemone in the middle at about 16. 1 month later cyano took hold, then hair algae. Hair algae completely took over and killed everything. All this was caused by adding the carpet anemone. Even a very stable tank can take crazy swings, let alone a 3 month old tank. On the bright side the one thing that survived was my carpet anemone.
Jason mack
Monti madness
To be honest I don’t think it was the carpet anamone that did it , you probably already had the problems before .. hair algae take over is due mainly too high nutrients or , maybe caused by over feeding , or insufficient cuc ,but that’s just my opinion..
Reefbuds
Valuable Member
The addition was to much for my bioload at the time which allowed nutrients to go unchecked and unused. Won't make that mistake again.
Easy is subject to interpretation, and over the years BTA's have been suggested as easiest to keep, easiest to come by, but my honest opinion is while they may be more forgiving in some way for the novice nem keeper, they are a pain in the but in a mixed reef mainly due to wandering.
They also are not natural hosts to the most popular clowns, occs/percs, so I see a lot of frustration from people wondering why their clown does not recognize or accept BTA as host, and I see a lot of misinformation passed around on that particular subject, so many people just get frustrated and give up on keeping nems, especially after they've walked rocks and stung corals in their path.
Personally my opinion for the average nem keeper w/ a mixed reef is get a sand dwellar if you can, it's just easier to control and maintain, wandering stays down below if it happens, but they are also less prone to wander.
LTA and Malu are good options for sand dwellars
There are rock dwellars less prone to wander too, but most are maybe a step up in experience level.
Also it's really nice if you can pair natural host matches, clowns to nems, hosting happens much faster usually.
WhalesLovePineapple
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What do you mean BTA are not natural hosts? That's interesting I've never heard that before. Then which anemones are suitable for clowns?
