How long did you wait to add your Anemone?

Pimps said:
I've been told to wait 3 months, 6 months, and up to 1 year before adding an anemone to my new tank (35g), so how long did you all wait?

Be honest! :wavehand:
Click to expand...

WELL..you said be honest....

A anemone needs a well established tank, Like a few years. However......In my honest opinion, it should not be kept in any tank smaller than a 90 gallon.
 
I waited about 3 weeks and it is still alive to this day. It was for 150 gallon take, used 50% of water from and established tank, plenty of live rock (200ibs) and fine crush coral 2 inch bottom and good lighting. Of course this depends on what type anemone you get. I bought the cheapest one from Doc. Foster and Smith. Test the water.

And it worked. Just my exper...

Good luck.
 
Follow-up,

I move about every 3 years and move all my fish and junk, I don't wait 3 moths,6 months, 1 year to put my stuff back in the tank after a move. I use WELL establish rock and sand 20-40% of the water before I moved and I have about 80-90% live rate. But hey, you can buy stuff at a local store or order on line, and it dies the next 1hr, day, week, and your tank can be established for years.

So take it for what its worth. Just test your water, have the proper light, flow, ect and see what happens, just don't buy something worth a lot. Give it a try, and see waht happens. Have fun, life is short. If it works great, if not you tried.
 
I agree with the one year mark. Definitely need a well established system for them to thrive. Also think about anemone-proofing your system. Some powerheads will make multch out of your anemone.

Jay
 
Type of anenome

Type of anenome

Hi, I have a 29 gallon tank over a month old and want to purchase an anenome for my 2 ocellaris clowns to host on. What do you recommend I get on this early stage of my tank?
 
Personally, I added mine after almost 4 months in my tank (it was an upgrade). However, I have over 1 year experience in caring for my reef and felt comfortable enough in caring for an anemone.
 
Made the jump into a reef (only have a small purple rimmed monti cap frag and a small zoa rock right now) almost 2 weeks ago after finally upgrading my lights from T8's. Added a BTA the day after the lights were upgraded. The tank is 8 months old. The nem is doing great thus far and appears to be extremely happy.
 
If keeping a nem for the first time I think it's smart to get one from a local reefer who is selling one of his/her clones or splits. Much better chance of survival than one that came from the ocean.

I have a 29g and added a RBTA at one year (recently so too early to say whether or not successfully) and 4 mini maxi nems at about 7 months. The mini maxis won't host clowns but are easier to keep than many corals in my opinion.
 
Let's put it this way...have you ever had your water vary from the parameters in my sig line and can you keep it that way? No topoff accidents, no salinity bounces, no adjustment of rockwork, no need to put your hands in the tank on any regular basis, plus guards on all intakes and anemone-proof shielding on all powerheads?
 
Okay, I'll be honest. I moved a tank 2 hrs away that contained 10 yr old Figi rock but had only been set up 6 months. (The rock was 10 yrs in the water though.) I moved the water, rock, and sand...everything. I cleaned the sand and reused it and then I got a small RBTA from the LFS a month later. Within 12 hours it was chopped to bits in the powerhead. I was heartbroken and replaced it with a three week old one from a local reefer's clone. It has done great. I work very hard to keep my tank stable and keep up with water changes. In August it split. Two of them in a 75 gallon tank is too many!!! It started moving and my corals began to get irritated. At the beginning of Oct. it split again...and then there were THREE!!! I was able to trade one to a local reefer for a fist sized Meteor Shower coral. I'm seriously thinking about selling both of the ones I still have as they move a lot each day between high light and under the rocks. I really wanted it, my False Percs ignore them, they irritate my coral and take up lots of space. I'm not enjoying having them nearly as much as I anticipated but they seem to be very happy here and look healthy.
 
Added at 4 months, big mistake. Started with a Haddoni, had to treat him after 4 weeks in a QT with antibiotics. Started off very healthy. Still have him and doing great, they are tough once acclimated. Tank is now 11 months old.

After the 6-7 month, the tank just felt different, looked different and still keeps getting better. Don't rush it and enjoy all the little things along the way.
I added a Magnifica at 8 months, also doing great along with a Heractis Crispa.

Biggest reason to wait, if your new like I was, stable had a different meaning 7 months ago. It'll proabaly have a different meaning next year for me as I'm tackling SPS corals with mixed success.
 
Hi, I have my 150 setup, it has been cycling for almost 5 months, i did put some rocks from my 90 gallons and about 2 months ago i put in all my fishes, i did buy a blond naso tang, a yellow tang and a false angel to my current fishes. I did also put in a large nem, but really wanted to get a Blue Carpet Nem for my clowns...

I made my own rock,but did add some from my old tank.

I had my 90 gallons well established for 6 year...
Now should i buy the blue carpet new now or should I keep waiting ?

Here is a picture of my 150, still have to buy a bunch of stuff.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-_LYNLUsSdFZmlhWVRSSjBibzg/view?usp=sharing

If you look to the left side of the tank is where I would like to put the Blue Carpet Nem...
 
I forgot to add I have 3 LED lamps, they put out 120 watts, it warms up my water and water temp is consistent at 78.
 
Head over to the anemone & clownfish forum for some answers from some very knowledgeable people. Haddonis are relatively challenging and gigs are even more difficult. A haddoni will need at least 4 inches of sand for it to bury it's foot. For both, you should have ciprofloxacin or other antibiotics on hand before you buy, as well as a hospital tank set up in case you get an anemone with a bacterial infection (which is extremely common). They also need powerful lighting and good flow.

You can post your question here and get more input:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=36
 
Sk8r said:
Let's put it this way...have you ever had your water vary from the parameters in my sig line and can you keep it that way? No topoff accidents, no salinity bounces, no adjustment of rockwork, no need to put your hands in the tank on any regular basis, plus guards on all intakes and anemone-proof shielding on all powerheads?
Click to expand...
Sk8r thank you for giving us (well, me anyway!) some objective guidelines based on the tank and owner's progress, rather than an arbitrary timeframe that may or may not reflect the stability of the tank.

My tank is approaching the 4 month mark but my hands are constantly in it because I can't decide where I want my rocks and corals, and my alk drifts a lot. So I'm not there yet. FWIW, my clownfish seem pretty happy in spite of not having a nem to hang out in.

Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk
 
I started with 2 rbta's 18 months ago in a 55gal... and I now have 7 of them due to splitting. I added the original two a week or two after the cycle finished. No probs. Rbta's are rather hardy when it comes to anemone's versus the other species it seems. I only feed a small chunk of shrimp once a month or so. Its a good idea, if you want to keep them, to anemone-proof your powerheads. Mine are a fluorescent orange with a lime-green base, with one exception.... I have one that turned out rather drab in color. Weird. What happens when mine split is...one will almost always stay where is was, the other will wander until happy. Sorta like many divorces ;)
If the anemone reaches a spot YOU like, feed it and you will have a better chance of it remaining there.
btw: my gold-stripe maroon is in heaven... 7 anemone's, no competition ;)


In the pic you can see 6..with the drab one just below the brighter ones on the left and a group of 3 (used to be one) in the centre bottom of pic.
 
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