Do I Need to Cycle?

Hey Everyone,

I am purchasing a pre-established 20g saltwater tank from a guy off of Craigslist on Tuesday. My plan is to take the contents of the tank (live sand, live rock, some water, etc.) and place it into a 24g aquapod that I have. FYI, I will be using a different filter.

My question is- will the new tank cycle even though I am using most of the stuff from a well established aquarium?

The tank also comes with a false percula clown and a cleaner shrimp, so I don't want to kill them.

Also, when I went to look at the tank, there were a bunch of what he called "anemones" on the rock that he said sting. I have done a fair amount of research and have never found any anemones that can live in the lighting conditions that he has set up. Any clue as to what they might be?
My guess is that they came in the live rock when he bought it.

Thanks,

Aaron

 

You dont have to cycle but moving the tank could cause a cycle, what i would do is grab some sand from your LFS and remove all the old sand when you move is except for like a handful or 2. You will also want rubbermaid tubs to transport everything in i.e. remove everything from the tank LR, and anything living and put them in the tubs. the "nems" or what he is calling them is probably Aiptasia to can sting you as well and i have hear it hurts lol so be careful.

 

+1. Get new sand, keep a cup from the surface of his tank to seed your sand. Keep the rock submerged. The anemones sound like aiptasia, you're going to want to get rid of that.

 

Thanks for the quick replies. Just out of curiosity, why do you recommend getting rid of the old sand?

Also, I started researching how to get rid of aiptasia and I think I am going to get a bergia nudibranch to take care of them. Thoughts?

Thanks,

Aaron

 

Not knowing the history of the tank, the sand may be loaded with detritus and nutrients that can pollute the tank when disturbed. I have moved and reused sand many times, but I insist on knowing how well it was maintained.

I personally would not buy a nudibranch. Once the Aiptasia are gone, it will most likely starve. Most sea slugs have very defined diets.

 

Yea, I really don't want that to happen, but are there any other ways of completely clearing them out? I heard that the chemicals they sell are not advised.

 

I used some peppermint shrimp you have kind of a 50/50 chance with them though.

 

What else do they feed off of (aka, once the aiptasia is gone)?

 

In my own personal experience (and a few others here), they have attacked LPS corals and some anemones. OTOH, I've read from several places that squirting the Aiptasia with a turkey baster full of hot freshwater kills them.

 

Peppermint shrimp will eat fish food.
I would skip the nudibrach because it won't "might" die when it's done, it will die. They don't eat anything else.
The sand can have pockets of toxins in it under the top layer, where it's anaerobic. When you stir all that up, you're releasing the toxins. That depends on how deep the sand bed is and, as said, how well maintained. If it's shallow and they vacuumed it a lot or stirred it up in other ways to prevent those pockets, it might be ok. Just not worth the risk to me.

As for the aiptasia, how much is a bunch? You can try peppermint shrimp, and if they don't get rid of it (they tend to leave the large ones alone), then you can either inject them with boiling water or lemon juice or kalk paste (to skip any chemicals), or you could pull out one rock at a time, dry it, scrub it, dry it again, then put it back. A week or two later do it to another rock. That way you're not sacrificing a sizable amount of your bacteria colony.

Oh, and I've never had trouble with peppermint shrimp eating coral in 4 tanks so far (5 years of tanks)...I've actually had more trouble with my cleaner shrimp this tank LOL. It is all the luck of the draw, though, I guess I've just been lucky.