is it the tank or the owner?

I know the general rule for anemones is 1the year old tank but is that more so the owner of the tank is more ready for it or is it the tank itself?

Reason being I upgraded from a 55gallon to a 210gallon and I was hoping to add afew rbta this week.the 55tank was about 2as years old and all the rock was from running systems of various ages.

 

How long has the 210 gallon been running?

And no I do not hold to the 1 year make for anemones like BTA and Condy. Once you get through the first initial months of parameter swings IMO it's fine to add a hardy anemone. Just make sure you have covered power heads and can observe them if they walk into over flows and such, in other words do not take a vacation right off the bat.

 

I think it has a lot to do with a knowledge of the needs of the creatures we put in our tanks and not as much the age of the tank.

 

Just for the interest of proving a point, can someone explain the difference between a 2 month established tank and a year old established tank? I see no factors that would make differences to anemones between the 2. I think you are perfectly ready for 1.

 

If you have to ask, then it a year

j/k Really BTAs are pretty easy IMHO, I think a few months and a good amount of knowledge is fine. Other nems, can be more picky, although, a lot of the issues are really more collection related. The biggest problem with nems, BTAs especially so, is wandering. If you have a nice, tightly packed reef tank, you probably don't want a nem anywhere near it...

 

I disagree, the surfaces in an aquarium get covered in biofilms that occur instantly, but go through phases of maturation. It can take a long time to get to a point where they are very stable and provide an environment that is optimal for other organisms. Just because you don't test ammonia for example, dosn't mean that there aren't brief spikes in ammonia for example. These mini-spikes can stress inhabitants. There are lots of microorganisms that determine the stability of the system, and these microganisms compete against each other for resources. As they change, the water chemistry changes and as the water chemistry changes, it forces these populations to change more, resulting in instability. There are crashes and blooms in microorganism populations, having significant, but generally unseen (by hobbyists) effects on the water chemistry. It can take many months for these processes to stabilize and produce fairly consistent water chemistry.

That said, again, I don't think BTAs are necessarily that sensitive, as far as nems go. Much of the instability can be compensated for with good husbandry, if the reefkeeper is fairly knowledgeable. Newbies will have a tougher time with this, as they are learning as they go.

 

The 210biggest has been up for3 or 4 months .started with 800a gallons worth of dr.tims.still have yet to see anything other then minor nitrate/ nitrite spikes. Steady at 0ppm...I do know about bens and their care I've been nursing a rbta back to health and its doing very well.