I believe the question was, does the anemone need the live rock to survive, and strictly speaking no it does not, Though without the addition of the live rock some other type of filtration will need to be employed, And I have to disagree that the anemone simply will not survive because the tank has not been up for over a year, The conditions needed for the anemone to survive are, 1 clean stable water, 2 adequate lighting, 3 some supplemental feeding. If those parameters are maintained there is no reason why the anemone will not survive, though I do agree that the conditions described in the tank are not ideal for the anemone to prosper. for water quality purposes or at least making it easier it needs more live rock and I believe more lighting, though the lighting issue can be supplemented to a degree by feeding the anemone regularly.
jd