Ok. My brother decided that he wants to set up his first fish tank and he went with a 46 gallon bow front. I know that there are benifits to having a large tank so my question is. Would it be bad to do a weekly water change in the 46 gallon with water from my 450 gallon reef? Are there any benifits in doing this? Thanks in advance
New tank question
- Thread starter rng_pw
- Start date
- Tagged users None
+ 1 on seeding it with your water. Honestly, because you have such a large tank, I would just fill his whole tank with your water, and throw in a bag of arag-alive sand and some live sand from your tank. Tank'll be ready in no time.
BluegrassReef
Well-Known Member
+1...virtually no cycle
Harry_Y
Valuable Member
If the rocks and water are from your tank, I would say
a pretty good chance of getting him off to a good start.
But......
I have a display that has a ton of flow and a frag tank that
does not have as much flow both with a common sump.
The display is clean, but the frag tank has cyano.
So you could have a lot of nutrients in your water already.
Fishcrazy06
Reefing Addict
Cyano is normally a sign of not enough water movement. I wouldn't waste my money on "live" sand. I would get whatever sand he wants and seed it from your tank. The size of your tank he could get almost half of his sandbed from you. Then replace what he took from you and fill in his other half with new sand in his tank.
As for the water changes from your tank there wouldn't be a benefit. Would be a good way to help him get started by using your "seasoned" water. Depending on what rock you use he may get a mini-cycle but not a full blown cycle. After the tank is up and running however, I don't see a benefit of him doing water changes from your tank water. In essence it wouldn't really be a water change because he wouldn't be using fresh saltwater which has all the trace elements.
Hope to Help.
Eric
As for the water changes from your tank there wouldn't be a benefit. Would be a good way to help him get started by using your "seasoned" water. Depending on what rock you use he may get a mini-cycle but not a full blown cycle. After the tank is up and running however, I don't see a benefit of him doing water changes from your tank water. In essence it wouldn't really be a water change because he wouldn't be using fresh saltwater which has all the trace elements.
Hope to Help.
Eric
Last edited:
Harry_Y
Valuable Member
This is how we always started a tank years ago
Fishcrazy06
Reefing Addict
With having a tank that size this would be the oppurtune time to help give him a bit of a headstart and not have to deal with the whole cycle process. On the other hand I learned the cycle process helped with teaching me patience in this hobby! LOL
But yes with them two key factors in starting the tank he is goign to have less chances of an accident right off the start!
Eric
But yes with them two key factors in starting the tank he is goign to have less chances of an accident right off the start!
Eric
+1 on the mini cycle and it would not be a good thing for the water changes. The main reason for water changes it to take out some of the bad water and to add new water that has the trace elements in to your tank. The live stock uses the trace elements up and when they're low or highly depleted, you could have a tank crash...
I have a 24 gal at work and I have one little yellow watchman goby and 5 small acro's in it and all I do is feed my fish do water changes and add alk and cal. That is it, 10 min to do all of this once a week. No skimmer just a felt pad that I rinse out. Trace elements is a big part of your tanks ability to thrive.
Thanks for all of the info guys. Here are a few more details. Im going to use a rio 1700 for a return pump, and two maxijet 1200's (modded). I think that should be plenty of flow for such a small tank. Im also going to add two drip systems for alk and calcium. As for live rock we are going to use some dried out stuff that a friend has. Not sure if we are going to use sand or not, but I will pull about 10lbs of rock from my tank and fill it with the water from my tank. As soon as we get it going I will post some pics.
