No cycling needed?

kelp47 · Nov 4, 2020

Hi all. I'm going to be moving my fish and a few gorgonians to a new 32 gal setup (roughly 40 gal total volume with small sump) from my existing 75 gal. The 32 has all new sand (live) and new dry rock. But I've placed about a cup a half of matrix biofilter media in the tank that has been sitting in the sump of my 75 for several months. Is this enough to start slowly transferring livestock without cycling? I basically do this same process with a bare tank for QT and have never had issues.

brandon429 · Nov 4, 2020

in several threads logged, we specialize in skip cycle moves. so does every reef tank owner who ever set up a reef at MACNA

you need to ammonia test your new tank before starting, nobody can guess if the live matrix is enough surface area, and water flow through it, but we have an undeniable way to know right now if the tank is ready.

brandon429 · Nov 4, 2020

specifically this test shows if the new tank is ready or not without fail. glad to see a new test coming up, we need some work today.

pic one is any brand's ammonia test as the new tank sits right now, as is. take the reading post the vial in clear light next to its card, this is calibrated zero.

pic two: add dr tims cycling ammonia a few drops at a time into the test tank, do NOT drive it to 2 ppm, take a test in 5 mins of waiting to see if the color moves up -barely-. that's what we want, a bare change up from pic one

you might have to add a few drops and wait 5-10 mins each time to build up a small change. if you go dark green we are waiting days for the response, so only do a tiny change up Ill post a pic of what this looks like from our threads.

post the vial and color card showing pic two slightly darker ammonia than pic 1

final pic, pic 3: take another ammonia reading 24 hours after pic two is posted. It should match pic 1 if the tank is ready, and if it doesnt, add a bottle of refrigerated fritz then you can move everything over its a skip cycle suspension tested about a thousand times a day in fish-in cycle threads.

here is an aquarium running the specific test.

100% Water Change

So in my previous thread, I had an ammonia issue that was out of hand. As suggested, I did a 100% WC and now i’m wondering when I should start adding fish back. If anyone has suggestions, let me know!

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