Tank Cycling

[Pittsford_Pets]

Hey, I'm interested in upgrading my tank to a 40g. I have 15 pounds of live rock in my current tank, 20g, and 10 pounds of live sand. If I were to put the 15 - 20g of water, the rocks, and the sand in the new tank would it cycle faster? I will be getting either more live sand or dry sand, 20g or so of new saltwater, and then 15 - 20 pounds of new live or dry rock. Will it re-cycle on me if I buy live rock? Thanks!

 

[jeff williams]

Hey, I'm interested in upgrading my tank to a 40g. I have 15 pounds of live rock in my current tank, 20g, and 10 pounds of live sand. If I were to put the 15 - 20g of water, the rocks, and the sand in the new tank would it cycle faster? I will be getting either more live sand or dry sand, 20g or so of new saltwater, and then 15 - 20 pounds of new live or dry rock. Will it re-cycle on me if I buy live rock? Thanks!

Yes the beneficial bacteria are present on the Rock and sand however they are not in the water so adding the water won't help but you could still do it.and adding live rock might cause an ammonia spike just do to the fact that some of the live rock will die off during shipping.

 

[Pittsford_Pets]

Yes the beneficial bacteria are present on the Rock and sand however they are not in the water so adding the water won't help but you could still do it.and adding live rock might cause an ammonia spike just do to the fact that some of the live rock will die off during shipping.

Will a ton of stuff seriously die from me going to the LFS and driving the 5 minutes back to my house? I also have some bottled beneficial bacteria that claims to eliminate ammonia, will adding that jumpstart the tank?

 

[jeff williams]

Will a ton of stuff seriously die from me going to the LFS and driving the 5 minutes back to my house? I also have some bottled beneficial bacteria that claims to eliminate ammonia, will adding that jumpstart the tank?

No if your buying the live rock locally you should be ok. If you bacteria go ahead and dose it but you will need to add an ammonia source to kick it off, I use pure ammonia and dose the tank to 1 ppm and then start testing for it to drop and nitrite to spike and drop to 0 do a water change and you should be ok to start adding fish slowly

 

[Pittsford_Pets]

No if your buying the live rock locally you should be ok. If you bacteria go ahead and dose it but you will need to add an ammonia source to kick it off, I use pure ammonia and dose the tank to 1 ppm and then start testing for it to drop and nitrite to spike and drop to 0 do a water change and you should be ok to start adding fish slowly

I have 2 clowns and then a ton of inverts + a few corals (hammer, pulsing Xenia, torch, and birds nest). Think they would die/stress when being moved into the new tank?

 

[jeff williams]

Are you planning on breaking down the old tank moving everything in the new tank all at once?

 

[Pittsford_Pets]

Are you planning on breaking down the old tank moving everything in the new tank all at once?

Honestly depends on whether or not I had enough money to buy a lot more rocks/sand. I probably will be though. If needed I'll just take out the sand and rocks and let the new tank sit for a few days

 

[Idoc]

If money is any issue, I would skip the bottled bacteria, new live sand, and live rock. Just add dry sand (usually get more for same price as live sand) and dry rock. You are already adding your existing live sand and live rock from your current system, so you already have a nice bacterial population present which will seed the new cheaper dry additions.

You should be able to safely add livestock (what's already in your 20g tank) since your system's bacterial population in the current live rock and sand is already setup to handle that bioload. Then just go without adding anything new for a few weeks while the new dry sand and rock build their bacterial populations. Test regularly at first (ammonia and nitrite), but I bet you won't see a spike if you go slow with adding new inhabitants.

 

[CodyRVA]

Have you considered moving everything in your 20G to the 40G as is and adding rock slowly over time vs doing it all at once? You could add dry rock over time vs live which would save you money. This would also eliminate the possibility of hitchhikers coming in on the live rock from your LFS; even the best stores will have unwanted critters. You also wouldn't have to worry about your chemistry going out of wack; no harm in adding a clean piece of dry rock to a system.

 

[jeff williams]

Agree with above

 

[Pittsford_Pets]

Have you considered moving everything in your 20G to the 40G as is and adding rock slowly over time vs doing it all at once? You could add dry rock over time vs live which would save you money. This would also eliminate the possibility of hitchhikers coming in on the live rock from your LFS; even the best stores will have unwanted critters. You also wouldn't have to worry about your chemistry going out of wack; no harm in adding a clean piece of dry rock to a system.

Thanks! I'll do that

 

[Pittsford_Pets]

If money is any issue, I would skip the bottled bacteria, new live sand, and live rock. Just add dry sand (usually get more for same price as live sand) and dry rock. You are already adding your existing live sand and live rock from your current system, so you already have a nice bacterial population present which will seed the new cheaper dry additions.

You should be able to safely add livestock (what's already in your 20g tank) since your system's bacterial population in the current live rock and sand is already setup to handle that bioload. Then just go without adding anything new for a few weeks while the new dry sand and rock build their bacterial populations. Test regularly at first (ammonia and nitrite), but I bet you won't see a spike if you go slow with adding new inhabitants.

Thanks! I'll do that