Bio media and moving to new tank.

[Reefin' Alaska]

Moving from a IM 25 Lagoon to a Reefer 350. I was debating sand or bare bottom and after watching the BRS video I’ve decided to do bare bottom. With that said, I have a large bag of Matrix and a bag of Marine Pure balls in my 25, both about 18 months old. BRS says their results were drastically different and avoided or decreased some of the short term issues using established bacteria to seed the cycle versus starting with nothing. But their results were a Marine Pure brick, from their mixed reef in their video, into a much smaller tank. Mine is the opposite. Is it worth using one of those bags (I’d probably elect for the smaller marine pure bag so it doesn’t disturb things too much) from my lagoon with established bacteria during the cycle?

Im not sure that amount of media would even make a significant difference in a tank 70G bigger?

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Yes absolutely. If feasible transfer as much of your bio media as possible.

This is your nitrification factory. Having a 50% of what you need is still better than having zero Because it's not linear.

 

[Jubei2006]

Absolutely use any biofilter you have from the smaller tank. You will greatly decrease or shorten the "cycle", and the bacteria can greatly multiply if it's already present. The only thing that might deter that is if you have had an ich or velvet outbreak, or any other pest that would transfer over with the media and rock in the move.

 

[Reefin' Alaska]

Absolutely use any biofilter you have from the smaller tank. You will greatly decrease or shorten the "cycle", and the bacteria can greatly multiply if it's already present. The only thing that might deter that is if you have had an ich or velvet outbreak, or any other pest that would transfer over with the media and rock in the move.

I had a velvet issue but the tank was fallow for about 2 1/2 months after, and the current clowns in the tank are healthy for a couple of months now. Corals are all doing well. I have an occasional flatworm once in a while on the glass if I don’t clean it for a day or two. As well as I’ve been battling Ulva for a couple weeks but I think I’ve gotten rid of almost all of it.

There is a huge pod population that went nuts when it was fallow. Nothing was in the tank to eat them. Lol.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Sounds like you're good to go. If you are planning to add more media, consider taking your existing matrix and adding it to whatever you are going to be seeding. Bacterial colonization happens much faster when the surfaces are touching. Bac doesn't colonize the water column nearly as much as moves from surface to surface.

 

[brandon429]

it will help to know in planning the skip cycle its not in response to a lack of bacteria, even if you remove sand. if you're moving wet rocks that's the core bacteria, you dont need to dose or provide extra from having substracted some during the move.


dont buy or dose bottled bac, its not a risk, I have a fifty page thread of these moves and all of them are not using bottled bac as they're using cycled rocks in the display.

the live rock you move over will seed the new stuff fine, without paid boosts.

 

[Reefin' Alaska]

it will help to know in planning the skip cycle its not in response to a lack of bacteria, even if you remove sand. if you're moving wet rocks that's the core bacteria, you dont need to dose or provide extra from having substracted some during the move.


dont buy or dose bottled bac, its not a risk, I have a fifty page thread of these moves and all of them are not using bottled bac as they're using cycled rocks in the display.

the live rock you move over will seed the new stuff fine, without paid boosts.

Not completely sure what you’re trying to say here.

I don’t want to skip the cycle at all. The results in the BRS videos on a bare bottom tank with dry rock with media to seed the tank, versus no media, were undeniable. I’m not moving rock or sand because the that tank isn’t going anywhere. This is all new. There is no intention on using bottled bac. The idea is to seed it and get it off to the best start possible, perhaps deviating away from issues that could arise otherwise, or at least shortening that process, not skipping it entirely. I’m not looking for magic here.