Not a newbie, but a new challenge!

Fish_Fingers91 · Jun 22, 2021

Hi all, hope everyone is well!

So I'm not new to the salt world (Please don't shout at me if this is the wrongform), but I'm about to take a leap from 375 to 1000l!! I think I have everything I need (and then some!) New tank is second hand and will be arriving on Saturday and I have a few questions to prep me for what I believe will be a stressful few days!

I'd like to get the second tank set up and running while keeping my 375 running but I'm going to be transferring my rocks over. (I know it will look sparce at first!)

My questios are, as the tank is not new and I will be seeding using LR and a handful of sand from my current set up, is there a cycling period? Obviously it will take me at least a week to get the tank anywhere near ready for inhabitants.

First move may be a small CUC? I have an abundance of crabs and snails so happy to pop some in once I've cleared all parameter checks.

Any other advice that I can get on upgrading and your experiences would be greatly appreciated! Thanks all.

dbowman5 · Jun 22, 2021

there will be a cycle. it may be short but the reused tank will not contribute much bacteria. Depending on how much lives in the LR you are using, compared to other not-live sand and rock, it may take awhile to build up capacity for bio-load and food for the CUC. Good luck!!

Fish_Fingers91 · Jun 22, 2021

Thanks dbowman5! I've also had an old sponge in my sump for a few months in anticipation of the new tank. (Its now home to a few bristle stars and worms) Would this be good to put in the new setup to help with the cycling process?

homer1475 · Jun 22, 2021

If your moving all your rock, and not increasing bioload, the move is just lateral.

If you plan on adding new rock(if it's dry your fine), you may have a small cycle.

I upgraded from a 20 to an 80 and moved all my rock and livestock in one go. Added more dry rock and new sand, had 0 cycle issues.

Azedenkae · Jun 22, 2021

Fish_Fingers91 said:
I'd like to get the second tank set up and running while keeping my 375 running but I'm going to be transferring my rocks over. (I know it will look sparce at first!)

My questios are, as the tank is not new and I will be seeding using LR and a handful of sand from my current set up, is there a cycling period? Obviously it will take me at least a week to get the tank anywhere near ready for inhabitants.

Yes and no. If you bring all of your stuff over, and bring just the exact same live stock over, there is no cycle. The stuff you bring over already have the nitrifying capacity to handle the live stock they were handling, so there'd be no change in the larger tank. If you add additional live stock, then there *may* be an issue, but also nitrifiers don't necessarily just stop reproducing, a lot of the time you end up with a higher nitrification capacity than what is being handled anyways, so even in a larger tank with more live stock, there may not be an issue. But since this is going from 375 to 1000, then you might need to 'additionally cycle' if there's suddenly way more live stock added.

Fish_Fingers91 said:
First move may be a small CUC? I have an abundance of crabs and snails so happy to pop some in once I've cleared all parameter checks.

I'd suggest moving everything over at once. Treat it as if there's just a bit of a disturbance to your ecosystem as a single move over, which would normally not cause issues. Moving things slowly over will just throw any balance out the window instead.