Old Water For New Tank?

[emilios_reeftank]

Hello guys I'm setting up a 3 gallon tank. Instead of cycling it forever I was going to take water from my established system and put it into the 3 gallon. I am going to let it cycle still but wanted to know what others think. Also the same salt mix and all the same additives will be added into the 3 gallon system. Good Idea Or Bad let me know. Thanks!

 

[Porpoise Hork]

You can use the water from a water change to help start the new one. If you have any live rock from the other tank it will also help. To be on the safe side you may also want to dose it with SeaChem Stability following the new tank instructions just to get the bacteria into the filter media and such.

 

[reacclimating 2 the hobby]

Old water doesn't really carry any benefit. The bacteria you are looking to add will be in the rock, media or substrate of your old tank.

I moved from a 40g breeder to my 525xl and didn't use any of the water, just my live rock.

I also prefer Fritz Turbo Start 900 after the study that was done on another forum here.

 

[User]

Using the old water may speed up your cycle by about 24 hours, since you won’t need to mix new water to start your tank.

Water holds essentially zero of the bacteria responsible for processing ammonia and nitrite. They are all in the substrate and on surfaces.

A cup of your current sand mixed into your new stuff would be a far better suggestion , or a chunk of live rock

 

[ReeferReefer]

It doesn't matter. Using live rock or other form of biological media to jumpstart the cycle will though.

Bacteria lives on physical surfaces, not in the water column.

 

[saintsreturn]

Good advice so far. I would take some sand from your current system and bring that over too.

 

[Captain Quint]

Great thread and advice. I agree with all above. You could easily use LS from your current tank, a piece of your established LR and either new water or a 50/50 of existing and new water and do well.

 

[michael giordano]

Old water doesn't really carry any benefit. The bacteria you are looking to add will be in the rock, media or substrate of your old tank.

I moved from a 40g breeder to my 525xl and didn't use any of the water, just my live rock.

I also prefer Fritz Turbo Start 900 after the study that was done on another forum here.

That is not true at all, bacteria is in the water colomun and as well as the rock. I have moved 5 times and I learned if I don’t use 50% of my old water I have more cycles during the first couple of months. Yes use water that is established and rock and it will help you a lot more to quickly become established.

 

[reacclimating 2 the hobby]

That is not true at all, bacteria is in the water colomun and as well as the rock. I have moved 5 times and I learned if I don’t use 50% of my old water I have more cycles during the first couple of months. Yes use water that is established and rock and it will help you a lot more to quickly become established.

Having also moved tanks several times(more than 5), and as mentioned in the last month, I would disagree. I've never used a drop of water from an old tank (why would I want to use water that has been depleted?) to start a new tank. How many cycles are you referring to? I've only had one cycle(which is many stages) in any tank. Except this last move, live rock helped to keep that at bay. The greater part of your bacteria live on physical surfaces, as mentioned above. If they were so populated in the water column you would see a lot less people using UV Sterilizers.

 

[User]

That is not true at all, bacteria is in the water colomun and as well as the rock. I have moved 5 times and I learned if I don’t use 50% of my old water I have more cycles during the first couple of months. Yes use water that is established and rock and it will help you a lot more to quickly become established.

Ok, I guess we shouldn’t have said none or zero

It’s like 0.001% of the nitrifying bacteria in a tank exists as free floating in the water column. Not enough to make any practical difference.

There are other bacterial species in the water, from fish gut microbiota, but they don’t contribute to ammonia processing .

If you’re having ‘more cycles’ (more than 1?) it’s because you’re doing something wrong, or something is killing off your bacterial population leading to ammonia build up . Nothing to do with not having used old, nutrient depleted water

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

using old water will only mean using possibly contaminated water (po3, no4, etc). start with new water. will not affect the cycle, but can prevent other issues.

 

[emilios_reeftank]

Ok thanks guys appreciate the help! I think I might just start a whole new system with new LR and water. Everyone is right, I guess that there is really not a ton of bacteria in the water to really get the cycle started like I thought (it would just be like starting with pretty much clean new water anyways)

 

[User]

Ok thanks guys appreciate the help! I think I might just start a whole new system with new LR and water. Everyone is right, I guess that there is really not a ton of bacteria in the water to really get the cycle started like I thought (it would just be like starting with pretty much clean new water anyways)

Other than all the nitrates, phosphates and fish poop in it, yeah, practically like new

 

[Sea MunnKey]

After all my livestock perished in the 2013 Ice Storm & another 2 year hiatus (mourning :() then I re-booted the same tank with newly mixed IO saltwater & added about 20 gallon of mature IO saltwater from a local reputable lfs. Sped up the cycle and I'd have to admit it's all been good ... so far. And this re-boot was 2 years ago ;)