Tank Transfer Cycling

[Thelazyreefer]

I'm literally moving everything from one tank to another. The outgoing tank is barebottom and the incoming tank will have sand. Tank has been running for 3 years. Do I need to worry about a cycle?

 

[Sea Pickle]

If you have filter media or live rock that has been in your tank and populated w/ bacteria you can use that to jumpstart the tank. How densely stocked is the tank? If its super full you may want to gradually transfer the livestock if possible, to reduce bioload. If this isn't possible, move the colonized media and yur livestock to the new tank, and watch those perameters. There may be a mini cycle, so you need to do a LOT of WATER CHANGES on the new tank.

 

[Thelazyreefer]

If you have filter media or live rock that has been in your tank and populated w/ bacteria you can use that to jumpstart the tank. How densely stocked is the tank? If its super full you may want to gradually transfer the livestock if possible, to reduce bioload. If this isn't possible, move the colonized media and yur livestock to the new tank, and watch those perameters. There may be a mini cycle, so you need to do a LOT of WATER CHANGES on the new tank.

The tank is not heavily populated other than coral. This is a well established tank that can run without a skimmer at all. I don't really understand why different glass around the inhabitants would cause it to cycle but thought I would ask to see if anyone could change my mind.

 

[Clinton]

Just remember to place your rock before the sand so it's solid on the bottom and doesn't sink and stumble... don't ask me how I know ;) lol...any time you move things around you'll jump start something, but should be minimal.

 

[brandon429]

You can easily do the transfer without having to add anything just make sure you don't move detritus to the new system

Going to a rocks only filtration setup doesn't mean you're lacking bacteria

The rocks still have more than enough surface area but moving any type of detritus over even inside your rocks is the real risk you need to rinse them with salt water really well so you don't move over Cloud then you will not have any recycle


We have a large thread of this already being done it's called the sand rinse thread if you'd like to check it out please add pictures after you move as well

 

[brandon429]

The reason the sand rinse thread applies to your tank transfer set up is because we discuss in that thread how the bacteria in your sand bed are merely extras, and to remove them all at once or to rinse them all at once is never harmful it's the clouding that is the danger.

rocks don't take on extra bacteria to make up for a lack of sand, they already keep the full complement and what you do with the extraneous bacteria doesn't matter to what's already on the rocks

Extra bottle bacteria you may purchase have literally no where to go in the new system because the current bacteria are already present and took up all the room

Even though you could downgrade the amount of live rock that's really the only thing you have to keep consistent for this to work even if you had a huge amount of fish it would still work we show in the thread

20 pages of moves, no bottle bac used
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...ead-aka-one-against-many.230281/#post-2681445

we stopped every recycle going in any upgrade order, solely by stopping the transfer of detritus. handy stuff, saves money, reliable.

 

[Thelazyreefer]

The reason the sand rinse thread applies to your tank transfer set up is because we discuss in that thread how the bacteria in your sand bed are merely extras, and to remove them all at once or to rinse them all at once is never harmful it's the clouding that is the danger.

rocks don't take on extra bacteria to make up for a lack of sand, they already keep the full complement and what you do with the extraneous bacteria doesn't matter to what's already on the rocks

Extra bottle bacteria you may purchase have literally no where to go in the new system because the current bacteria are already present and took up all the room

My old tank is the one that is barebottom. It is high flow and no detritus build up anywhere. I'll take your advice and have a 20 gallon tub to rinse all of the rock in.

 

[Pntbll687]

The tank is not heavily populated other than coral. This is a well established tank that can run without a skimmer at all. I don't really understand why different glass around the inhabitants would cause it to cycle but thought I would ask to see if anyone could change my mind.

It's not that you are transferring that causes a mini cycle, it is the introduction of the new substrate in this case. There is probably some die off of "live" bacteria in the sand that could cause a small ammonia spike and subsequent "mini cycle".

I have moved my tanks 8-9 times over that past few years, and I always add a dosage of a bacteria product like Dr Tims / stability / bio spira to help with any ammonia spike. I did this because I was reusing the substrate in the tank, wanted to mitigate any cycle caused by disturbing the sand bed.