Tank Upgrade Cycle - Please Help!! Need advice

Reeferem

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Hi guys.

4 days ago I upgraded from a 50 litre tank to a 96 litre.
New sand bed, old rock + a new piece of live rock, 25 L of old water and the rest new water.

I transferred my clownfish and coral over. I have lost a xenia and possibly losing my GSP frag. My clownfish are acting normal and eating.

So the first two days my parameters were ok, i was expecting a few spikes. Ammonia 0.2, nitrate 5, nitrite 0.2, ph 8.2, salinity 1.024

However today I checked and i have got huge spikes: ammonia 0.4, nitrate 50, nitrite 1....

I am wondering what to do? Should i do a large water change or just wait out the cycle?

**Also I have a red sea reef mature kit that i used when i cycled my 50L, should I use this now to help the cycle along?**

Any advice is much appreciated, I don't want to lose any more coral and definitely do not want to stress my clown babies.
 

LesPoissons

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I wouldnt have transferred anything until your new tank was actually cycled. Now all your livestock is dealing with ammonia and swings in parameters. Yes, do a water change to decrease ammonia. dont add anything else until the tank is cycled fully. Id move your clowns to a qt tank if you have one while your tank stabilizes or you can leave them and see how they do,
 

Bayareareefer18

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Why would the new tank need to be cycled if it's a tank transfer?

Was any of the rock out of water for any period of time?

Did the params of the new water match what was in the old tank?
 

LesPoissons

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Normally it could work with a bigger transfer but to put in an all new sand bed and 75% new water and only add rock from a 50L to stock a 96L- twice the tank size: I wouldn’t call that a transfer, it’s more like seeding a new system and it starts a new cycle since the sand is bare and the live rock must have experienced some die off or it can’t handle whatever bio load you have- which is why you are seeing a cycle of ammonia and nitrites and die off again.
 

MERKEY

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Daily water changes...30% at least...that's just me.

And since you have live stock in the tank you could add some sort of ammonia/nitrite decreaser.

Some are against adding things like prime to your tank so everyone will have an opinion.

Feel what sounds and researches to be the way you want to go and then dont flip flop as that will cause more stress.
 

brandon429

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my take is opposite: you did what we do for 20 pages in the sand rinse thread without a recycle, and your post also shares a hallmark trait we've been collecting in that thread the whole time: low level claimed ammonia, but zero consequence shown by fish/system (where true free ammonia is always consequential and your fish die overnite)


so, based on trending and your tests, and no death within 24 hours, I vote you skip cycle transferred and if you werent testing for params, nothing would indicate a problem. I believe low level ammonia posts when they're seneye/digital, when they're color tests .2 may mean zero and so might .4.

these tests cross read for varying params/nitrite causes nitrate readings etc its really messy dealing with low level kits and making actions based on those, solely. Your tank will tell you if its lacking bacteria, yesterday. you dont have to do anything nor buy anything to help the tank along the way. do a water change if you have concern.

ammonia events are fast, lethal, and do not sustain past 12 hours in a reef tank. your new tank has been up longer than overnite right? post pics. even the corals you are stating get mad/open up eventually. we find that the bac attached to the normal rocks used in the pre transfer setup to always be sufficient, even if new fish are added on the new setup :)

thats how we get away with removing all the sand, half the rocks etc during our custom moves.
 
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Reeferem

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my take is opposite: you did what we do for 20 pages in the sand rinse thread without a recycle, and your post also shares a hallmark trait we've been collecting in that thread the whole time: low level claimed ammonia, but zero consequence shown by fish/system (where true free ammonia is always consequential and your fish die overnite)


so, based on trending and your tests, and no death within 24 hours, I vote you skip cycle transferred and if you werent testing for params, nothing would indicate a problem. I believe low level ammonia posts when they're seneye/digital, when they're color tests .2 may mean zero and so might .4.

these tests cross read for varying params/nitrite causes nitrate readings etc its really messy dealing with low level kits and making actions based on those, solely. Your tank will tell you if its lacking bacteria, yesterday. you dont have to do anything nor buy anything to help the tank along the way. do a water change if you have concern.

ammonia events are fast, lethal, and do not sustain past 12 hours in a reef tank. your new tank has been up longer than overnite right? post pics. even the corals you are stating get mad/open up eventually. we find that the bac attached to the normal rocks used in the pre transfer setup to always be sufficient, even if new fish are added on the new setup :)

thats how we get away with removing all the sand, half the rocks etc during our custom moves.
Thankyou so much for your advice, this is pretty much how the lady at my LFS calmed me down lol. All my fish are fine and my corals seem totally happy. It has been over a week now :)
 
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Reeferem

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Has been a week and all looking fine

009F237B-A61E-4178-A4AA-1022F947D789.jpeg
 

ScottB

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Good to hear everybody is doing fine. On your next upgrade to the 250L, you can follow the same protocol but maybe throw in a bottle of bacteria. Dr Tim's or whatever, so that the inevitable ammonia bump gets consumed right away.

Less stress for everybody including you.
 

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