Upgrade and cycle management.

[Dodger]

I have a 32 gallon bio cube that I have been running for about 16 months. I am upgrading to a Red Sea 425 G2. I am having a difficult time finding the answer to some questions.

I plan on cycling some real live rock in a bucket so when I get my tank set up I can add it already cycled to my original rock and livestock and add it to my new aquarium. Any issues with this?

The plan was to add new live sand underneath. Someone on another thread said that if you do this the tank will cycle again. Is this true? Should I put the sand and cycled rock into the aquarium and do a mini cycle before adding my 32 gallon coral and fish? Or should I add another type of sand?

Any info and suggestions on how to do this safely are welcomed. Even things I have not thought about yet.
Thanks soooo much!! I have learned to much this year!

 

[brandon429]

are you moving over all that rock above into the new tank

 

[brandon429]

All you need to do is this

have the new tank already set up with all hardware and water and new sand in place in the new tank. No rocks no animals


let the new sand have days to settle and clear in the new tank. Only move over when the new tank is 100% clear and running perfect. The only water params that need to match in the transfer are temp and salinity, no other params matter.


once your new tank is ready to receive move over all rocks and corals and life into the new tank and it will skip cycle. Leave all the old water, all the old sand behind in the 32 don’t move any degree of it.

there’s no need to instantly stock new fish into a new tank, your main goal is moving over the current system without loss. by moving the rocks over, you move the entire ability for your new tank to handle the old tanks bioload


the sand doesn’t matter here, bare bottom would work.

you don’t need bottle bac for this job, try and fight the urge to doubt bacteria at all times like they try and train us to do.

you have a very, very easy skip cycle option.

all the extra dry rocks you want in the new tank can be added and they take on more bac by simple water contact, you don’t have to dose for it. It doesnt matter that they didn’t bring in bacteria, you didn’t increase the bioload. within two weeks contact time, uncycled rocks get cycled for basic ammonia control in a running reef no help no testing needed.

 

[brandon429]

Your challenge isnt the cycle, it’s handling dry rock curing for the new parts of the aqua scape among existing reef organisms. The problem won’t be ammonia it’ll be po4 swinging up and down depending on variables/ invasion control for algae dinos etc will be the challenge here. Adding more dilution to your current setup eases the transition into the new tank as well, just move it all over when the main tank is ready to receive

 

[Dodger]

Thanks Brandon!!
I am sure as soon as I put this in, I am going to be battling again with amphidinium dinos and algae. When you say "adding more dilution to your current setup eases the transition" what exactly do you mean? I am hoping that leaving the rock in a bucket will help with po4 swings and dino's? Will giving the rock a healthy bacteria population to start when it goes into the new tank to challenge the dino's and po4's?
Thanks Again!

 

[brandon429]

meaning you're taking a bioload and matching surface area meant for 32 gallons and now transferring them into much more dilution. the waste the surface area sees is less intense; there's no way it'll cycle into the new tank it will all just seamlessly xfer over if done in the right order.

 

[Bucs20fan]

Honestly, no matter what you do, a cycle, even a mini one will occur. If you added a brand new rock, a mini cycle of sorts would happen. Its going to be just how much of a cycle do you have. You will not be able to escape the diatoms, theyre gonna happen regardless, new sand and rock, even if cured will have silicates. You have a good plan, and if done as recommended the cycle will be minimal. You wont have any ammonia cycle, basically im referring to an ugly stage again.

 

[brandon429]

to clarify:

our hobby runs on different variations of the word cycled

some mean it a balance of the expression of benthic organisms, like how various slime mats come and go over time. When that shifting is completed and the tank looks normal, some call that cycled/done


when I mention cycling I'm strictly meaning the ability to keep nh3 form ammonia in exact safety specs regardless of the activity we're discussing at the time...setting up a new tank or discussion tank moves, I'm only referring to ammonia control. seneye has already tracked and posted logs for all moves people do in reefing. we can already see what does and doesn't cause ammonia spikes in tanks

 

[Johnz]

I have upgraded and moved things a few times over the years. I just went through something very similar when I upgraded from a 120 to a 310.

Your plan to cycle real live rock in a bucket, then add it your existing rock when you move over is fine, assuming the cycle is truly finished in the bucket. Your tank will not go through an ammonia cycle, your corals and fish will be safe. The bacteria will be well established on the old rock and new.

That being said, the slower you can migrate things over, the less stress everything will have to go through. If you can just move a rock or 2 over to the new tank at a time, and let things settle, your corals will be less stressed and recover from the move quicker. That's not always possible though. My last move I had to do quickly and I lost a couple sps.

Expect to have some new tank uglies until things get back into equilibrium. It may be short but upsetting everything may lead to some cyano or diatoms. Should clear up quickly since you are using established rock. Good luck.

 

[Dodger]

Thank you so much. I was trying to alleviate the uglies and minimize stress on my animals. Thanks again for clarifying and the advice from others who helped out.