Help! Reef tank leaking

[Eliemination]

Yesterday I have discovered that my reef tank was leaking and it was beyond repair. I then bought a new one and put all the fish and the corals in a temporary holding spot as well with the live rock. The live rock is fully cured and I would want to know how long it would take for to tank to fully cycle so I could put all my livestock and corals in ASAP.


My fish
1 ocellaris clownfish
1 tomato clown
1 longnose hawk
1 Cleaner wrasse
1 yellow tang
1 blue tang
1 royal gramma
1 Diamond Back Goby

Clean up crew
5 Hermits
2 Emerald Crabs
1 Mexican Turbo
1 Trochus
4 Astrea Snails
1 Nassarius snail
1 Coral Banded Shrimp
1 Peppermint Shrimp

Corals
1 bubble
1 golden hammer
1 branching hammer
1 branching frogspawn
1 elegance coral
1 toadstool leather coral
1 montipora
1 zoa rock (Not a lot of polyps)
1 palythoa
5 acans
1 maxima clam
1 Kenya tree
1 frag of xenia
1 Duncan
2 kryptonite candy canes
blue sponges (attached on LR)

 

[mikee b]

Put them in now with new live sand and your old rocks have just done this with no cycle due to the established rocks. If anything you might get a small cycle but I don't think so. did this at the beginning of January and no problems.

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[homer1475]

I 100% agree.

Just did this same thing about a month ago. Pulled my old rock and sand, added new sand, old LR, and all my livestock. Did it all in about 4 hours, no issues.

 

[BrettDS]

Help! Reef tank leaking

A tank is cycled when it's bacteria colony has built up enough to efficiently process the ammonia produced by the animals living in the tank. In a reef tank this bacteria primarily live in the live rock. If you have a fully cycled reef tank and just pick up everything including the rock and move it to a new tank then it won't break the cycle and you can just put everything in the new tank immediately.

It is possible in moving the rocks and the sand that you will stir up detritus which may decompose and produce ammonia faster than the bacteria can handle it, so just to be on the safe side I would recommend checking for ammonia frequently during the first week or two after the move. Maybe even twice a day for the first few days, then daily after that.

It's also worth noting that a lot of people do not recommend reusing sand. The theory is that a lot of detritus and such can get mixed in with the sand and if you start over with fresh sand you will be bringing less nutrients into the new tank. Personally, I reused my sand when I moved a tank that was about 8 months old and I didn't have any issues, but if your sand is years old then you may want to consider tossing it and starting new (maybe save a few cups of the old sand to help seed the new sand)

 

[zooman72]

A tank is cycled when it's bacteria colony has built up enough to efficiently process the ammonia produced by the animals living in the tank. In a reef tank this bacteria primarily live in the live rock. If you have a fully cycled reef tank and just pick up everything including the rock and move it to a new tank then it won't break the cycle and you can just put everything in the new tank immediately.

It is possible in moving the rocks and the sand that you will stir up detritus which may decompose and produce ammonia faster than the bacteria can handle it, so just to be on the safe side I would recommend checking for ammonia frequently during the first week or two after the move. Maybe even twice a day for the first few days, then daily after that.

It's also worth noting that a lot of people do not recommend reusing sand. The theory is that a lot of detritus and such can get mixed in with the sand and if you start over with fresh sand you will be bringing less nutrients into the new tank. Personally, I reused my sand when I moved a tank that was about 8 months old and I didn't have any issues, but if your sand is years old then you may want to consider tossing it and starting new (maybe save a few cups of the old sand to help seed the new sand)

Well stated... :thumbsup:


I have also reused sand, and either made sure it was well-rinsed, or bleached it followed by multiple rinses and dechlorination before reusing it.

 

[Zalick]

If you use existing tank water, and transfer over the love rock, you should have minimal to no cycle. I've done this many times and never had any issues.

 

[Eliemination]

I have thrown away almost all of my existing water and filling my new tank with RODI water right now. I have moved the sand from my old tank and transferred it to the new. I have a good feeling that most of the bacteria on the sand is either dead or hibernating due to the very cold weather I am having and salinity fluctuations. The sand is about 6 months old. Just an FYI I am planning to add dry rock along with my cured LR. Should I do this or just wait it out?

 

[BrettDS]

Help! Reef tank leaking

I have thrown away almost all of my existing water and filling my new tank with RODI water right now. I have moved the sand from my old tank and transferred it to the new. I have a good feeling that most of the bacteria on the sand is either dead or hibernating due to the very cold weather I am having and salinity fluctuations. The sand is about 6 months old. Just an FYI I am planning to add dry rock along with my cured LR. Should I do this or just wait it out?

If I am reading this right, then I believe that you took the sand from the old tank and put it in the new tank and you are now filling the new tank (with the old sand) with fresh water? If so, that could be very bad.

All the bacteria as well as everything else in the sand has died and will start to decompose. Not only will this likely cause a large ammonia spike, but it will also fill the sand bed with nutrients and you will likely be fighting algae for a long time to come.

At this point I would suggest either removing and discarding the sand and starting with new sand or removing the sand and rinsing it very very well to remove all of the dead stuff and nutrients.

I think leaving the sand in at this point would be a mistake.

 

[Sk8r]

Usually on a fast re-set up you may see an ammonia incident in about 5 days: keep Prime on hand, or wait to re-introduce your fish until about a week. Sometimes you just have to do what you can and fix it if it happens.

 

[davocean]

As long as your LR was kept wet, in SW, you should be fine, even if it's new SW, not a lot of life is actually in the water column, most beneficial life is in/on your rock.

The biggest advantage to using old water would be keeping paramters same, so maybe do your best to get those as close to what they were if you tested and know param numbers, but agree, sometimes you just gotta do the best you can.

Stay on WC's while it regains stability.

 

[Lsufan]

Like everyone said, the majority of the bacteria is in the live rock, so using new water isn’t a issue. Like Dave said, the biggest thing with using new water is matching the parameters.

I’m not saying it will definitely be a issue, but I would worry most about reusing the old sand. If u rinsed it well it should be ok, but if not then u could have stirred up some nasty stuff in the sand. I would keep a eye on it for sure & have some prime on hand like sk8r said just incase