Tank Upgrading, Do I need to re-cycle my tank?

R

ReefWho?

New member
Well I have never done this before, and I'd like to know if I were to use new sand, old rocks and old water. Would I have to let it cycle again? Or am I good to add my live stock back in?


And is there any problems if I choose to use my old sand? I think I had a friend who moved his old sand and it caused some crazy amonia spike.

Please if anyone one could list out the steps to tank upgrading/transfering that be awsome. I don't want to lose any of my live stock. Thanks
 
Ok well do you have to recycle the tank it will recycle on its own at least a small cycle no matter what you do.

Well the new sand is a good idea as the old sand when moving it will stire up alot of stuff nutriants. you can clean your old sand and use it again. that is what I did with no problems. others will say not to reuse the sand.

The old rock will help the cycle happen much faster. the more assablished live rock from the old tank the better. I would use all new water as the water dosn't have good bactieria that is on the live rock. the old water only has trace elements (good) but that is in the new water also. and nutriants (bad). some will say to use 20% of the old water but makes no sence to me other then having to reacclimae the live stock to the new water.
 
Wow ok I didn't see the step by step part of your question. well can you keep both tanks running for a week or so? if so this will help alot.

Roger
 
I just did this...I moved my 75g to a 135g. I used new water, new sand seeded with sand from the 75 and new live rock plus the live rock from my 75. The only thing is that my 75 was only up and running for two months so I am using that sand as well. I just did this today so I'll let you know how it turns out.

I guess I am replying because it's an excellent question and I want to bump it up.
 
I just upgraded from a 30g to a 55g. My old tank NEVER had a skimmer on it and was in bad shape. I now have a decent skimmer on the 55, and using old sand, the old rocks, and totally new water, I'm still had a diatom bloom and a cyano outbreak. Currently trying to decide what to do about the cyano.

Just for reference when I used the old sand, it was the first thing to go in the system. After it clouded up the water I let it the junk settle and then syphoned out as much as I could. After that I let the system use the remaining stuff in the water column to run a cycle... in reality I don't think that helped it cycle much. I had near zip activity until I added half of my liverock. Then I had the diatom bloom. The old tank had BAD cyano problems so I tried to clean as much of this off as I could, but again, still having some cyano problems.

If I were to do it again, I probably would have used new sand, or rinsed the old sand VERY well.
 
Very interesting, any idea if you got an ammonia spike? I know old sand has all those bugs and what not in there. So if you mess with that sand would there be any problems? And did you move your live stock in right away or you waited?
 
I upgraded in June with old rock and new substrate. No problems, but I use a different filter. If you keep the live rock under good conditions IMO you should see no Ammonia or Nitrite maybe some Nitrate. If your old substrate has a lot of detritus and built up nutrient, the nutrient will release when stirred up. I agree with Roger that you could rinse the detritus/nutrient out of the old sand. If you do it in SW, you may even save bacteria and some infauna.
Good luck
 
Oh forgot to mention, I ran it with the sand for a few days before adding the first half of the live rock, then ran that for like 3 weeks before moving the rest of the live rock and the fish.

My sand bed in the old tank was kinda established, but i had minimal critters as it was a mix of bagged LS and dry, that had been in there for about a year.
 
I upgraded from a 40 gal to a 75 gal about 18 months ago reused everything from old tank and added about 60 lbs of new sand. Put all fish and coral straight from one to the other and didnt lose a thing but did have small diatom bloom about 3 days later.
 
Bump. Great question. Has anyone tried doing this and combatting the diatom bloom with phosphate removers and charcoal as a preventative and temporary solution?
 
I upgraded from a 20 to a 40. I used all of my old rock, NEW sand, and most of my old water then topped it off with fresh saltwater with matched salinity. I had an issue with my 20, so I had to transfer all of the stock over immediately. I tested for ammonia and nitrite every hour or two and never saw it read anything. Everything went well and I didn't lose any of my stock. (And now, 9 months later, everything is still doing great.) Hope that helps!

Edit: If you plan to add more rock, do so slowly! Maybe a piece every couple weeks, just in case.
 
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