Using sand from another tank to seed a new tank?

[razord]

Hello,
I'm about to set up a new tank and I currently have a small 6g tank established for a few years. I'm wondering if there's any negative impact to my old tank I grabbed a cup or two from the sand bed to help seed my new tank? Would disrupting the old tank's sand bed wipe out the smaller tank?

Curious everyone's thoughts.

Thanks!

 

[shadowmonster]

Being that your only using the sand to seed the new tank you don't really need that much. Removing a half a cup to a cup shouldn't be a problem at all. Just use some vinyl hosing and siphon off as much of the top layer as you need.

 

[Timfish]

+1 I would also get some quality aquacultured live rock or wild live rock. The cryptic animals and bugs, especially the sponges are essential for reef ecosystems

 

[razord]

Thanks. I plan on it, plus I have some live rock from the small tank that I'm eventually moving all over. Just want to keep the fish alive in the sm tank in the meantime while I get its new larger home up and running.

 

[BlueRoofTang]

If you have one existing, established, and cycled tank, and are starting up another one... Just use water from a water change to kickstart the new tank. Some sand won't hurt either.


By using water from your other tank, the cycle time will be greatly reduced.

 

[razord]

If you have one existing, established, and cycled tank, and are starting up another one... Just use water from a water change to kickstart the new tank. Some sand won't hurt either.


By using water from your other tank, the cycle time will be greatly reduced.

Yes, that's helpful. Thank you. The issue is my existing tank is a 6g nano and new tank is a 55g one. My water changes are generally only 1g so I don't have too much water to move over.

I'm thinking of using some of the old filter media from the smaller tank too. That should help, no?

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

If you have one existing, established, and cycled tank, and are starting up another one... Just use water from a water change to kickstart the new tank. Some sand won't hurt either.


By using water from your other tank, the cycle time will be greatly reduced.

I disagree with using the nano tanks water to speed up the cycle. I don't think it would hurt anything, but most bacteria in the tank is on surfaces, not in the water column. If you want to seed the new tank tanking anything with a good bit of surface area from the existing tank would do the trick, sand and filters included.

 

[scooter31707]

water from a established tank will not do nothing for starting a new. It's live sand and live rock that will jump start and (maybe) shorten the cycle depending on how much you use.