Moving Rock and Corals to New Tank. Recycle?

styndall · 11/23/2007, 01:02 PM

I've moved all my live rock and corals from their small tank to a new, slightly larger one and added a couple of pieces of live rock, increasing my total live rock weight by about 15 - 20%. I was careful to choose pieces of rock that had been in the shop's tank for several months.

The tank has been established for about a week, and all I've seen so far has been a minimal amount of ammonia (~0.5 two days ago and ~0.25 today), with nitrites and nitrates holding steady at 0.

Should I expect a new cycle to take place over the next few days or weeks? My corals, including some fussy xenia, are all open and look, honestly, better than they had in the previous tank. A bit of xenia I traumatized by scraping it from the old acrylic with a kitchen knife has already re-attached itself to a rock and is pulsing happily away. All my zoas are open and colorful, and my mushrooms look good. All my inverts, some blue-legged hermits, three nassarius snails, and a peppermint shrimp, are active and healthy-looking.

I'd like to add a fish or two, but I don't want to stress any new creatures out if I end up with a cycling tank. What should I expect?

IceWish · 11/23/2007, 01:23 PM

i dont think there will be much of a cycle to talk about since the aerobic bacteria is already attached to the liverock and inverts...If it was my tank i would monitor the tank for a few more days and then add some fish

Frick-n-Frags · 11/23/2007, 01:33 PM

should be minimal. you literally only replaced the glass in your system and possibly caused a bit of dyoff by changing flows on the rocks in the rearrangement.

erring on the side of going slow is not erring. it won't hurt waiting a couple weeks for things to settle from the disruption before adding fish. and add the fish one at a time so you don't re-cycle your tank with a huge load all at once.

what you are also doing is helping keep the algae demons at bay by not oveloading the water with nitrates from a big bioload all at once.

LockeOak · 11/23/2007, 01:41 PM

I agree with everyone else here, wait a week and keep an eye on things and then add the fish. Shouldn't be any problems.

styndall · 11/23/2007, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by LockeOak
I agree with everyone else here, wait a week and keep an eye on things and then add the fish. Shouldn't be any problems.

Curiously, I'm also a grad student in Athens, Ga, and I just moved my 3 gallon pico reef into a 12-gallon Nano Cube.

I'm in Linguistics, and my name is Stephen. I wonder if we'd have met somewhere.

11/23/2007, 01:02 PM	#1
styndall Registered Member Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 282	Moving Rock and Corals to New Tank. Recycle? I've moved all my live rock and corals from their small tank to a new, slightly larger one and added a couple of pieces of live rock, increasing my total live rock weight by about 15 - 20%. I was careful to choose pieces of rock that had been in the shop's tank for several months. The tank has been established for about a week, and all I've seen so far has been a minimal amount of ammonia (~0.5 two days ago and ~0.25 today), with nitrites and nitrates holding steady at 0. Should I expect a new cycle to take place over the next few days or weeks? My corals, including some fussy xenia, are all open and look, honestly, better than they had in the previous tank. A bit of xenia I traumatized by scraping it from the old acrylic with a kitchen knife has already re-attached itself to a rock and is pulsing happily away. All my zoas are open and colorful, and my mushrooms look good. All my inverts, some blue-legged hermits, three nassarius snails, and a peppermint shrimp, are active and healthy-looking. I'd like to add a fish or two, but I don't want to stress any new creatures out if I end up with a cycling tank. What should I expect?

11/23/2007, 01:33 PM	#3
Frick-n-Frags Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: north central OH Posts: 10,740	should be minimal. you literally only replaced the glass in your system and possibly caused a bit of dyoff by changing flows on the rocks in the rearrangement. erring on the side of going slow is not erring. it won't hurt waiting a couple weeks for things to settle from the disruption before adding fish. and add the fish one at a time so you don't re-cycle your tank with a huge load all at once. what you are also doing is helping keep the algae demons at bay by not oveloading the water with nitrates from a big bioload all at once. __________________ Only Dead fish swim with the current. Current Tank Info: 2 50 gal tanks, sump, still BB

11/23/2007, 01:23 PM	#2
IceWish Registered Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Main Tank Fingering Frags Posts: 117	i dont think there will be much of a cycle to talk about since the aerobic bacteria is already attached to the liverock and inverts...If it was my tank i would monitor the tank for a few more days and then add some fish

11/23/2007, 01:41 PM	#4
LockeOak Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Athens, GA Posts: 839	I agree with everyone else here, wait a week and keep an eye on things and then add the fish. Shouldn't be any problems.