Tank Upgrade - cycle or no cycle?

[tonypittman]

I just upgraded from a 95g to a 150g tank.

The 95g was about 6 years old. Well established. 100+ pounds of live rock.

About 100 pounds of rock and 60 gallons of water was retained from the old tank. We added about another 100 pounds of live rock and a fresh new bed of live sand.

Question: Should I expect to see the tank go through a new establishment cycle, or will my tests for amonia & nitrite stay where they are now...zero?

To play it safe, I'll probably wait about 2-3 weeks before adding any fish/corals. I'm just trying to draw on any experience any of you may have when doing these types of upgrades.

[E Rosewater]

Where'd the new live rock come from?

[tonypittman]

The NEW live rock (on top of the 100 pounds from my old tank) was cultured rock that the LFS included in the new tank setup. It did not come out of an established tank.

[E Rosewater]

If you can be reasonably assured that there was little die off in the process of moving both from the upgrade and from the new rock from the LFS, and be reasonably assured that the LR from the LFS was well cultured then you may not have anything to worry about.

Remember the cycle is due to the bio filtration in the tank not being able to keep up with the waste entering the system. The biggest fear would be that a large die off from the moving off the rock would cause too much waste products for the bacteria to keep up with.

Estabilished LR is full of that bacteria, and has been able to keep up with the bioload in your 95 gallon tank there's no reason to believe that this won't be the case in the new 150 gallon.

Remember though bacteria like any other living thing needs a food source, in this case their food is waste, without they will die, and they will become waste.

[coralsnaked]

When ever you set up a new tank utilizing all established live rock and all water except 30 % new salt water, you can usually avoid a recycle with a little live bacteria supplimentation. You have to remeber that the physical parts of the tank to include filtration hilds a significant portion of nitrifying and de-nitrifying bacteria. And the water itself about 10 %

But when ever you double New live rock from anothe rsystem and 30% + new water it becomes increasingly difficult to avoid a cycle. But if you throw in a new live sand substrate then you are gauranteed to get a new cycle.

No critters is a good thing. Myguess is it will cycle fairly quickly in aweek or two. Id go ahead and throw in a peeled shrimp tail and wait for a good ammonia spike and let it go thru it's normal cycle. This will insure you will get a trong bio-system from the start.

One question: What about the sump? Are you moving it intact or changing it out as werll? This will make a difference as well.

Merry Skerry

I just did a friend's new 24 gal JBJ for his daughter's Christmas present. I did it w/ no cycle. Of course I soaked her sponges in the 150 gal sump for 5 days and set up tank with 1/2" washed crushed coral substrate and 40lbs paly / zoa covered rock from my 650 along w/ the 22 gals water. Put the two big rocks in an Igloo with the sponges and a mated pair of clown fish (skunk) and covered w/ tank water and carried next door where waiting tank was set up, placed the rocks in, put in the sponges in covered w/ water and droped the clowns in. Placed sponges in added 1 cup Start Smart for saltwater and hit the switch on the GFCI / Timer multi oulet...and Bam instant reef tank.

[tonypittman]

@coralsnaked, @ E Rosewater, thank you for those replies.

As for the sump....brand new sump. It's seeded with a new 5-pounds of miracle mud, but that's it.

So, to be safe, i'll throw in the shrimp tail, and then see if I get a spike.

Insights very much appreciated!

Tony