Another water question

[The sculpin]

I am upgrading from a 72 to a 150. I have been doing 5 gallon water changes and keeping old water in a plastic drum trying to make enough cycled water to avoid a cycle in new tank. The question is when you do a water change how fast does the bacteria count come back up?

[krzyphsygy]

I am upgrading from a 72 to a 150. I have been doing 5 gallon water changes and keeping old water in a plastic drum trying to make enough cycled water to avoid a cycle in new tank. The question is when you do a water change how fast does the bacteria count come back up?

You could just remove the corals to a bucket with tank water, remove the rock to a bin with some tank water, then remove the fish to a bucket with some tank water. Then drain the remaining water to a trash can. Make an additional 50-75 gallons of new water. Then set up the new tank. You want to use 75% of the old tank water in the new tank. Holding the water IMO is not the most effective way to do this unless you only holding it for a little while as you set up the new tank.

MOST of your bacteria is on the rock, equipment, and glass. Not in the water. Not sure what you use for a filter but if its a filter sock or some sort of filter pad I would just make sure you use the old one in the new system during set up to create more bacteria. This is how I set up QT, I have filter pads in my sump at all times dirty, this way I can set up QT with no cycle when needed. I just take it out of my sump and use it in my QT filter. I do use tank water as well to fill the QT but with out the filter pads, I might experience a cycle.

But to answer your question, as long as you have circulation via power head the bacteria should be fine.

[bnumair]

Saving water will not give u bacteria. U can setup the new tank with old sand and rock and fill it with 100% new water and if u transfer rock and sand correctly u will not see any spikes.

[The sculpin]

Thanks for the answers back ill throw filter pads in my old sump right now. It will be about 1 to 2 weeks before new tank is ready. I am going to use my rocks and sand from old tank. You put my mind at ease, I'm trying hard not to loose live stock. Last time I had to do this I lost some fish.

[Timfish]

Add some ammonium chloride to your saved tank water and see how fast it is consumed. If your tap water has chloramines your new saltwater will test out around 1 ppm ammonia so alternately you could dump in 5 gallons of new saltwater and test for ammonia several times over a day to see how fast it's dissipating. You can check it against your DT when you do a water change but I would expect ammonia levels of .3 or .5 ppm in your saved water to dissappear in less than a day.

[krzyphsygy]

If it was me I was use new sand in the new tank. The chance of a very high nitrate problem is substantial with the old sand. All the nasties will come out of the sand when drained because the sand will shift considerably.

[The sculpin]

Will new sand cause water to cycle?

[The sculpin]

Also tank came with a dart pump that I think is way to big but it would be real easy to put it back together. Problem is it has a drip at the shaft. Are these repairable?

[krzyphsygy]

Will new sand cause water to cycle?

No, it won't. Just get the live bacteria sand. I have done it this way a few times. As far as dry sand goes like dry aragonite. Rinse it really well and if you follow all the steps in previous post you should be fine. But I would use the live sand. Now you could save a few handfuls of your old sand and also seed the new sand with that.