Newbie Question

I personally have always taken some of the water that was in the tank.

 

There is always going to be some free floating bacteria in the water column. I would drain the tank down to the lowest point you can to cover the substrate (if the tank is big enough that you need to empty it all the way to move it, then buckets for the substrate and water enough to cover the top) and as much of the water that you can take. its not going to hurt you to move an established tank, and will cut your cycle ( so long as you don't make drastic changes)

Still be prepared for a cycle and keep monitoring at a minimum of a month esp if you are new to the hobby. getting to know the cycle and how it works is the best thing you will ever learn.

 

A bucket is usually good. the substrate and any rock is where the bulk of your biological life will reside, water column is usually consisting of things like diatoms and micro algae but there are some free floating bacteria.

 

I have always used old water to establish my next tank or upgrades. The biggest bio boost is in the Live rock. Good established live rock is hard to beat. I did a move just last August from a 75 to a 220 and that was all I use to do a transfer in one day. The transfer went great and i worried for nothing. Here is my 75 and my 220gal now.


75gal





220gal





As long as the 75gal tank looked good and was well taken care of. I would use as much of the water as you can up to 50% of total water volume. basically you can treat the move of the used established tank as nothing more then a water change and most of your live stock in the tank will not even be affected by the move as long as the tank was in good condition before hand everything will be great. Keep water from getting to hot or too cold if you can and get the move finished as soon as you can.


Keep us posted sounds like fun. 75gal is a great size to start with.


KP

 

almost all the bacteria lives in the rock and sand. the is almost none free swimming in the water column. I typically go with all new water with no ill effects.

 

Most don't use old Sand, because of what bad things are in it also or what maybe released . I don't believe the almost none free Bactria in the water column idea. I would never do a 100% water change? I think there is more in the water then one would think. In fresh water sorry, but its what I know in this instance. I would do a lot of things to make my breeding operation better and one of them was 100% new water in a 55gal with two established sponge filter and another 55gal tank with 50% water new to established with two sponge filters also. Both brand new tanks. The 100% new water didn't cycle as fast as the 50% one did. I think it was close to 5 days. Both showed very little cycle, but 5 days is a lot when your trying to find homes for 500 Discus or Angels. lol


This all assuming that saltwater Nitrifying Bactria is similar.

Kp