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Out With The Old, In With The New!

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Ray/Jen_Reefin, Jul 31, 2015.

  1. Jul 31, 2015 #1
    Ray/Jen_Reefin Davenport, IA

    Ray/Jen_Reefin 2016 Vice President / 2015 Volunteer of the year.

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    Davenport, IA
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    We are tearing down our 180Gal Reef, and Setting up a 250Gal, DD This weekend picking up tonight, and have slowly taken and pulled Coral and placed day by day, ( preventing stress or cycle) question is. I am keeping the 180 Gallons of water from the tank and transferring to the 250, and adding new sand and the old Rock, How bad of a cycle do you think I will put it in. or Will this be one big water change? Give me your thoughts or input... This may help others for future use! please keep it clean and positive!!!!
     
  2. Jul 31, 2015 #2
    DangerJ Des Moines, IA

    DangerJ Well-Known ReefKeeper

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    Good luck! Would love to see pics of the process. I wish I had more technical info to provide on the anticipated cycle time but I don't have experience with this volume of a tank.
     
  3. Jul 31, 2015 #3
    Dave Des Moines Area

    Dave Experienced Reefkeeper

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    I think you will have minimal cycle by using your existing rock and water
     
  4. Jul 31, 2015 #4
    MillerTime Ankeny, IA

    MillerTime Well-Known ReefKeeper

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    I wouldn't think there would be much of a cycle if you transferred over all of the live rock. I went from a 75 to 150 one time and had no additional cycle. The only thing I could think of is maybe dont crazy stock it with more fish for a bit.
     
  5. Jul 31, 2015 #5
    Bud West Des Moines, IA

    Bud Loves Bacon Website Team Board of Directors Leadership Team GIRS Member Vendor

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    You really should not "see" any cycle, meaning, you have plenty of bacteria that will survive. You could probably dose straight ammonia up to a detectable level and it would be gone within 24 hrs you wouldn't see any Nitrite spike. Don't do that, I'm just saying that your nitrifying bacteria will be just fine.

    But whenever you change something in an existing tank, like flow, lighting, rock formations, etc, you incur a cycle with the established bacteria colonies that are used to the patterns in the system. This can be followed with an algae bloom or dinoflagellate outbreak 6 weeks later (that will last 2-3 weeks no matter what you do). Not necessarily, but probable.

    So when you're talking about moving an entire system, you are disrupting pretty much everything. So expect that you will have some PO'd corals. It's during this time that everything has to get re-established, and you will probably have a lot of chemical warfare going on also, depending on how big or aggressive your coral colonies are. So yes, it's good to run filtration on the aggressive side (things like GFO and carbon will be good) and error on the high side of water changes for a few months.

    JMO though.
     
  6. Jul 31, 2015 #6
    tangers Ankeny

    tangers Well-Known ReefKeeper

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    I would defiantly "rinse" the rock before putting in the new tank. I have been in your situation many times and been just fine. How I have done this is take 2 5 gallon buckets and fill them with salt water. (Shouldn't really matter if it's new or old water) Rinse the rock much the same way a bartender washes glasses... dunk up and down several times in first bucket then transfer to second bucket and do the same. You even want to consider 3 buckets instead of 2. You will be amazed at what the 1st bucket looks like when you are done with all of it! It will probably look almost like a milkshake! (Color wise) That's why I would consider 3 if you can...2nd does a light rinse after first and 3rd polishes with clean water. Enough bacteria will stay with no problem but you will get rid of all that unwanted detritus build up and not carry it with you to the new tank.
     
  7. Jul 31, 2015 #7
    jeremy Davenport, IA

    jeremy Acro Addict

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    Expect some algae and like Bud said GFO, Carbon, and several water changes are your friends.

    I used Rubbermaid totes for rinsing rock. Worked pretty good. Knocked a bunch of crud out of the rocks.

    And some Pissed corals till things stabilize.
     

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