Tank Cycle Phobia?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Something that wasn’t mentioned but might be something to consider is...are you being over cautious and building up too big of a BB colony?

If you have too much BB and you only transfer one fish into the new tank and say this new fish doesn’t produce enough waste for the BB to survive will the die back of the BB cause problems for your tank? (I’m not an expert of the sorts but wanted to put that out there in case someone else might know)
Good point I'm most likely gona stock all the fish
Pass and 4 oscars
You bring up a good point
 
My take would be that adding say 10% old water to 90% new water would be similar to the tank they come from after a 90% WC. Transferring the fish to this new similar environment should to a degree lessen the stress.
Hello; I do not yet buy into this notion which is why I asked if the point was some sort of acclimation attempt. Two things- one the new setup is empty of fish so far so what is the gain? Second being there are acclimation procedures we can use when introducing fish to a strange tank. Afraid I still do not understand any benefit of adding old tank water to a new setup.
It seems along the same lines of a person who neglects water changes for a long time, then does a big one only to wind up with a bunch of dead fish from the shock of their new water being so chemically different than the soup they were in.
Hello; This is correct and the way I understand it. If the water has not been changed for a long time and a big WC is done the pH swing can be big for one thing. Folks who do 60% WC or more should do so on a regular schedule. Those who have not been doing big WC need to do a series of smaller WC and slowly build up to the 80 to 90 % WC.
But this is not the case presented in this thread so far.
 
Jeff
On the ph you should see that I addressed why the ph differed in the 2 tanks. When the new tank is populated , planted and has 0 ammonia I am pretty sure the ph will go down and be similar to the current populated tank.
 
Yes acclimation. Think of the entire new tank as an acclimation container. Mix in some old water so values are similar and it should lessen stress
 
Jeff
On the ph you should see that I addressed why the ph differed in the 2 tanks. When the new tank is populated , planted and has 0 ammonia I am pretty sure the ph will go down and be similar to the current populated tank.
the new water? You don't need old water from another tank in the new tank unless you are adding something to old water.

You need to know why the PH in your established tank is lower than the new tank.
Hello; Time for me to leave you to it. I probably would try some other way to deal with different pH values but to each his own. I would probably try building up to 80% WC in the old tank before I moved the fish or just do a very slow acclimation procedure.
Maybe move the fish into the new tank one or two at a time over a few weeks to avoid a mini-cycle.
 
Yes acclimation. Think of the entire new tank as an acclimation container. Mix in some old water so values are similar and it should lessen stress
Hello; the approach you describe is the opposite of what I do. I have the fish in a bag filled half way with the old tank water. I slowly add new tank water to the bag over time so to acclimate the fish to the new tank they are going into.
Since the new tank and the old tank are in the same place and I guess will have the same source water the difference from one to the other ought not to be so great. Maybe I am wrong but I would not be trying to make a new setup like the old tank.
 
You have everything you need to make this a smooth transfer.

Transfer your Bacteria colony from your established tank, media, decor etc...Add a double dose of of stability day one and a single dose everyday for 7 days. I would populate 25 percent of your desired stock on the second day and prime every 48 hours for first 7 days. Day 14 add 25 percent more of your stock and stability/prime with your water changes. Day 30, add 25 percent more of you stock and on day 45 the remainder.

You should be good, this usually works well for me. I let my water test results guide me thou and move with the tank/results. I don’t work for seachem lol I just really like there products.
 
When I set up a new tank, i just transfer half the media from an old filter to the new filter and dose with Prime on both tanks for a couple days till things stabilize. Then a 70% water change and I am good to go!
Edit: I add fish immediately after setting up.
 
I must admit I never use or add old water for anything except watering the garden. That is because as per normal practice, I do lots of water changes keeping the pH and buffering capacity of any tank almost equal to the tap water. In fact the nutrients in old water generally serve to lower buffering capactiy (something I almost never want)
And because our desired beneficial bacteria are sessile (living as biofilm) old water alone really doesn't contain any significant numbers, these bacteria are not planktonic.
Equilibrium (to me) means having the tank water, and tap water as close as possible.
However in the case that altered tap water is warranted, that may be a different story, as an example if I want to maintain a certain level of tannins, that might be a case for using aged (tannin infused water).
I would do this in tiny tanks where killifish were spawning, by using rain water with leaf litter soaking in it.
 
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Good morning MFK!
Thanks everybody for input on this thread. It's great to hear all the comments. Reading everything and listening it sounds like moving media from an established tank is all that's needed (a lot of peoples opinion). That's interesting and I will consider if I do this again. Although I moved some media I also selected to do a fishless cycle to make sure the BB was well established. I think this sums it up.
I would rather do the move this weekend so I am following the plan. Feel free to comment on the thread but my plan is set.

On a side note this experience has allowed me to see how long it takes the BB to process ammonia and see what the curve looks like.
 
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