Tank swap

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
C

cichlid_king

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 14, 2011
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Fond du lac, Wisconsin
Have my sights set on a 200gal. How would i go about moving everything over from my 40 breeder as stress free as possible? Does it need to cycle if i add the 50 lbs of LR from the breeder to the 200 lbs of dry rock? Should i try to use as much of the old tank water as i can? How would i go about doing this?

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From what I've read online so far I think the 200 will have to go through the cycling process because even if you do use all your DTs water you are left with a 160 gallons of new water.
 
The dry rock is going to have to cycle regardless of the water you use, isn't it? Thats gonna be a lot of rock to cycle at once! Seed it with rock from the 40 and test the Params over a couple weeks. The worst you could do is be safe, right?


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Okay. Should i use new sand? What should i do with my fish i have in the DT right now? Should i QT them for that period of time?

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Would it help the cycle to mix the new sand with the old sand? There's gonna be a lot more new than old, isn't there? Or would that just create problems down the road?
 
adding a few cups of sand from the established to the new tank will help seed the new tank with the bacteria needed. adding the sand plus liverock would give more bacteria, it might speed it up a little bit.

I was under the impression that dry rock can be added to an existing system, or upgrade, with out having to cycle it, because there was no partial die off as it is completely dead, and it will just obtain bacteria, rather than giving off ammonia from the partially dead organisms. Obviously, this is with thorough washing of the dry rock, and the transfer of the current rock over, not just throwing only the dead rock in there.
 
+1 on adding some old sand to the new stuff, will seed the new stuff and help the new sand mature quicker.

Dry rock won't cause any cycle whatsoever. How can it? It's just dry rock. As above, wash it and add it, it will take time to seed from the LR.

You won't need to cycle the tank, the rock is mature and will have little to zero die off when you change over, providing the new water is at the right temperature and salinity when you add the LR. Fresh water doesn't cause a tank to cycle again.

The main thing is getting your LR moved over swiftly and keeping some of that sand to seed the new.

Hope that helps :thumbsup:
 
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