Moving tank - Cycle?

C

CodyRay

[I just bought a 45 gallon stocked tank. I kept the LR moist and its been out for about 3 hours now. I am transfering about 30 gallons of water from the old tank. Do i need to cycle the tank before adding back the livestock???? Please respond fast or ill have to find my fish a temp home!!!]
 
[3 hours should be fine if that's how long the live rock has been out. What kind of substrate did the tank have and did you disturb it? I would recomend adding a new substrate and keeping a close eye on the water parameters for the next few days.]
 
[It had about 1 1/2 of LS but i left it in the tank with a little bit of water when i moved. Would that affect it??]
 
[As long as the sand wasnt disturbed it should be fine. Go ahead and put everything back the way you like it. Watch your pars good for the first couple weeks to be sure nothing spikes.]
 
[Be very careful when you pour the water back in the tank...disturbing that sand bed can result in nitrates off the chart...you may want to rinse out the sand REALLY well first. Good luck.]
 
[TOO LATE!!!!!! MY GOD I have never seen nitrates this high before! What do i do??? 160 :shocked: Im gonna go find some water and do a massive change. Are my fish and shrimp ok????]
 
[Yeah, b4 i put the Live stock in, i tested and everything was fine. Now nitrates are off the chart (reder than the chart) nitrites are like are little high and there is even ammonia showing up on the test now. All live stock is going into a 29 gallon for the time being. I just hope it all makes it!]
 
[Was the substrate disturbed when you were refilling the tank? If that's what caused the nitrate spike then I think you need to change the substrate or clean it thoroughly and do a major water change. If the substrate is causing it then there is a chance that it will continue to cause it until the problem is removed from it. Just save a cup of sand or grab a cup out of the other tank to reseed the cleaned or new substrate.]
 
[Is this your first tank? Like I said earlier, you should have just changed the substrate. You may want to try to find another place to put your fish for a while...nitrates that high are going to take a while to go down through major water changes. You may want to get 90% new water and 10% cycled....how much liverock do you have?]
 
[Yea,, how much live rock do you have? possibly have a plastic tub you can put some fresh saltwater and some rock with a heater and a powerhead?

that would be my suggestion until you can do something with that sandbed.

Nathan]
 
[Like i said, all my fish and corals that came with the tank are in my 29 gallon and i had a 10 gallon running with LR only so some are in there too. Heres what has happened so far. I changed out about 20 gallons and there is nothing but 100 lbs approx of LR in there with the skimmer and wet/dry running.]
 
CodyRay wrote:


[Good luck! The same thing happened to me when I bought an existing tank. My nitrates and phosphates have been high for 5 months. I have bought all new sand and will hopefully get my tank broken down soon and replace the sand bed. Water changes didn't help a whole lot other than to keep them from going any higher, and I've done a lot of them. How are your phosphates?

I agree, replace your substrate or wash what you have extra well. I felt replacing mine would be better.

Let us know how it all goes
Cindy]
 
[From my experience...it can take months to get the water parameters back. It might just make sense to wash out or sand and put all new water in there and then let it cycle with all the liverock....you have enough liverock that it should cycle fairly quickly.]
 
[Alright here is an update. I did a big WC and my readings are as follows........

Nitrites about .1
Amonia is slightly readable
Ph is 8.1
And Nitrates............Well look at the picture :shocked:


Im gonna let it cycle over night. Then check in the morning. If the
ammonia and nitrites are gone tomorrow, ill go to town on the nitrates. If it is still terribly bad, ill just replace 99% of the LS and put in new. Thanks for the help.]
 
[Oh, and i know thats not 100 lbs of LR, i left some of it out bc it had WAY too much hair algae and rock anenomes on it. Im gonna dry it out, rinse it, and then cure it again so that it looks nicer.]
 
[Sorry, i can never seem to make up my mind. Im thinking about trying to see if anyone wants to buy all of my LR, bc there is so much hair algae and rock anenomes on it that it would be a pain in the ### to deal with. If i put new LR, new LS (Seeded with old) and new water in the tank. How long would I have to let it cycle for????]
 
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