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tank cycle (1 Viewer)

Khuong135

Khuong135

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just bought a 210 to replace my leak 175 bowfront. currently, all of my fish are in my sump. just wondering if there are any quick way to cycle the tank. i was thinking about using some of my sump water, live rock, bio-spira to cycle the tank. planning to wash and reuse the old sand. any suggestion?

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I had a great experience with Dr. Tim's one and only. Bio Spira has also worked for me. Combine that with live rock and sump water should really cut down your tanks cycle.
 
Too many unknowns. I will make some assumptions.

1. the rocks that were in the 175 are still in water with a heater and powerhead. (somewhere, maybe not the sump)
2. You are going to reuse the sump from your 175 on your 210 and not drain it in the meantime.

Given the above two assumptions, there will not be much die off on your rocks and thus not much of a 'cycle'. The bacteria that doesn't die will likely be able to process the ammonia/nitrites from what does die so quickly that all you will see is either a nitrate spike or an algae bloom, or both. Point is, your bacteria population is probably not going to suffer dramatically.

The wildcard is the sand. Even though you rinse it, it can be dicey.

What would I do? Depends on how your sump is set up and whether or not you can move it or have to move it. If your sump is remote and do not have to move it, that would be ideal. Leave that sucker running as is.
Set up the 210, put in the sand, put in saltwater, heaters and powerheads but not enough water to make it drain to the sump. Run that for a week, see where your levels are. You may have significant die off from organics in the sand that you rinsed. Once that settles down, start moving over rocks and check your levels. Once you have all the rocks in the display that you want and the levels are up to speed, then it will be time to remove the heaters etc and add enough water to make it drain to the sump and turn on the return pump. Then you can start moving fish from the sump to the display in whatever order you want. No acclimation needed, because it is the same system. Just catch and dump.
 
How deep was your old sand bed? I'm not sure reusing the old sand will help you in a quick cycle. I reused my old sand and washed it thoroughly, even let it dry out and I still had a huge problem with it. It would be best to use new sand to avoid any problems and get some established sand from someone to seed it if your wanting to have all the critters.

as long as your rocks were put in salt water and you had a heater and circulation there should be minimal die off on it. I used existing live rock a some acid washed old rocks along with Bio-spira and some of my old water and my cycle lasted over a month.

Good luck and post some pics of the new setup!
 
Richard Nixon said:
I used bio spira and would recommend it
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Could you more specific how is that help? It stated will cycle your tank in 24hrs. Is it really work? Do you have any ammonia,nitrite,nitrate spike while cycle your tank with bio spira?

schlosser_jr30 said:
I had a great experience with Dr. Tim's one and only. Bio Spira has also worked for me. Combine that with live rock and sump water should really cut down your tanks cycle.
Click to expand...
How long it take you cycle your tank while using bio spira?
 
90ct said:
Could you more specific how is that help? It stated will cycle your tank in 24hrs. Is it really work? Do you have any ammonia,nitrite,nitrate spike while cycle your tank with bio spira?


How long it take you cycle your tank while using bio spira?
Click to expand...

I recommend microbe-lift, same basic concept but better product IMO.
 
cubetankguy said:
if you wash/rise the sand in rodi h20, kept the rocks submerged in moving saltwater, and use some of your current h20 you will be fine and have virtually no cycle...
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Not necessarily a guarantee no matter what. I have done this many times on smaller tanks with great success although with my current tank I still ended up with a mini cycle, JME. Either way I think yes it can work but it's not 100% fool proof or guaranteed by any means.
 
cubetankguy said:
if you wash/rise the sand in rodi h20, kept the rocks submerged in moving saltwater, and use some of your current h20 you will be fine and have virtually no cycle...
Click to expand...

That's totally wrong, sir:). You will run into a cycle time no matter what.
 
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cubetankguy said:
if you wash/rise the sand in rodi h20, kept the rocks submerged in moving saltwater, and use some of your current h20 you will be fine and have virtually no cycle...
Click to expand...

scubaspew said:
Not necessarily a guarantee no matter what. I have done this many times on smaller tanks with great success although with my current tank I still ended up with a mini cycle, JME. Either way I think yes it can work but it's not 100% fool proof or guaranteed by any means.
Click to expand...

90ct said:
That's totally wrong, sir:). You will run into a cycle time no matter what.
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read my bolded part,,, never said there wouldnt be a cycle....

in my 12 years of reef keeping ive transfered numerous tanks.... never had a significant cycle doing it the way stated above...
 
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No matter what u do, there will be a cycle. I've used Bio-Spira in the past *The ones you have to refrigerate, IMO better than the current ones*. Once you add it into your tank you would need to also add fish as it feeds on organic waste to jump start the bacteria. The faster you can populate your beneficial bacteria the safer your tank parms will be during the cycle process. It will still go through its cycle without the huge spikes and your livestock should live through it just fine. I actually use TLC SmartStart and dose for 2-4 wks when I start any setup for the past 4-5 yrs. I buy it by the gallon size. It also helps seed or reseed your live/dry rock.

I'm not saying this is what you should do, but this has worked for me.
 
The rocks that were in the 175 are now in my 75 sump which is connected to my 55 and 20 gallons that i have running in my basement. Also, the plan is to connect the 210 to the 75 sump which will then connect to the 55 and 20.
Tank is currently cycle withe the following:
-30 gallons sump water
- rised/washed sand
- 3/5 (100lbs) of my live rock from sump
-30 gallons new mixed water
- bottle bio-spira.

The next step is to add another 60 gallons of new mixed water tomorrow and a bottle of micro-lift special blend.
 
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sorry if i wasnt clear... im attempting to replace my alternator tonight for the first time.... im no mechanic... dont really know what im doing... fingers are cold... brain is cold...
 
current setup
4u3ydu7y.jpg

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when I went from 75 gallons to 110 I used all new sand, all new water, powerwashed the rocks and a bottle of Biospira. Immediately transfered the fish . Had little or no cycle. Tank transfer in less than a day. The hardest part was trying to catch the Wrasse.
 
Fishmonger70 said:
when I went from 75 gallons to 110 I used all new sand, all new water, powerwashed the rocks and a bottle of Biospira. Immediately transfered the fish . Had little or no cycle. Tank transfer in less than a day. The hardest part was trying to catch the Wrasse.
Click to expand...

Like I said it can totally work but other times you will still get a small cycle, there's just no guarantee.
 
Just want to give a quick status. I added a damsel the next day and yesterday i added a couple chromis and goby. Planning to tie the 210 with the 75gallon sump today and add all other fish (large blue hippo, large yellow tang, large purple tang, large Sailfin, yellow dots, clowns, cleaner shrimps, and inverts. I tested for ph, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate last night. Everything looks great.
 
I will transfer them slowly, instead all at once. You've been warned:tongue:
 
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