What in the way of cycling?

[treesprite]

How much cycling do I really need to do in this situation?

 

I am re-filling my clownfish 38g tank with about 90% new water, but when I hook back the sump/fuge that will be the water it already has going through it (it's hooked up to the 20 right now where the livestock and rock is temporarily residing). The sump/fuge has a sandbed in it full of yummy bacteria, plus I put the same tank sand back into the 38, plus of course the liverock has its bacteria.

 

My thought was just to hook back the sump/fuge for a couple days before putting in the livestock, since the sand from teh tank is already in it with new water plus a couple gallons of the old water already in. I still have about 10 gallons of water to fill.

[zygote2k]

I recommend that you use a bicycle.

[treesprite]

I recommend that you use a bicycle.

You hardly ever sleep, do you?

 

I saw something on tv the other day about bicycling causing bone problems, and they compared it to other types of exercise... I wasn't listening very carefully as I do not ride one.... riding them causes me too much joint and old bone-breaks pain. Of course that is all off topic and none of it will help my clownfish tank.

 

I'm getting ready to start posting about the tank project.

[Origami]

How much cycling do I really need to do in this situation?

 

I am re-filling my clownfish 38g tank with about 90% new water, but when I hook back the sump/fuge that will be the water it already has going through it (it's hooked up to the 20 right now where the livestock and rock is temporarily residing). The sump/fuge has a sandbed in it full of yummy bacteria, plus I put the same tank sand back into the 38, plus of course the liverock has its bacteria.

 

My thought was just to hook back the sump/fuge for a couple days before putting in the livestock, since the sand from teh tank is already in it with new water plus a couple gallons of the old water already in. I still have about 10 gallons of water to fill.

 

As long as you've aged or aerated your new water for a day or so (so it's not so caustic), Forrest, I think you'll be fine. See if you can't match your pH, temperature, and salinity between the two before you tie them together so you don't knock the fauna for a loop, triggering a cycle. That's a bit of extra margin that should make this go quickly.

 

Here's another approach that I used:

 

When I tied my recently set-up 180 to my sump system which has about another 120 gallons in it, I opened ball valves between the two bodies of water so that i had an acclimation time that lasted several hours.

[treesprite]

As long as you've aged or aerated your new water for a day or so (so it's not so caustic), Forrest, I think you'll be fine. See if you can't match your pH, temperature, and salinity between the two before you tie them together so you don't knock the fauna for a loop, triggering a cycle. That's a bit of extra margin that should make this go quickly.

 

Here's another approach that I used:

 

When I tied my recently set-up 180 to my sump system which has about another 120 gallons in it, I opened ball valves between the two bodies of water so that i had an acclimation time that lasted several hours.

Do you mean making the flow between them slower? I have a valve on my return so I can go down to a trickle if I need to. That sounds like a pretty good idea.

[zygote2k]

Forrest-

LMK how this works as I'll be doing it myself when I transfer one existing sump to the new tank.

[FishyTim]

It's hard to say...really just depends on the amout of die off you have.

 

I would just watch it for a week, if you dont have any ammonia spike your likely good to go. Just test it.

 

My guess is that you'll see a very, very small "cycle"

[Origami]

Do you mean making the flow between them slower? I have a valve on my return so I can go down to a trickle if I need to. That sounds like a pretty good idea.

 

Yes. I physically hooked my two subsystems (the display and the fish room) together but with the valves between them closed. Then, I opened the valves just a little bit to allow the water in the two systems to begin to slowly mix. In essence, it was just a large scale acclimation. It was important for me, however, to get salinity, temperature and pH matched as closely as possible before I began that process.

[treesprite]

I hooked the sump/fuge up at very slow rate of flow, valve is practically shut.