I have a Red Sea Max 130d and it has been set up for almost two years now. I started out with a bunch of beginner corals and have decided to step it up. So I took all my live rock out and sold it, my sand was dirty, so I decided to clen the sand, so I took all my fish out of the tank and put them into a rubbermaid container with pump and heater of course. The sand bed was so bad that I just decided to drain the whole tank and start over. I drained the water, tossed the old sand, put in new live sand and I went and got 30 gals of pre-made saltwater from my LFS. I also filled the tank with about 45 lbs of base rock. So my question is, will my tank cycle again? I mean this is just like setting up a new tank, I'm a little worried because I do have a few corals, fish and inverts in the tank. Would you recommend maybe some turbo start or something? Any help is appreciated in advance.
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Will my tank cycle again?
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Yeah, you should see a normal cycle. My advice would be to find someplace to house the inhabitants, as most won't make it through. Also, cycling with inhabitants will make the tank far less stable and more prone to algae outbreaks.
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moebious;563357 wrote: "Stability" claims you can add fish right away, but i would use it at your own risk.
http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Stability.html">http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Stability.html</a>
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This can still lead to an unstable system causing problems in the future. The best way to remedy the situation is to get the inhabitants out and let the tank cycle on its own. Best practices always lead to greater long-term health.
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You will definitly have a cycle, but not because you put new sand in, but because you lost all your benefical bacteria by getting rid of the live rock. Now if your 45lbs of base rock came from a cycled tank and wasn't transported out of water then the new rock may have enough bacteria and you want have a cycle. I have swapped many tanks and always used new sand, but kept my same live rock and I have never had a cycle. So I think your rock is going to decide if you are going to have a cycle. Either way, I would try to find an alternative to housing the fish until I knew if the tank was stable.
Ahh.....okay then, with that being said I guess I should have offered more information than I did. I got this base rock like two months ago with every intension of weeding out the old rock with all the xenia and kenya and stuff. This rock was base rock when I got it, but I put it in a rubbermaid container and everytime I did a water change from my display tank, I dumped the water into the container with the base rock and of course put a pump in there to circulate the water. Do you think it had enough time to cycle in the container and build up enough bacteria to keep my tank from cycling?
zippgirlRN;563377 wrote: You will definitly have a cycle, but not because you put new sand in, but because you lost all your benefical bacteria by getting rid of the live rock. Now if your 45lbs of base rock came from a cycled tank and wasn't transported out of water then the new rock may have enough bacteria and you want have a cycle. I have swapped many tanks and always used new sand, but kept my same live rock and I have never had a cycle. So I think your rock is going to decide if you are going to have a cycle. Either way, I would try to find an alternative to housing the fish until I knew if the tank was stable.
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No not at all, still brand new tank. Did you add bagged live sand? If so what brand?
Nature's Ocean Bio-Activ Live Aragonite Reef Sand
Fish Scales2;563383 wrote: No not at all, still brand new tank. Did you add bagged live sand? If so what brand?
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Nice!!! The only one that I know of that is true live sand and not cultured using grain alcohol. Make sure to add sufficient sand sifting inverts to keep sand bed healthier this time. Whatever you do do not add any bottled fixes. You can add your softies after you see everything zero out but you will want to stay on weekly water changes for some time.
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Call a few fish stores. I'm sure you'll find one that will be happy to house them for you while you get situated.
