Cycling time for "transferring" live rocks to a new aquarium

[pdxluv]

I've read everywhere that the cycle time for setting up a brand new aquarium is lengthly (3 or more weeks). The main reason is to allow the die-offs on the rock to re-establish a balance in the ecosystem, or otherwise "cure" the rocks.

 

However...

 

If you are "transferring" live rock immediately (let's say less than a minute) from an established aquarium, I suspect there is little die off, and thus, the cycle time in the new aquarium will be very short.

 

Does this logic hold true? If so, is it conceivable to have a new aquarium ready in a day?

[jgf86123]

It is concievable if you use all the water from the old tank, all the sand, and all the rock. But, in this hobby, as has been said more than once, it is MUCH safer to be patient and wait a couple weeks minimum than it is to try and rush things and end up killing hundreds of dollars worth of fish and corals, trust me, I've been there and done that.

[Rick]

Technically no. The act of moving the rocks, sand, etc. will cause an imbalance that will need to be reestablished which will take a week or two. Just adding a new fish causes the tank to start a new cycle also. That said, many of us have successfully upgraded tanks by just moving everything from one to the other. I've done it a few times. By transferring everything the initial cycle is fairly mild compared to setting up a tank from scratch.

[CCR]

How much rock to how much water? New mix or same water? the rocks themselves will be setup differently, with some parts getting moe or less light causing a change. PH, salinity and all the other levels are going to be different. Just give it the week or 2 and never rush it Use as much of the old water as you can.

 

 

 

 

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[jackaninny]

So I'm going to be in this same boat in a month or two when I move from a Biocube 29 to a 40b with 20l sump. I plan on setting up some new cured, live rock mostly new sand and then letting it cycle for a month. After that I will move the established live rock and some of the sand from the old tank to the new one along with the livestock. I was also thinking of replacing some of the new tank water with the old tank water which I'm guessing would be about 20-30% of total new tank volume. The established live rock would be about 40% of the new total weight of live rock in the new tank.

 

Not to thread jack but how does my plan sound?

[jgf86123]

Mark, if you let the new tank cycle beforehand, and just move the old rock into the new cycled tank, you should be fine just moving everything over LOL Just make sure to acclimate your corals and fish an such, but other than that, you'll be fine without doing more than moving rock from one tank to another LOL.

[Lowman]

I have some quick cycle liquid you can have to help. There should be very little if any cycle when you switch like you are going to. I have done it many times and never had a cycle. But, you should practice caution and give it some time. Test you nitrates when you are done setting up the tank, then the next day you should test and see where the nitrates are. If they are high, wait another day and retest. Do this until the nitrate levels are near zero.