do i need to cycle old tank water in new tank?

[livingwater]

tomorrowis the BIG day. i will be getting my 300g delivered to my family room @3:00. i currently have a 150g. should i take all the water from the 150 and add it to the new tank. or should i start a cycle all over again? that will take some time and i have a angel and tangs taht i dont think could take the spikes.
what should i do? how much water from the old tank and how much should i add. i will be doing a water test in the morning. i think my nitrates are a little high. not dealy however i have been really pumping food and vitamins in there systems for the last month to get them strong ang colorful
what should i do? and is it ok to buy new fish now! i want to introduce before the BIG angel and tang finds it territory.

 

[fshhub]

are you keeping the 250?, at least for now?, or is it going out tommorrow?, if you are keeping it, and it can stay, i would leave it and cycle the new one first with the new lr and sand, and move the other slowly, because when you move the stuff, you will probably at least have alittle ammonia spike(just moving 1 piece of rock can cause this) and probaly some diatoms
but if you can't, i really do not know for sure, but i have heard of others doing it in a day, then adding the fish several hours later, but if you have the advantage of 2 tanks, why not use them(if) , as an advantage

 

[livingwater]

i really dont have room to have 2 tanks that size in one room. i do have a 29 gallon hospitol tank that i can put them in until one is ready. it may take a nother day. i will be adding some sand so it will have to settle. i will start mixing and heating my new water first thing in the morning.

 

[stupid_naso]

Why don't you cycle the 300 gal first? I mean, putting water from the old that will not help the cycle that much. IMO there's no need to remove water from the 150, it won't help. If you want you can put lr and ls (new ones) in there first, for the first couple of weeks, or use shrimp instead. Go to google.com and search on nitrogen cycle, there are websites that can give you info on how to make your cycle finish faster.
You said you have tang and angel, can't they wait until the cycle is done? I mean, they're delicate fishes, well at least the angel is. Just let the old tank be as it is.
fshhub, will taking out a piece of lr spike the ammo? I know that lr helps filtration and some of the beneficial bacterias live there, but if you have other filter will that still happen? Care to explain how that works?
As about getting a new fish, well, you can get clownfishes. They're hardy and supposedly can survive the spikes from the cycle. I used clown to cycle mine, and he's still alive till now. Do not get damsels, unless you're planning to keep them, they're a pain to remove from the tank. That's about the two I can recommend for now.
I hope that helps a little.
stupid_naso

 

[fshhub]

man, i wish i had your problems(to only have a 300 gallon, even a 100)could the fish be kept in the 29, for a day or 2?, being as everything is cured,and cycled, your cycle or spike may die before the sandstorm settles, as i said, i do know of others who did everything in a day, let me see if i can find out exactly what they did, and get back to night,
edited: taking one piece or 2 out at a time willnot affect the ammonia that much in a tank like that, but disturbing thing may, being as there is some detritus laying in the crevice sof the rocks this stuff will get into the water column again

 

[fshhub]

ok, i found her old email, i am gonna just copy and paste tehm for you to read, so use your imagination a bit
she wrote:
I recently upgraded from a 75 to 125. When I did, I moved everything over intact in two days. First day I transfered the old sand bed plus about 60# more sand, added the live rock and even used some of the old water from the 75. I let it settle over night and the next day transferred the fish and invetebrates which were kept in a Rubbermaid container for 3 days. I didn't experience any cycle. So bottom line, if both these tanks are cycled, you should be fine. I also waited a month until I added any new critters to the new setup - just to let everything settle down.
Good luck on your move.
and, her 2d letter read
The reason I kept the fish in Rubbermaid tubs is because I had no where else to put them I didn't want to put them in any of my other tanks because of the stress to the current inhabitants. If you have a spare tank hanging around, by all means you can put them in there for a few days.
I had to get them out of the 75 before the 125 was delivered because the 125 went where the old tank sat. I emptied the 75, putting live rock and fish in a couple of rubbermaids and putting the sand bed in a separate container, plus I kept as much of the water in the containers as possible.
On delivery day, the guys took my old 75 down to the basement (for my koi) and set the 125g in it's place.
The rest of the procedure was as I explained above. It really went well, the fish in the containers survived the 3 days with powerheads and heaters, and a few extra airstones I had laying around. The only thing unaccounted for was one Sally Lightfoot crab.
I was sleepless the night before all this took place but what I learned from this is these animals we keep are quite a bit hardier than we give them credit for. Just takes some planning on our part to make it all go smoothly.
I wish you luck on your swap.
maybe this will help give you some ideas, she is very knowledgable and good with tanks, and very successful with them
HTH

 

[broomer5]

LivingWater
First of all congrats on your soon to be 300 !
You got to be excited
It would be helpful to know a little more about your current filtration in your 150.
Do you have live rock - if so how much ?
Other filtration ?
Are you planning to add new substrate to 300 or use what's in your 150 ?
Post these answers - that would be helpful.
Not being able to have both tanks set up at the same time is unfortunate, but should not prevent you from making the switch. One thing to try and do is to keep your current biofiltration and live rock on your 150 wet/warm circulated.
IMO - I would not take your fish out of the 150 and move them to the 29, only to then move them again to the 300. That's placing them into 3 different water conditions - and I think would cause unecessary additional stress.
I made a switch similar to yours last month - only going from a 55 to a 75 - so not exactly the same as your situation.
I used the rubbermaid containers as decribed above. Put all my fish, inverts and live rock in a very large plastic tub, with heater, powerheads and what few bioballs I had in the sump ( any filter media you have should be kept wet in the warm tub as well ). No corals were in this switch.
Made the switch and used about 80% new mixed saltwater - and only 20% from the existing tank. I had a nitrate issue as well, so I didn't want to keep all my old water.
I set up the new tank and added new aragonite sand, and filled it with the mixed saltwater that had been running with powerhead for 2 days prior. Added heaters into the tank at this stage. Added a couple powerheads for water movement - temp finally stablized several hours - and then added some of the live rock, about 75% of it. Left the rest in the tub with fish.
After the cloudiness of the tank water settled a bit, adjusted salinity and checked pH.
Hour later I added my filtration back ( sump with wet/dry and handful of bioballs - you could add what ever filtration you had on your 150 at this time - hopefully you've kept your biomedia wet/warm and circulating all this time in the tub ).
All in all - it took about 7-8 hours to make this switch - not including clean up afterwards.
Could have been less if I had some help.
I left the fish in the tub overnight with heater and 2 powerheads, one low in the tub, one place higher for surface water movement, and few chunks of live rock to hide in. Checked them often, they were fine.
Next day I slowly acclimated the fish and inverts into the new 75 as you would normally do after purchase. Added the balance of the live rock that was in the tubs, took 2 fish back to lfs for credit that were no longer in the tank plans.
I saw a very small ammonia increase on day 1 and day 2. Day 3 all was back to normal - and all fish and inverts made it - except one snail that I dropped and stepped on.
Anyways - sorry for the long post - but that's about all I can offer.
Hopefully your tank swapping will go well .... take your time, but don't waste time. Keep your biofilter running - don't lose your bacteria.

 

[ebeckels]

Originally posted by broomer5:
<strong> and all fish and inverts made it - except one snail that I dropped and stepped on.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Ouch!!!!!!!