Need advice asap-DT tank bit the dust

[sjk2840]

Hi everyone, need a little advice. This is what happened-last week I changed out the CC in my 10 gallon DT tank and put in Aragonite sand-had a sand cloud for a few days, nitrates went up. but the fish are all fine. Yesterday my tank sprung a leak, luckily the leak was discovered before all of the water leaked out. I have a 5.5 gallon QT tank that is just about cycled, the nitrates are 2.0 and the ammonia is .25. I had to move my fish into that tank with 1/2 of my live rock. I have live rock in a bucket with a power head running also.
I went out and bought a 20 gallon long tank-thats all I have room for right now. I put in the sand from my 10 gallon tank and added some new sand. I have the filter from the 10 gallon-(its a 20 gallon aqua clear) running on the tank now along with a small water pump for circulation. The 5 gallon QT tank also has a filter running on it with a sponge from the DT tank. My question is when should I start putting the fish back into the larger tank? I will also be putting the filter from the 5 gallon onto the back of the 20 gallon for extra filtration. I know the tank will probably cycle???
I have 2 shrimp-cleaner and a fire shrimp
lemon peel angel fish
2 clownfish
royal gramma
they are pretty cramped in the 5.5 gallon tank. My rock that is in the tub with the powerhead is also looking brownish. Do I need to scrub the rock and cycle it again??
any advice would be greatly appreciated-thanks

 

[salt210]

yes the tanks going to cycle. as for the fish in the small tank just keep a very tight eye on the water params. if need be do very frequent water changes. as for the fish that you are going to try and keep in the 20 I won't make any comments. sucks about the tank. I started my QT with water from my DT and I also soaked the filter biowheel and carbon pad in my sump water and it speed up my cycle by a few weeks. at least I want to believe that's what sped it up as I have no rock or sand in the QT

 

[geridoc]

If the rock was not exposed to air for more than a few minutes you probably won't have to re-cycle it. There are a lot of theoretical answers to the water conditions in your tanks, but you have to be practical: measure ammonia and nitrates. If they do rise, have some Amquel+ on hand and begin to use it as directed on the bottle. Amquel+ detoxifies the nitrogen waste products, so it protects the fish, but it still allows the cycle to go to completion, so eventually the cycle will complete and you will be good to go.