new tank setup w/o cycling?????

[michaelstern]

I currently am running a 125 fowlr. I am going to be getting my new 400g tank in a few weeks (Yeah!)
I don't really have room to have both tanks running at the same time. My thought would be the following:
1) have lots of premixed, aged saltwater available.
2) Set up new tank. fill 3/4 with aged water. Let run for a day or two. Get temp, etc right.
3) Transfer biomedia from wet/dry, all live rock, all substrate, all water and inhabitants from 125 to 400.
Wouldn't this be the equivalent of just doing a big water change? I should be moving most of my bacteria over, and am not initially adding any extral bio load.
Will this work?
Any other suggestions?
I would really really really like to avoid having both tanks up and running while the new tank cycles. Has anyone ever done anything similar? I really want to do this right so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rossv]

I did that same thing changing from a 29g to a 55 and didnt have to recycle. Yours is quite a bit bigger, but i think it would work. If not it would probably be a very very fast cycle.

 

[kreach]

We have done the same thing on a smaller scale several times... from 37 to 55, from 55 to 120, from 120 to 175. You might see a mini-cycle along with some algae/diatom blooms, but as long as you keep an eye on your levels and do water changes as necessary, you should be ok. Good luck and congrats on the new HUGE system

 

[michaelstern]

Thanks for the replys. I will certainly post pix when done. I hope this works. I would really hate to lose any of my buddies.

 

[lesleybird]

Yes, I have done this in moving to a larger tank (twice). You should be fine as long as you move all the substrate and live rock. I set up my last tank.....a ninety gallon with the substrate from a twenty five gallon and a lot of fully curred live rock from the LFS and a couple of rocks from my 40 gallon. I also threw a biowheel from the smaller tank in the overflow and soaked 80 biochem stars in a half of a large bottle of cycle bacteria in a plastic bag over night (soaked it all up!) and placed them in the new wet/dry filter. I put in angelfish....majestic, flame and lemonpeel along with a bicolor blenny, sixline wrasse and a fairy wrasse in the tank in the first day. It is two months later and all fish are alive and well. My LFS people all thought I was crazy and said I am just lucky, but I know it ws not luck that let me not cycle the last two tanks I set up without any loss of life. It was very careful and caculated transfer of large amounts of biological media. I did do frequent 20 percent water changes with vaccuming of substrate (have 1 to 2 mm agronite) every week for the first month out of fear of a cycle that never happened. I would use all the stuff from the old tank and put the old sand on the top of the new so the bacteria has plenty of oxygen. Make sure that if you add any new live rock that it is fully curred before placing it in the new tank. I would get a bottle of cycle bacteria and add it to help prevent an amonia or nitrite spike. As long as you use all of the stuff from the old tank and do not increase the bioload for at least the first two months or so you should be fine. I got some cheap 10 gallon tubs to help transfer my live rock to the new tank ($4 at Walmart). Make sure that you keep them in tank water at all times during the move so there will not be any die off to spike amonia in the new tank. Good luck, Lesley

 

[fin follower ed]

o boy, I'm going to be upgrading from a 80 to 135 very soon an I can't have both tanks running at the same time, but here's the catch. Right now I don't have any LR and I'm putting sand in the new tank instead of the CC in my 80 . . . what about that?