Questions about a new tank

[miami298]

I am in the process of purchasing a 120g from someone local that currently has it running with a few fish and very minimal rock. I was planning on trading the fish in to a LFS and emptying the tank, then once I moved it to my house, load it with new water and start the tank from scratch.
My questions begin here. Is there any possible way to bring some of the current water being used in the tank along with the 3-4 rocks in order to avoid starting a new cycle from scratch? If so, how much of the water would I need to bring over?
Any tips that anyone can think of to make this process smoother would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[sepulatian]

You don't realy need to bring the water. Biological bacteria lives in the sand, rocks, filter pads etc. Any porous material in the tank, not in the water column itself. If the system has been running up untill now you should only have a small mini cycle. I just moved my tank and did not bring any of the original water. I just put my rocks back in the other day and added a piece of krill. The ammonia spiked to .50 and came right back down.

 

[miami298]

That's great news. When transporting the rocks and sand that it has I imagine that I need to keep it all moist or submerged at all times or is this a misconception?

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Miami298
That's great news. When transporting the rocks and sand that it has I imagine that I need to keep it all moist or submerged at all times or is this a misconception?
The sand I put into buckets and had it just covered in tank water. The rocks I pulled out of the water they were in and put them into a styrofoam box that had newspaper soaked in tank water lining the bottom and then covered them again in more wet newspaper. As long as everything stays wet it is fine. How far do you have to travel with it?

 

[miami298]

The drive is about 30 minutes.
So, any tips on how I might be able to bring the livestock over successfully as well instead of trading it in at the LFS?