Will this cause my tank to cycle again?

[petepaschall]

I changed out my 55g for a 75g this morning. I had some new sand still in the bag left over which I added first, then I added some sand that had been live at one point. It had been in a smaller tank (I think 39g) that I took down over this past winter. I left the sand with a small amount of water in the tank, and covered the tank so no dust, insects, etc. would get in it (the sand was still very damp this morning when I took it out). Finally, I topped it off with the sand from the 55. My question is, will the sand that had been in the old tank, but not used for several months, cause my tank to cycle again due to the dead stuff in it? I will have 65 pounds of LR and my wet/dry minus the bio-balls. Thanks!
Pete

 

[petepaschall]

What about if I decided to leave the bio balls in (which is what I did)? Would there be enough existing bacteria on those to prevent an ammonia spike? I have a cleanup crew in the tank, and amm worried about them.

 

[thomas712]

About all you can do at this point is monitor the system. If your bio balls were used right along and not left to dry out they should be good to go. This IMO will go along way to helping the system with the bacteria that is on them. If there is any spikes these bio balls will/should quickly assist in breaking them down. You probably did what equals a water change with the move including adding more water for a larger system. I would always have a water change ready to go for problems that may arise when you do such a move, if for nothing else then to try to control an uncontrolable spike.
Good luck with this, most of us who have been through such a thing over worry, you should be fine.
Thomas

 

[nm reef]

If I understand correctly you used old live sand that has been sitting for a while....if thats the case then I'd think you would have a small cycle until thing become stable. Not the same hard cycle from establishing a totally new system but a cycle just the same. I'd closely monitor levels of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate and hope for the best. If possible remove the creatures that could be adversely affected by high levels of ammonia/nitrite until things settle.
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