What about using cycled water...

[daReefPeep]

Okay so I bought a nano tank. I filled it up with water from 300g. Used sand from the bottom of the buckets from cleaning out the large tank and used my extra rock from my sump. My levels were out of control the first day that I did this, I assume that it is from the food particles from the sand that came up when I syphoned the bottom. Now a week later I checked the levels in the small tank and I have little to no ammonia and no nitrite and 40 nitrate. My questions are can you use cycled water from another tank and rock from another tank and it be cycled. Also do you think that my tank is cycling now or should I do a water change? Thanks.

 

[Sealtagger]

I was planning on doing exactly the same thing in a week or two, so I am also interested in the answer.

 

[returnofsid]

"cycled water" won't do anything at all. It'll just be aged water that's missing trace elements that deteriorate over time and are replaced with water changes. The beneficial bacteria that we want in our tanks are found in the sand, live rock, even on the glass...but very few are in the water column itself.

Now if you were to use live rock or live sand from a healthy, established tank, that would be helpful. Keep in mind that even a quick move can cause some die off though.

 

[Brenden]

Agree. Water has very little bacteria in it. The sand, and rock is what you want.

 

[mmkeeper]

If the rock and sand you added have good levels of the proper bacteria it wont take long for the nitrates to fall. You should have made the cycle shorter as long as the bacteria was still alive.

 

[burning2nd]

I just started my tank like that....

BUT!

i also added 30 lbs of LR From the same tank i got the 30 gallons of water...

New sand new equipment, No cylce.

 

[Jim Hart]

I agree, using the same lr and sand works great to start a new mini, mine is doing great & thats what i did, I also use water from the larger tank when doing a water change. only 3 gallons every 2 to 3 weeks works for me and there is no skimmer even.

http://api.ning.com/files/BH2**Wzgb...W1prdwjPeE_/DSCN2023.JPG?width=425&height=567

 

[dnjan]

I would really worry about using the sand from the bottom of the bucket after siphoning another tank. That is exactly the stuff I want to get rid of. Detritus. Partially decomposed detritus. Probably lots of organic particulates. Only good thing is there were probably some critters that were siphoned out with the sand.

 

[Mugg1977]

I just switched nano's last on Friday of last week. I set up the new tank (15 miles from old) with new sand and water on Friday, moved the live rock Saturday, and the fish & coral Sunday. Everything is working perfect so far!

 

[Holygral]

You should not use your old sand, it is best to use new sand and add just a scoop or 2 of the old to help seed the new. Once you disturb the old sand there are all kinds of nasty's hidden inside of all of the layers when you disturb it. There could be ammonia pockets as well, that you would be transfering into your new tank as well as releasing into your established tank.. New and seed is the way to go. Live rock is fine to recycle, but not sand. IMHO