Question? Tank inside switchin!

[SharkBait48]

Hey guys I have a brand new mint 75gal and I'm thinking instead of waiting and slowly adding stuff as my tank cycles maybe Could I just use another persons tank water and rock(with planted corals) in my new tank.
Would this allow the same growth and be detrimental?

Like a tank transfer from a cycled 120gal to a brand new 75 gal

[kien]

Originally Posted by SharkBait48

Hey guys I have a brand new mint 75gal and I'm thinking instead of waiting and slowly adding stuff as my tank cycles maybe Could I just use another persons tank water and rock(with planted corals) in my new tank.
Would this allow the same growth and be detrimental?

Like a tank transfer from a cycled 120gal to a brand new 75 gal

I've done this before several times without any issues. A lot of tank transfers/moves/upgrades are done this way in fact. One precaution I would suggest is to first keep an eye on your ammonia after the transfer of rock and water. There is the potential of die off resulting in ammonia from the move. Or possibly not, but it would be wise to check just in case. Have newly mixed salt water on hand and ready for a water change also.

Also keep in mind that there some variables that may affect this approach. How much live rock are you taking from the 120 and placing into the 75g? Are you planning to put in fish right away? If so, how many fish ? You will want to put an appropriate amount of live rock in that will sustain the fish that you plan to add.

[SharkBait48]

Hey thanks!
Okay that is good to know it will save me money!
So I'm going to try it. I'm thinking of putting in about 60-80 gals of rock as I have a 40 gal sump too.
It would be nice to get fish in there ASAP to, so what do you think?

[kien]

Originally Posted by SharkBait48

Hey thanks!
Okay that is good to know it will save me money!
So I'm going to try it. I'm thinking of putting in about 60-80 gals of rock as I have a 40 gal sump too.
It would be nice to get fish in there ASAP to, so what do you think?

I think ASAP could mean a few days to a few weeks depending on how smoothly the transfer goes :-) Again, i would advise to keep an eye on your parameters for a few days after the transfer to make sure it all went smoothly. If done with care it can go quite smoothly and you'll be off to the races in no time. If done without care you can easily crash the new system quickly.

[SharkBait48]

ASAP could mean a few days to a few weeks depending on how smoothly the transfer goes :-) Again, i would advise to keep an eye on your parameters for a few days after the transfer to make sure it all went smoothly. If done with care it can go quite smoothly and you'll be off to the races in no time. If done without care you can easily crash

Are there any tips on preventing a big die off or not really during transfer?
Are there any good stickies on water parameters?

[kien]

Originally Posted by SharkBait48

Are there any tips on preventing a big die off or not really during transfer?
Are there any good stickies on water parameters?

There are some other factors to consider like, how far is the transfer? Ie, from the 120g established tank to the new tank? How long is it going to take you to take the rock out of the old tank and into the new tank?

Essentially what you'll want to do is minimize the amount of time the rock is out of the water. If the rock is to sit in holding containers as you perform the tasks at either end (from the 120g and into the 75g) then you may want to heat the rocks and possibly curculate the water. Are you going to be sturring up a lot of old settle sand from the old tank? If so, you could be kicking up a lot of gunk that will be harmful to both tanks! Care should be taken not to stir up too much old sand. Also for this reason I would recommend a partial water change in the new tank. That is, instead of dumping in all 75g worth of water from the old tank, I would only use maybe 50% of the establish tank's water and 50% new water. This in effect is like doing a 50% water change. There isn't actually that much beneficial bacteria in the water column anyway. Mostly all of it will be on the rocks.

If too much die off from the rocks occur this is where you can get into trouble if you try to add new fish too soon. You can easily kick the bacteria out of balance and cause a crash killing everything. Again, this is why I would recommend monitoring your transfer for a few days afterwards first, especially if the whole process has taken a while to complete.

If on the other hand the old tank happens to be sitting next to the new tank the amount of time that the rocks are out of the water is probably so short that there will be little die off. But you did say you were getting the rocks from a friend so I'm not sure how far your friend lives.