removing water out of cycle tank to new tank

[reefmagnet]

I was just wondering about something, maybe you guys can help me. Say my tank is fully cycled, and then something bad happens and I remove the water from the tank, will taking the water out change anything? I mean do you have to re-cycle your tank again? 10 gallon tank sitting in my room and is fully cycled and i take the water out of the tank and pour it in my other 10 gal, it'll be ready to go?

I heard that the bacteria is in the LR and glass, so if it doesnt dry out, i can put it in the tank and it doesnt have to go through the whole cycling process again? The water parameters shouldnt change right (pH etc.,)

 

[ChrisRD]

The bacterias you are concerned with are mostly on/in the live rock and live sand (although aerobic bacterias will be present in the water column and on any hard surfaces in the tank as well).

Changing your water should not induce another cycle provided you match critical parameters (temp, pH, salinity, etc.) when performing the water change and you're not shocking the system (thereby killing things off and causing a rise in ammonia).

Starting a new tank with water from an established tank can help to "seed" the new tank with bacteria and speed the cycling process, but it will still take time for things to stabilize in the new system.

HTH

 

[reefmagnet]

so what happens if there was an emergency say a leak, we'd have to take everythng out and dump it into a new tank. wouldnt this kill the fish ? or should we already have another tank setup for this type of situation?

 

[ChrisRD]

In the event of an emergency or a planned tank move, you're generally moving the liverock/live sand (and probably some old tank water). You shouldn't see much if any ammonia spike - especially if you have a good skimmer and strong circulation. In that case you're taking most of the necessary bacteria with you.

Moving a live sandbed that is on the deeper side (say more than 2"-3") can be a bit more complicated - especially if it's a few years old. If you're ever in a situation where you have to do that, I'd recommend ditching most of the old sand and starting over with a new sandbed. Save some of the old sand to seed the new bed with (ie. cover the new, inert sand with a thin layer of the old, well seeded stuff).

HTH