Instant Cycled Tank?

[Silvio]

Right now, I have 2 90 gallon tanks with plenty of live rock. If I take some water and rock from each tank and fill a twenty gallon tank, do I have an instant cycled tank?

 

[One Eye]

No

 

[Lourdes]

I have done it at home and the store with no problems ..

 

[Silvio]

Why not?

 

[Lourdes]

but I ran the filters I was using for the new setups on the cycled tanks for a little while

 

[One Eye]

I suppose if you stayed with a bare bottom or used sand that had already been cycled. I did start a 20 with water and rock from existing tanks. I used new SouthDown so that may be where the cycle came from.

 

[Silvio]

I don't run filters on either of my tanks... just live rock, powerheads and a skimmer.

 

[One Eye]

I would still expect to see some cycle.

 

[Silvio]

My intention would be to use only materials from my cycled tanks.

 

[jango]

No

why not wouldnt it be just like moving a tank?
when i moved i took everything from a 30g to a new 20l i never had a cycle for that matter when i set up my first tank it already had live sand in it then i bought rock out of an existing system and had no cycle then either...no algae outbreaks, ammonia spikes,or anything else...

 

[Lourdes]

I don't think you'll run into a problem , I would just monitor the water..

 

[~Flighty~]

With the tank I got at MACNA (and you can imagine what it went through) there was the begining of some amonia, but while reaquascaping I found the source (a big decaying Sponge? thingy under a rock) and removed it and had no further cycle.

 

[jango]

i think if you have aged water and cured LR you would be all set because your bio filtration is already established and there is no die off to cause a cycle....

 

[PenMan]

Flighty the tank from Macna was not an established tank. The Live rock did come out of buckets and was not dry shipped. The sand was new, we filled the tank with NSW from the NEAQ. I would expect that you would get cycle on that tank. You are lucky and the rock was shipped wet from Dr. Fosters and Smith.

 

[Clam Man]

if you going bare bottom i dont think you will have a cycle but if you are going to use live sand or south down then you will get a cycle.even if you go bare bottom monitor for 2 weeks to make sure before adding corals or live stock better to be safe than sorry

 

[Ray]

I did it on a 29G and had no cycle then on a 60G and had a cycle, both got new sand