is it necessary to ...

so im transferring my tank to a 30 gal. is it necessary to use all the LR from my 20? i got a lot nicer base rock from marcorock and if i use the water from the 20 and some of the rock would that be sufficient?

 

Its not thewater that cycles its the rock so using less rock will just cause a longer cycle but its fine

 

well im trying to not let it cycle because i do have fish and corals in there

 

Then just put all the cyclced rock and add the uncycled piece by peice every few weeks

 

1+ sounds like a plan to me

 

does temp matter during cycling? i dont have another heater yet and i want to start this cycle. so as of now i am just going to do a complete new cycle on the new tank. did it right this time with RO water and have all my base rock in. as long as temp dosnt matter im going to put some pieces of LR i have in tomorrow and get this tank started.

 

I would do the same thing. How many lbs lr per gallon is it?

 

ive heard everywhere from 1-2lbs per gal. i just got a shipment of 40 lbs base and i have about 35/40 lbs LR so im going to take the nicer looking rocks see what looks best. since i have livestock in my current 20 im going to take about half the LR out and put it in the new tank until the cycle passes than ill take some out and do more of an aquascape its pretty much the only option i have as of now

 

No you don't need to use all the rock from your 20G your new base rock is not going to have an ammonia spike. It's dead so it will not "Cycle". Over time it will be populated with bacteria and become Live Rock without a cycle.

I would make sure your temp and all other parameters are correct.

J

 

so what do you guys think i should do... i have a well established 20 gallon that has about 35 lbs of LR in it....i dont want to have 2 tanks going for too long, so if i were to just put a few nice pieces of LR into my 30 gallon would it go through a cycle? nothing would really die off correct?