New FO tank. Should i us WC water from reef tank.

Im gonna start a 30 gallon fish only tank today. And i was thinking about using my water from my reef tank water change to fill part of it. Just wondering if there would be any benefit to doing this.

 

If your parameters are good in the reef tank (nitrates 0, phosphates 0), I don't see why not. You might need to add mag/alk to keep the pH up, but that would be about it.

 

+1 - if anything, using your SW from your water changes will save you on the salt needed to make up for the new tank. Keep in mind, although there is nothing wrong with it - this will not speed up the cycle needed on the new tank.

 

I've heard that if you squeeze/drip some water from your old reef tanks filter onto your new filter, it in a way seeds your new filter and helps speed up your cycle.

 

Completely false. The denitrifying bacteria which convert ammonia into nitrite then nitrate do no reside in the water column, but on the surface of the rocks and sand.

 

And I've heard that if you fly around the world backwards fast enough, you can turn back time.:

 

dose the earth spin left or right ?

 

Ah okay. Thanks for the info. So the filter media holds no bacteria ? I was always under the impression that it did. Things like bioballs and floss filters I assumed carried bacteria.

 

Are you facing north or south?

 

Alright.... the NASAGeek is SO TEMPTED to go crazy on the world spinning thing and time travel.... but I will limit myself to answering this...

The answer depends on if you are facing north or south!


BTW --- Using the water is cool, but won't speed anything up. Agree with the above. With respect to using media.... yes, bioballs and floss have some bacteria on the but not everything you need. Those types of media only have aerobic bacteria (ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate). It is not possible (to my knowledge) to get the anerobic bacteria that convert nitrites to nitrates with those media type. Thus, I concluded that is why people call them nitrate factories. They can't complete the cycle to convert the nitrate to nitrogen.

Conclusion, using media wouldn't help you develop the anerobic zones you need. In addition, I've read that the aerobic zones need to be physically next to the anerobic zones to be effective. Thus... the media isn't really helping you at all.

Just my thoughts.

Mark