Transfer Everything From Old Tank to New Tank...

See my signature for current tank/ livestock specs. I purchased a 30 gallon seemless acrylic to upgrade from glass (sprung a drip leak after 4 years). I have a 10 gallon tank (and extra filter) that can be used as a holding tank. My plan is to use crushed aragonite as new substrate and fill the new tank with h20 from my regularly used lfs (I use this for h20 changes). He tells me I can just transfer everything at once with no cycling time needed. My questions: Will the acrylic tank need to cycle before transferring. (Since Im using my existing live rock, and all new h20 from my normal place of purchase, is this necessary?) Also, any suggestions as to how to perfom this transfer will be quite helpful. Sorry for the long post and THANKS in advance for your input.

 

i redid a nano the same way and didnt get a cycle .i checked params for 2 weeks everything looked good.threw a mated pair of clowns in on week 3 and coral the next.all are fine.
if you can seed w/current LS the better
just check params to be safe

 

That should work fine, just make a plan before starting.

 

I was hoping it will be plug-n-play, as i have no sufficient place to hold my LR and livestock for longer than a few hours during the transfer. On the other hand, I dont want to lose anything if the new tank will cycle. Essentially Im only transferring everything. The only real change will be the substrate.

 

you should be fine, its important you have a plan before you start or you will get frusterated

 

My guess is you will have a mini-cycle of sorts because you're using new substrate. The bacterial colonies within the substrate will need time to develop. The existing substrate/LR already have the denitrifying colonies to handle your bio-load. The bacterial colonies on the LR you have should suffice, but with new substrate you could be missing say 10-20% of your bacteria so a small spike in params may occur within the first few days/week. I would still monitor it closely.

 

I figured that would be the case bje ....I plan to closely monitor params ...part of my obsessive routine anyway. Thanks to everyone for input. This site is the greatest and friendliest!