removing water out of cycle tank to new tank

[reef150]

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.,)

[JennM]

I'm not sure I totally understand the question...

If you removed all the water from your 10 g and replaced it with new saltwater, you shouldn't experience a cycle. You may get a diatom bloom because you upset the ionic balance but there should be no detrmental effects.

If you remove the water from your 10 g and put it in a new 10 g, the new 10g will still need to cycle with some biological matter... IMO it's pointless to use tank water to "cycle" because the bacteria aren't really in the water column but they are attached to surfaces in the tank... rock, sand, bio media in your filter.

You're better off cycling a new tank with an established bio-wheel or other biological media from an existing tank (be careful not to take too much from the existing tank or it might spike), or live rock or live sand. Use new water in the new tank.

Hope this helps,

Jenn

[Phishnoob]

Salt mix is cheap. What we did to get Mrs. Phish's tank going off my tank was to move over some cured live rock, new sand, a cup or so of my sand bed and brand new water and it did not cycle. Hopefully the pros will chime in on this, but I did not want to move water around between tanks.

Phishnoob