Can moving an aquarium start the cycle process over again?

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SeansReef

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Sep 10, 2008
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Location
El Cajon CA
Can moving an aquarium start the cycle process over again?

About a month ago I moved to a new place and had to move both my reef aquariums. It has been at least 5 years since I moved either aquarium. I only moved less than 7 min from my old place.
I broke them down separately and I setup one system as soon as I got it in the new place. The next day did the same for the other. I used some of the old water along with some filtered saltwater I got from Scripps here in San Diego. Everything seemed to be dying off slowly. I did a water change with RO/DI and the same salt mix I have been using and still it seems like things are not getting better. Now it appears that my polyps, mushrooms and leathers are turning white. Nothing has changed in lighting or filtration.
 
How long from the time your aquarium was unplugged and broke down until you refilled it and plugged everything in at the new location? You got filtered Saltwater pre-packaged? Is it what you have been using the entire time or different. When you did your water change did you let the saltwater settle for 24hours or more and test SG? The answer to your issue is what paramater changed in your tank that could cause a problem for you livestock.
 
Did you reuse the old sand when you set up the tanks again? If so, all the muck that was released from the depths of the sand probably triggered a mini cycle. Did you check your ammonia levels after the move?

Assuming everything was kept wet and warm during the move, the move itself shouldn't have caused a problem. But an ammonia spike following the move could've caused stress that you're just seeing now. Could be differeing water parameters too, like fijiwigi mentioned.
 
Thank guys for responses

It was easily over 2 hours from the time that I turned everything off, packet it, moved it,unloaded, and re-setup.(I moved during a weekday and had no help)
I did use the same sand and it did slosh around in the back of my SUV.

Scripps Institute of Oceanography filters tons of seawater for their facility and for Birch Aquarium here in San Diego CA. They have a hose hooked up where you can get filtered sea water for free. I honestly havent used the water in a long time, but took some water knowing I would need some instead of re-using all the water I siphoned out or mixing some ahead of time. The Scripps water SG is normally high around 1.028. I did not check it before putting it in.:-?

My normal water changes are done with RO/DI water, using Seachem Reef salt.
I do mix it 24 hours ahead and put in a power head and a heater.

Since using the Scripps water I started getting a ton of green hair algae and a lot of diatom die off.

I am mixing some water today to do a water change tomorrow.

I also checked some parameters of my 55 gal today, Salinity is off, 1.022
Ph- 8.2
Nitrate- 20ppm
Ammonia- 0
Nitrite- 0.2ppm
Temp- 81.7

My 30gal seems to be recovering,same diatom die off and hair algae problems, but shrooms,rics and zoos are all opening up. They, for some reason didnt turn white like the mushrooms and polyps in my 55gal are doing.
 
As Kurt pointed out, the sand getting turned over during the move released a lot material back into the water column. The quick drop in SG is another contributor. TIme to start doing some 20% - 30% PWCs to get everything back in order.
 
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