Technical Question about Nitrogen Cycle

[lyinxz]

Hi ,
When a tank is fully cycled, you can empty all the water out and add new water and the tank will still be cycled because the good bacteria are attached to the filteration and ornaments/gravel etc.. right?

So if i was moving houses , And my tank was fully cycled.
And i emptied all the water out and got rid of all my fish.
And then Stored my tank away for a few months....

Then a few months later , I buy a bigger tank and decide to use the ornaments (and only the ornaments) from my old tank.
Will my new tank be cycled?
Would i have to wash the ornaments before putting them in my new tank? if so, wouldn't this cause the good bacteria to be washed off?

Thankyou.

[Sasquatch]

Your tank would not be cycled.

Your talking about bacteria. If they don't have a nearly constant supply of food (ammonia and nitrite) and aren't kept damp, they will die in a matter of hours.

At best, you tank might cycle a bit faster, but that is highly doubtful. More likely, you'll have problems with nasty anaerobic bacteria that'll produce toxins.

[Slinky_Bass]

True, the beneficial bacteria do live on the water column and not in it (well, from what I've heard Reptileguy explain that is how it works, I trust his info on this one, so haven't actually researched it myself). So if you were to drain nearly all the water out of a fully cycled tank and then filled it up with new, conditioned water it should be fine, because of the bacterial colonies happily living in your gravel, filter etc.

However, they would only survive in a drained tank for a limited period of time. While they might not live in the water column, they do still need it to move around, replicate (or whatever it is bacteria does to reproduce), and absorb oxygen and nutrients. With out these things the bacteria would die off very quickly. So unfortunately you can't store away a tank, and all it's accessories you've cycled, the beneficial bacteria would have died off long, long ago.

I also remember reading somewhere that, for those of us that use a canister filter, it is recommended that you try to keep it running as consistently as possible, because if it's left off too long, the oxygen supply will quickly dwindle in the canister, and the bacteria population will die. I also recall something about this creating a build up of toxins in the canister, but I can't quite remember the details.

[lyinxz]

awsome thanks guys , you've answered my question 100%!.
greatly appreciated!.