Moving/downgrading question.

[makingfilms]

Hello,

 

I have a 60p ada rimless tank which has been up and running for about a year. It is well stocked with lps/sps coral, nems and two clowns. I just moved to a new townhouse literally one block down the road, in December and the new landlord has a strict 15 gallon limit on a tank, so I decided to downgrade the tank to a fluval evo 13.5. I set up my evo with new caribsea live sand and ocean water added some biospira and let my tank sit for about three days. I tested the water, it looked good and did a transfer of my rock corals and livestock. I figured since it was a straight transfer/downgrade and my rock is super well cured and my livestock wouldn't be out of water for more than 30 seconds (transfer to tub of water on cart with heater,and carefully walked it over to new place) that there would be no cycle. the transfer seemed to be good at first, but 3 days after the transfer when I woke up one morning, my two clowns seemed to be showing signs of stress or straight ammonia poisoning. They where sitting at the bottom breathing really hard. I did a 5-7 gallon change added a bunch of prime, and it seemed to save the fish and the tank was looking better. I went to work that day and kept a steady eye on the params and changed 2 gallons of water again that evening.The next two days tank looked fine, corals where ok so where the fish. I went to work on the third day and when I came back water was completely cloudy. Looked like milk... a bunch of my chalices, favias along with a birdsnest coral and one large asterea snail where completely dead . The rest of my corals where in alot of trouble as well. Luckily because I am ridiculously behind on moving, I still had my 17 gallon up and running with just sand and some corals I had to sell off locally. I carted everything that was still alive back to my old tank and while I lost hundreds of dollars worth of coral ( i lost some of my most expensive and largest corals) everything else bounced back when in the old tank. I did not drain the evo I kept a small piece of lr in and have just let the tank sit and cycle. I have tested the params and there are no signs of ammonia or nitrite. Nitrate was super high like at 50 on my red sea kit so I did a 5 gallon change this afternoon. However I have not had any diatoms to suggest my cycle has completed

 

 

 

This crash happened on the 16th of December. my evo has been fallow and running since then, I need to move out of my old apartment this weekend no ifs ands or buts. Do you think my evo has finished its cycle and I can do this transfer? or what should I do to ensure I dont screw this up again??

 

 

 

[dandelion]

The only way to for sure tell if a cycle is complete is by dosing ammonia and see if it's processed into nitrate within 24 hours. Maybe when you transferred the live rocks you also stirred up all the detritus inside the live rock causing a cycle? I'd suggest putting a seachem ammonia alert badge in your evo for easy monitoring.