Do I need to cycle if transferring everything to a new tank?

[attygirl]

I have a seven year old 2.5 gallon vase tank that ended up with 7 shrimp after a couple of failed attempts. The 7 shrimp never bred. Since Covid, I moved the tank home from my office and added 20 shrimp. My original substrate was a blue colored gravel. Though my water parameters test normal, I noticed a couple of pieces of the gravel turned pink (I thought it was a dead shrimp, but was just the rock). I now bought a 5 gallon tank with the intent to transfer the coral rocks, shells, etc. into the new tank with some additional natural decorations. Since my water tested good (no ammonia, 0 for nitrates and nitrites, and 8.5 PH (PH is up a little since my last check 1 month ago since I added some shells), do I need to wait the four weeks for full cycle before transferring the shrimp? I know the new substrate (natural river rock) will not have the beneficial bacteria but the other items have it along with some algae and I could also transfer some of the water. I also bought some Spirulina for feeding.

Thanks for any thoughts.

[JDillon]

I didn’t cycle my tank when I first set it up. I just fed the shrimp every couple days till the algae was taking off. No issues at all. I did make sure the tank water was the same temp as the water the shrimps were in so they didn’t suffer any shock.

[Dch48]

You could probably get by without waiting. There should be enough beneficial bacteria on the transferred decorations to successfully handle the bioload. The new tank being bigger will help too as any toxins will be more diluted.

[Aennedry]

I just did the same thing last week, but went up to a larger tank (by 15 gallons). Had no problems, except catching baby shrimp. As previously stated, moving all you hardscape and macro algae(if you have it) should bring enough bacteria until the tank balances out again.
Good luck!
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