(RE) Start-up questions

Hey all!!

So it has been a while since I have made an appearance here, college and work... oh joy. Anyways, since last visit, my nano reef died off do to neglect. I hate saying that, but things with college and work came up.

So things are finally settled, and I'm here ready to start again. Few questions before I start concerning the existing things in the tank. I never officially dismantled it all. It still has roughly 10lbs of LR in it, and a 2" sand bed. with some hermits still running around. The LR is my area of concern, should I purchase new LR and replace this as I will do with the sand?

Thanks

 

If the tank is still up and running but neglected because of a busy schedule and you are not moving the tank to a different location than I see no reason to get new LR.

If you are relocating the tank then yes I would get new sand since it's a nano. But I would continue to use the same LR or add to it. Make sure the LR remains submerged or very moist in transit.

 

i hate it when i get too busy to do constant things with my tank. sometimes even topping it off seems to be a chore and i soon end up with a tank overgrown with algae and is about 3 inches low from the water line. i can see where your coming from with getting new live rock but that is nothing a good scrub and clean cant help. that will have your rocks looking great in no time

 

didn't you say over in your build thread you did just opt to go filterless & strictly waterchanges in your nano? lol

 

i dont get what that has to do with anything but i was not jsut referring to my nano, i have had many tanks before varying from 8 gallons to 212 but that was my dads lol.

 

when you say never dismantled, do you mean you left it running with limited stock, but all the pumps etc, running and the lights coming on / off each day
or did you unplug it but leave it with water in, with no night/ day cycle
and a couple of hermits have survived?

the difference between the above 2 scenarios would affect my answer

In scenario 1 - where eveything was left running, including pumps and lights etc but neglected, as in no water changes etc and no actual effort put into set up
then the rock would still be OK ( it will have less bacteria now, due to limited bio load but its still OK and if you left the pumps going and light cycle working, then you should not be in for any unpleasant surpises when you do a water change and commence re stocking)

if its scenario 2, where the tank has been basically unplugged, water level lowering, no light cycle, no water circulation
then under those circumstances and
with only 10 lb of live rock and old sand
I would be tempted to start again
my reason being that the rock and sand will have trapped a lot of detrius by now, so if you plug it in again, you might find yourself plagued with any manner of algaes as the phosphates that have been accumulated start to leach out once the flow is circulated once again


scenario 2 may sound like a painfull option
but at least its not a 180 gallon tank LOL

Steve