What to do now?  (Failed tank move, starting

OK, my roommate was given a salt tank from a business that didn't want to maintain it. Anyways, someone decided to drain the tank before we could, so now we have:
75 gallon tank
Aqua Clear Pro 75 wet/dry filter w/protein skimmer
Hagen 802 Power head various other power heads
Live Sand
Live Rock
A lot of bristel worms
A lot of Red/Blue hermit crabs

So, what do we do? We fresh water soaked the live rock to try and clean out some of the bristel worms.
Suggestions on where to go from here?

Reset things and start the cycling process? Ideas, tips? I can't find much for this tip of situation.

Thanks.

Murdock

 

Re: What to do now?  (Failed tank move, starting

I'm still kind of new at this, but what I can tell you is DON'T USE THE SAND!!. I bought a 2 yr old existing tank with LS, LR, fish, coral, etc. I had an instant reef tank so I don't know about the cycling. It has been pure H..l to get the water chemistry where it should be. I've had it for several months now and seem to be continuously doing water changes, and the problem is because of using the old sand and I guess all of the crap that got stirred up in it. I'm going to have to break down the tank completely to remove the old sand and put in new. I keep putting it off but I need to go on and get someone to help me do it. Some of the guys here suggest going bare bottom rather than using a sandbed. My nitrates are around 80-85 and my phosphates continue to be off the charts. The odd thing is that my tank continues to thrive when many people tell me that tmy corals, etc. should be dieing. Maybe I've just been lucky so far, but anyway, I didn't want you to make the same mistake that I did, after all sand is pretty cheap to replace but the rest of it is not.

Good luck,
Cindy

 

Re: What to do now?  (Failed tank move, start

As Beamer pointed out, get new sand.

The rock will also be suspect and you will need to get some new live rock, but you can save some of it. Choose the best looking rocks, the ones with an unusual shape, with lots of holes. Mix up a strong mixture of bleach and water and let the rocks soak for a day or two. Rinse them thoroughly with fresh water and then soak them in a stong mixtute of Bi CArb and water, let them soak again and then rinse again. Leave them out in the sun for a few days to thoroughly dry.

While you are doing all this read the 3 steps to a reef aquarium published on this site

The rock you have saved will make excellent 'base' rock and will very quickly be populated from any new live rock you introduce.

As for the equipment, others would be in a better position to comment.

John

 

Re: What to do now?  (Failed tank move, starting

And by the way brisleworms are a good thing to have

 

Re: What to do now?  (Failed tank move, start

John O,
I don't understand why you would want to put the rock in a bleach solution. I guess from what you say I should not have used my LR either. Oh well, live and learn (the hard way )

Cindy

 

Re: What to do now?  (Failed tank move, starting

Cindy,

From my understanding the rock was already out of the tank and was soaked in fresh water, which I assume meant that most things in/on the rock would be dead. I suggested using bleach to absolutely kill anything that may have survived and make it easier to rinse away. This is a regime that I have used many times and was suggested to me by a friend.

John

 

Re: What to do now?  (Failed tank move, starting

Oh, I understand now John. I guess I thought he was talking about ro/di. I guess I should pay better attention. :
I just thought, oh gosh, there's something else I did wrong. Makes me feel a little better about my situation since mine was never out of salt water when it was moved.

Cindy

 

Re: What to do now?  (Failed tank move, start

Cindy,

How is your tank now?

John

 

Re: What to do now?  (Failed tank move, start

Well John,

There's not too much I can say. I have not changed out the sand yet. I have lost a total of 20 lbs or so from worry about my tank (I know its stupid :-/ but unfortunately I'm a big worry wort. Oh well, I was needing to loose at least 20 lbs anyway. Since I've gone this far I'm going to try for another 10 lbs, but without so much worry.)

I've had a big talk with my husband and there's a number of things we are going to do so there isn't as much to worry about. We just need to get it done.

#1 will be to get the tank guy back over here from Dallas to break down the tank and to move it down the wall a bit. The tank sits in front of an air return (which I thought would be good to help draw out the hot air from the cabinet. :) Instead it sucks in the moisture and some of my ac equipment is starting to rust. Not a good thing especially since the entire unit is only 3 years old. I don't know how much good just moving it a few feet will help but there is no other place to put the tank and at least the ac won't be directly sucking in the moisture. I know the water in my sump kind of jumps out and bubble and I guess the ac sucks up some of that. I've put a towel over the back part of the sump to help prevent this.

As far as the tank goes everything is thriving!! Although I do think I may have lost my tube anemone. I haven't seen its tentacles for the past 24 hours or so. Can they leave their tubes and pop up somewhere else? I tried looking up some info in one of my boods last night but didn't find too much. I don't know how long to wait before I try to pull him out. I don't want to pull him out too soon and he still be alive. The outside of his tube was sloughing off a bit so I'm not too hopeful. FALSE ALARM. I just went to the tank and the tube is alive and well with all of its tentacles extended. I fed him real well with some brine shrimp and some phytoplankton. He may not have been getting enough to eat cause he's always out alot more than what he has been lately.

I'm not going to worry about it though-really-. At this time I am doing my water changes less frequently. From weekly to every three week. That may be stretching it a bit. some brown polyps were looking pretty poorly until I did about a 40 gl water change the other day.

For now (the past month) I have stopped testing the water. I was doing it an awful lot. I may test again after I do another water change just to see where it is out of curiosity.

Everything seems happy. My clam looks the best it ever has and it has always looked good. Color is great, My anemone that I've only had about 6 weeks or so I bought as a baby and now it is huge. My clarks clown has gotten big also.

All my coral is thriving. Button polyps have gone crazy and are crowding out my others, also my Ricordia mushrooms and some other schrooms as well as my star polyps. I don't have anyone to trade or sell with so my one and only LFS has agreed to take these off my hands and give me some live rock to replace it. He's getting a really good deal here. Maybe he'll give me a break when I go to buy my sand. Things just seem to be getting bigger and better. Go figure. From what others tell me, much of my stuff should be dead, but they seem to like it. Still Nitrates are very high and phosphates off the chart. That is the last time I tested. I'm not even writting in my fish log anymore. This hobby or in my case a night mare has had me totally obcessed with the tank, its critter live and support equipment. (ANd also the internet fish forums-I used to go to bed at a decent hour)The last few weeks I have actually enjoyed my tank and for the moment anyway I have stopped talking about selling it. I'm not on the forums near as much now and getting a little more sleep.   Hubby is not doing his part in what he promised to do so that hasn't helped any either.

So that's how my tank is doing. Things are growing so I need to thin it out as I have already mentioned and I need to move some corals around. The BTA is getting so big that it is stinging some of them plus my torch ,button polyps and frogspawn I think are stinging its neighbors so I need to put some more space between them but until I get it thinned out there is no room.

And how's your tank doing?

These are the newest pics that I have although they are over a month old.

http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/periotherapist2001/album?.dir=/d372&.src=ph

Cindy

 

Re: What to do now?  (Failed tank move, starting

Cindy,

Ever consider joining a Marine Aquarium Society? I did when I first started and received so much in the way of encouragement, equipment, coral swapping etc.

My tank? I just moved into a rented house and had to tear down and give away my tank :-( I am just in the process of setting up another ( much smaller ) tank.

John