Gross Tank Rebuild

[jamesonwhiskey]

Hey everyone... been a while since I've been on here. I lost my 120G Long tank due to Sandy and need some advice on rebuilding it. I lost it because my building flooded (not my apartment thankfully) and we lost all power and heat. So before moving out I took out as many dead fish as I could and then siphoned as much water as I could out. Then I plastic wrapped the sh!t out of it so my apartment wouldn't smell.

Basically there is sand, live rock with dead corals still attached, some dead fish and inverts and less than an inch of water... and my sump which is half full of water, dead chaeto, mineral mud.

How do I go about cleaning it out and rebuilding? My plan was to take it outside and scrub the rocks, buy new sand, etc basically restart from scratch. My friend thinks I can refill with saltwater, start the pumps running and let it go through some crazy cycles to naturally break down everything that's in there. Probably need some 50% water changes along the way and will have multiple spikes but I'm ok with that if it will actually work, even if it took 6 months...

I would prefer the super cycle method since it would be less physical work and my tank would need to cycle anyway regardless of how I get it cleaned out.

Any thoughts?

 

[edd]

i would get rid of sand, scrub the heavy stuff off rock and cook it in acid. i read up on it takes about a day not really sure, but wasn't that long of a process. then start your cycle with live sand and dead rock.

 

[marklugo23]

i would get rid of sand, scrub the heavy stuff off rock and cook it in acid. I read up on it takes about a day not really sure, but wasn't that long of a process. Then start your cycle with live sand and dead rock.

+1

 

[KathyC]

I agree you are going to need to clean it out completely or your house is going to have a really evil odor

I would change the sand but use dry sand and seed it with a cup from an established tank rather than waste money on live sand.

Sorry for all of your losses

 

[jackson6745]

I had to do the same thing. My rock stunk horribly from all the die off. I place all my rock in a big rubbermaid, ran tons of GFO, skimmed, and dosed vodka. In 3 weeks the rock was totally clean and was already established with nitrifying bacteria. Definitely start with a new sand bed. You're not getting away with just filling the tank with water lol. The smell would be unbearable!!!

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

I'll be replacing the sand as you suggest. Guess I should replace the Miracle Mud too then? My friend was thinking I could throw all the rock in a giant bucket and let it cycle on it's own with a couple of pumps and air bubbles, I guess that's similar to how you did it Jackson? And put it outside lol!

I'll have to find out more about this acid cooking for the rock...

Kathy/Jackson, how did you tanks do after the storm. You're both pretty close to me.

 

[KathyC]

From something I just recently read Randy Farley Holmes suggests that Miracle Mud is a waste of monty - all it does is add iron to the tank and you can do that by dosing. Just a heads up

You can't do as you suggest outside - it's too cold and the correct bacterias won't grow. You need to do it indoors - after you scrub the rock down. Do note that Rich ran a skimmer/GFO/and dosed vodka into the rock!

My tanks did fine during Sandy because I prepped like hell and have a whole house generator...and found gas stations with gas

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

From something I just recently read Randy Farley Holmes suggests that Miracle Mud is a waste of monty - all it does is add iron to the tank and you can do that by dosing. Just a heads up

You can't do as you suggest outside - it's too cold and the correct bacterias won't grow. You need to do it indoors - after you scrub the rock down. Do note that Rich ran a skimmer/GFO/and dosed vodka into the rock!

My tanks did fine during Sandy because I prepped like hell and have a whole house generator...and found gas stations with gas

I'm a little confused on why the skimmer/GFO and vodka was used? Couldn't he have just let the rock cycle in the tank after being scrubbed? I'm assuming no smell at this point.

Glad to hear you have the generator! Over the years I've found that by using Miracle Mud in my fuge along with every other Sunday 10% water changes with Red Sea Reef salt, I do not have to dose anything at all so I'll be sticking with this setup Note, I don't grow SPS.

Do test kits expire? I have Red Sea Pro ones but haven't touched them since October (and I'm not living back at home yet so I can't check the box for a date)... I bought them in April 2011 so coming up on 2 years.

 

[fishman1069]

Hey man, sorry to hear about the tank crash. All the advice given above is solid. Jackson used gfo, the skimmer and vodka to avoid building up unwanted dissolved organic compounds and phosphate, all of which will give you headaches done the road.
Test kits do expire and most last for about a year. I'd pick up some new kits. Good luck with the rebuild

 

[edd]

if your tank has been wrapped up since october, i can't imagine the smell that your in for. good luck

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

if your tank has been wrapped up since october, i can't imagine the smell that your in for. good luck

I can only imagine how bad it's going to be... I want to take it outside before removing the plastic but don't think I will want to risk any rocks falling and cracking the tank.

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

Hey man, sorry to hear about the tank crash. All the advice given above is solid. Jackson used gfo, the skimmer and vodka to avoid building up unwanted dissolved organic compounds and phosphate, all of which will give you headaches done the road.
Test kits do expire and most last for about a year. I'd pick up some new kits. Good luck with the rebuild

Thanks, sounds good i just ordered some carbon, GFO and new kits...

 

[edd]

I can only imagine how bad it's going to be... I want to take it outside before removing the plastic but don't think I will want to risk any rocks falling and cracking the tank.

no i wouldn't move it until you empty it. just wait for a nice day so you can leave your windows open.

 

[jackson6745]

I had to do a complete break down since I was without power for a month. Good thing was I only started the tank 1 month prior to storm so there wasn't too many corals. My rock was full of life from an established tank though.


Just to clarify you should dump everything out of your tanks and start over. The rock can be reused but has to be cleaned by some type of method. I think the way I did it will give you usable rock in the shortest amount of time.

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

I had to do a complete break down since I was without power for a month. Good thing was I only started the tank 1 month prior to storm so there wasn't too many corals. My rock was full of life from an established tank though.


Just to clarify you should dump everything out of your tanks and start over. The rock can be reused but has to be cleaned by some type of method. I think the way I did it will give you usable rock in the shortest amount of time.

I had just upgraded from the 54g corner bow to the 120g Long in September and October... bad timing lol.

Can you give me more info on the acid? Do you use white vinegar or something like that?

 

[Awibrandy]

Sorry you loss your tank too!

I got power back 21 days after Sandy!

Everything sat in my tank the entire time with the exception of the fish that I was able to take out as they died.;(
Once we got power back I commenced the clean up. I removed all the dead corals, sand, remainder of dead fish, crab, snails, and put the rocks in bins with the old tank water. I then took my time cleaning the tank. I couldn't take it outside so I used "rags in a box", and plain water as well as one of those blue scrub sponges. I also cleaned out the sump, and all the pumps got a vinegar bath.
I then put the rocks back in the tank, added new dry sand, filled the tank with freshly made ro/di salt water.
Now this is the strange part: The tank cycled in 5 days.