All livestock are out, now what?

TroutWithLegs · Oct 15, 2019

I recently had to begin breaking down my 65g reef tank as I am moving across the country and am not going to be able to bring it with me. I was able to re-home all of my fish and inverts, and am now left with all my sand, rock, and equipment. I plan on eventually building another reef, and would like to try and save or re-use as much of the rock and sand as possible, but it may not be for a long time. How would you clean and store these?

My initial thought was to bleach the rock in a bin then let it dry in the sun for as long as I can, but I am clueless for what to do with the sand. Should it be stored wet, dry, how do I clean it if it had dinos and gha in the past? Thanks all.

ZoWhat · Oct 15, 2019

Sand, get rid of....or....rinse it really really well with tap water over and over again to release the NO3/PO4.... then store it in a closed 5gal bucket once dry.

Rock, get a 5gal bucket of water (tap or RO) and violently dunk and SWOOSH the rock to again...release the NO3/PO4. Let it dry out in a garage or smthg. Prob not a good idea to leave it in the acid rain outside. Dont want your LR sponging up acid water in all its deep pores. You may have low PH once LR is being reintroduced ..... I would NOT bleach it. There is too many good thing deep inside a LR that will actually come back to life even after being out of a tank for months on end.

Both sand and LR ok to store dry

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homer1475 · Oct 15, 2019

As above I would throw out the sand, and just let the rock dry out. Any alage on it will die when it dries out.

SDK · Oct 15, 2019

I've lived in 7 states from NY to FL. CA, Oregon and back again to MA. Even had a brief stop in Missouri. Moving is tough, and hauling stuff cross country is worse, especially heavy boxes of rocks that may sit for a prolonged time. I've "been there, done that" multiple times and learned a few things.

Sell off the rocks to a LFS or on Craigslist and unburden yourself. When you are ready again, buy fresh live or dry rock and start clean. Not with a bunch of dead rock that is probably full of unknown amounts of detritus

Sell anything big, heavy or fragile. Things get shaken up and damaged more than you would believe on long moves. If, as you stated, there could be a significant amount of time before you set up again, sell anything you think will be outdated now while they are still worth more than $20. Todays $100 LED light will be ancient history in two years..

If you have pieces that are relatively durable, expensive and "timeless" like a premium skimmer or sump, hold onto things like that.

Unburden yourself as much as possible! You will have twice as much to deal with as you think you will with a big move.

TroutWithLegs · Oct 19, 2019

Thanks everyone for the advice. I've been able to get everything cleaned out and listed up on some local sites. Still don't have the history to post here but I'm probably gonna hold onto most of the equipment as well. I hope to be able to have a smaller nano or something up and running by Christmas.

fcmatt · Oct 19, 2019

I am a fan of keeping the rock you have if it is that good old fashioned highly porous... huge pieces yet super light weight... rock. Especially if your tank had low PO and nitrates.

I would just let it dry out. Pop the choices pieces in a couple/few 5 gal buckets and keep it.

It is getting really hard to find the good stuff we had access to 10 or 15 years ago.

This all assumes it truly it the good stuff. Not those dense heavy stuff I see for sale now days. I have to wonder if newer reefers even know what I mean. 100 lbs of the good stuff was massive compared to today.