Starting over the right way!

Nooooooooob1 · Nov 2, 2019

Hello everyone!
I haven't been here on R2R in a long time, but I'm hoping to be more active.

My 40 gallon reef has been a mess. I had to go on a five month work trip back in March and since then, I've sort of let my tank go. Partly because a couple fish died and my cleaner shrimp got sucked into a powerhead and I guess all that got me feeling depressed about it. The other reason was because I made the mistake of buying live rock with pests(thought it couldn't happen to me) from the LFS instead of starting out with just dry rock and curing it myself. So many pests and aiptasia have spread around my system. I know bristle worms are considered good, but there are so many of them all over the place in the sand.

Since all I have left are 2 clowns, a chromis, and a goby and a couple corals, I decided I'm going to restart my system! Then I noticed that Petco is doing 50% off their bigger tanks so I ended up with a new 75 gallon DT and 29G sump! I built a stand an am making water for it now to start cycling. I will slowly start removing the equipment from the old tank, cleaning it, and adding it to the new tank. As you can see, the stand is still in progress. I want to add doors of some type and paint it, but that will probably come after the full transition is made.

One thing I want to ask is what are everyone's thoughts on reusing live sand and rock? The rock I know I can bleach and let roast in the sun etc etc to kill everything, but the sand I'm not sure about. Is it possible to get all the old gunk/phosphorus out? If not, I'll just buy the 40lb bags of dead dry sand.

Thanks!

Crabs McJones · Nov 2, 2019

Welcome to R2R! And thanks for saying hello

Alot of reefers will take sand and rinse it out in buckets, and then let it dry out before reusing it. Check out THIS THREAD HERE It'll have some great info for you

#WelcometoR2R

Billldg · Nov 2, 2019

Congrats on the rebuild!!! Like you said, you can bleach the rock, the sand on the other hand, I would replace it personally.

Peace River · Nov 2, 2019

Welcome to R2R! Thank your for the update- we’re glad you’re here!

Berlibee · Nov 2, 2019

Welcome! I'd use new sand!

Good luck!

mike werner · Nov 2, 2019

WELCOME TO R2R!!If you want to do things the "right way".Do not use old sand.New sand might just save you a big headache later on.

Dramad1 · Nov 2, 2019

Hey, welcome back and nice upgrade.
We have all been down that road at one point or another. Glad you decided to stick around and reboot/upgrade your system.
As far as the sand... I would not transfer it to the new tank unless you take the steps to rinse and clean it. I'd go with some new sand and just seed it with a scoop of current sand.
I have cleaned and reused sand before but I spent my time cleaning it and it was a month before it was back in a tank. First I rinsed super well. Next I soaked in h202 for 3 days. Rinsed sand again, then another week of soaking in h202. Rinsed super well then spread the sand out thin and I let it completely dry out. Next I soak in ro/di and replaced water every 3 or 4 days for like 2 weeks. Finally I let it dry out again, then rinsed in rodi one last time before use.
Are those the correct steps? I'm not sure, but this is how I did it and it worked well for me and I had no issues.
Any whoot, thanks for sharing and welcome back