Aquarium Redo

[fish tv]

I finally had to break down a tank after the live sand got so dirty that it started to smell. It looks like decayed flesh and old seaweed sheets, but I didn't have a lot of fish die on me in that tank and none recently.
I put my large hermit crab in there. This hermit crab will eat anything including over $100.00 worth of live fish and he didn't touch any of the debris.
So now I need to clean the live sand without killing all the good things in it as I want to reuse it. Can I rinse the sand with deluted saltwater and have the junk rise to the top or is there a better way to clean it?
Also I only had one fish in the tank and now I have to make a decision as to where it should go? Should I put a pixie hawkfish in my larger tank that already has a Flame Hawkfish or in my smaller tank that has some Peppermint Shrimp in it. I didn't noticed the pixe hawkfish bothering the hermit crabs I once had in the old tank. (I have since moved the hermits)

 

[rcoultas]

You can clean the sand by siphonig the upper layer when you do water changes. If you clean the entire sandbed then you'll likely have to re-cycle the tank as you will also be washing away the nitrifying bacteria.
You should also stock up with snails as your clean up crew - I prefer the nassarius for the sandbed work they do. One hermit crab can not keep up with the cleaning. Aside from that you may have other issues such as overfeeding etc to cause such a mess. Test your water and post your readings and give a list of equip with tank size and someone will get to bottom of it. With that much matter on the bottom you will either have tell tale readings or indications of lack of water movement and filtration.

 

[saltymac]

i AGREE ,SHOUNDS LIKE YOU HAVE A "DEAD" tank= not enough flow/ lack of filtration. We need more info from you to acess the situation.