jerseysaltwater
Member
My 26 gal tank recently crashed. I am a newbie, and foolishly overstocked the tank. Before all was lost, my last perc clowns were showing a whitish coating on their entire bodies, and the aquarist at ***** sold me ampicillex capsules (ampicillin trihydrate). I opened 4 of the 250 mg capsules and dumped the contents in the water (having first removed the carbon elements from my tetratec 150 powerfilter). The clowns nevertheless died, and my tank is devoid of livestock. I am preparing to restart the tank; I ordered 40 lbs of bioactive aragonite reef sand which will arrive tomorrow, and I am planning on getting 40 lbs of cured live rock. Can I or should I keep the water in my tank, which I believe should have some beneficial bacteria in it? I replaced the carbon elements in the filter, and the medicine package says that ampicillex can be removed from tank water by adding carbon to the filter. Or, since I am starting over with new live sand and live rock, with their own bacteria supplies, should i just whip up 26 gallons of new saltwater?