Long story, crappy aquarium

[sschreiber]

I started a 55 gal. saltwater aquarium almost 2 years ago. Things were okay for about 9 months. A few fish, a clean up crew, some corals, and a beautiful pulsing xenia. The heater went bad and boiled everything. 3 damsels survived. I got really discouraged and the tank went bad. Everything covered with aiptasia. After fighting it for a while I gave in (for better or worse) and took all of the live rock out, washed it all with fresh water and cleaned it all off.Thje rock was put back in the tank and of course all of my water readings went nuts. Now I cant stop the green hair algae. If thats not enough, today I bought a new 90 gallon tank setup to try to start again. So my question is... what can I re use? Can I still use the live(dead?) rock? What about the live(?) sand? Any advise is much appreciated. Heaven knows I need it.

 

[smartorl]

Everyone will have their own opinions so if it were me, here is what "I" would do.
I would pull all the rock out and really scrub it all down, this is the best time for it!
I would also buy a few new pieces of live rock to seed the old rock.
I would toss the sand personally. Sand is an important part of your biofilter and why start with a base that was poblematic before.
I would reserve a few cups of your sand to "seed" your bed, in addition to a cup from a friend or even your lfs to add diversity.
Use your rock as the base, then the new rock up off of the sand level when you aquascape, add the new sand (no need for "live" sand), then seed the sand bed with the reserved live sand.