Newbie Question

[schmidbauermg]

I hope this is in the right spot. I am starting a reef tank so I hope I'm ok. Anyway...to the point -
I just bought a tank, and I'll be posting my diary to get it started soon. My question is, I have finished cleaning/wiping it down (with water because that is all it needed as it was recently up but taken down so I was told by the guy I bought it from) and the sand/rocks are left in the tank. Should I buy new sand or not. I already know I'm getting new live rock. I just want to know if it would be safe to use the sand he had (not knowing about it) and letting filtration and some minor treatment do the work. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
- Michael

 

[fishygurl]

Originally Posted by schmidbauermg
http:///forum/post/2714399
I hope this is in the right spot. I am starting a reef tank so I hope I'm ok. Anyway...to the point -
I just bought a tank, and I'll be posting my diary to get it started soon. My question is, I have finished cleaning/wiping it down (with water because that is all it needed as it was recently up but taken down so I was told by the guy I bought it from) and the sand/rocks are left in the tank. Should I buy new sand or not. I already know I'm getting new live rock. I just want to know if it would be safe to use the sand he had (not knowing about it) and letting filtration and some minor treatment do the work. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
- Michael
you could use the rock and sand, by taking a big pot and putting the sand in it, and boiling the water.
And take the rocks and put them in the oven and bake them. This should kill everything on the rocks, then you can rinse them off really good and they should be fine. (then just add some live rock and a little bit of live sand to seed it and eventually it will all become live.

 

[cmaxwell39]

What kind of tank did he have set up before? Was it a reef or a fowler? Do you know if he used any medications in the tank when it was set up before? The one thing that I would be worried about with reusing rocks or sand would be copper from old medications.
If you are sure that no copper was ever used in the tank previously, then you could turn everything into base rock and sand by using the method that fishygurl described and seeding it with a little bit of live rock. It would greatly cut down the cost of setting up the tank. However if you are unsure whether any copper was used I would not risk it.

 

[schmidbauermg]

Thanks for the quick replies. So moving on then. How can I clean out the filter and protein skimmer? Hot water? That's what I used to wash out the tank really well. I've heard of a water and vinegar mixture....how much of each, and is it just regular vinegar? I don't want to mess anything up or potentially cause harm to the tank. If the skimmer can be cleaned with a water/vinegar mixture, can/should I wipe down the tank too? Again, appreciate the help.
- Michael

 

[mr_x]

straight regular vinegar, or diluted as strong as possible. it won't hurt anything. leave them sit overnight, or even for a couple days. they will look like new. rinse them well, and they are ready to go.
i wouldn't bother wiping the tank down with vinegar.
i also would not keep the sand. more trouble than it's worth. buy bags of dry sand from the lfs(sugar sized aragonite based sand), and then seed it with some live.