old tank / turning new

[shista]

ok so i have this 44 gallon saltwater tank. i have a clone skimmer. a emperor filter and 2 powerheads. i recently went away for 3 months so i sold all my fish, and left the tank with water live rock and sand. now that i returned the water is more than halway down . all summer 1 powerhead worked only.
How should i start a good low light reef tank ??? can enybody help??

 

[oceansidefish]

well first of all you are going to have to do one wicked water change (ok it made me laugh) then I would check all your params for a week or two to make sure that everything is doing ok. Then you could start with a cleanup crew.

 

[triga22]

This is what I would do. Take all rock out and sand. Clean the rock with salwater. Clean the tank out. Put everything back in and but some new eqquipment.

 

[trigger11]

I would say it all depends on how the rock and sand look. If they look real nasty then I would do as TriGa22 mentioned. Take the sand and rock out. Wash the rock. Clean the sand using salt water. Then put them back in.
If the rock and sand look ok. You did have a powerhead going so is a good plus. If you also had the heater going then I would think most of the live critters didnt die off. In which case I would fill the tank back up. Get the right water conditions. Let everything run for a couple of days. Put a cleaner crew in. Then a week later maybe put in a fish or two.

 

[shista]

OK thanks alot im just gonna take all the water out and wash the LR. Then fill it with water.
CAn i fill it with freshwater and then add the salt or will that kill the rock??
And what would be a good clean up crew?
'

 

[trigger11]

Sounds like the rock is pretty nasty looking then?
I would get like a 35G trash can. And maybe another smaller sized trash can. (Something to hold some saltwater in that would be big enough for your LR. buckets would work as well)
Mix up some salt and put that in the bucket. Clean the LR off in there. Can use a soft toothbrush. Make sure it is a new brush though.
Then, I would mix up your salt mixture in the 35G trash can. Put a powerhead in there along with a heater and let it go for a day. Actually, I would do this first. Then it will be all ready to go once you have the LR cleaned.

For cleanup crew I would get like 10 hermits. Can be various kinds. Maybe like 5 nassarious snails. When you get the hermits be sure to put some extra empty shells in there for them to play with or they will kill the snails. You could even go with a cleaner shrimp. (but I would add him like a week after the hermits if you decide to do that)
Hope that helps.

 

[shista]

ok so i checked and the nitrates are on 30 and the tank is 1/4m filled witrh water... should i take all the water out or leave it in there so it doesent cycle.... or do i have to cycle again>>

 

[shista]

Enybody???!

 

[trigger11]

From the sounds of things it is likely you will end up going through a cycle again. If you have mixed up your other water then could use the water thas has the 30 nitrates to rinse your LR with. I assuming you still need to do that?

 

[shista]

yaaa how do i wash the rocks and what about the sand how do i clean that its all likt bro0wn on the top
SHould i just throw the sand out and get live sand?

 

[shista]

bump

 

[trigger11]

To clean the rocks what you do is get a soft tooth brush. (Brand new because you dont want any chemicals on it). Then brush the rocks off using saltwater.
Hmm
The sand could be a little trickier. If it is looking that nasty and it were me I think I would take the sand and put it in a bucket(s) with saltwater. Mix the sand around in the bucket. This will cause a lot of the gunk to float to the surface. Scoop out the floating stuff. Put back in the tank with the LR. Definitely give it a couple of days to cycle. Check water parameters.
The sand is probably not really all that bad though. Since you did have one powerhead running. It would be likely that once you get the LR cleaned, get the tank filled with water. Give time to cycle. Put a cleaner crew in there and they would have the sand cleaned up pretty quickly.
If you could take a picture of the way things look that might help.