Starting up again need help!

[bknow]

so yeh...i had a pretty nice nano...money became an issue and it sorta just died...
NOW i need a little bit of help!! i want to get back into it cuz i finally got a job! im pretty sure my rocks and sands all dead along with my other coral

...i still have my equipment and dread rocks/sand in the tank...been lazy to take everything out

...
my question is how do i cure my rocks and sand again without buying a bunch of brand new ones!! i know for sure i have to empty out all the water and clean up the tank cycle everything...but im not sure where to start...i could buy new live rock or probably get some from a friend but i want to keep the rocks and sand i already have...i dont really care about the sand as much i'll buy new live sand if i have to haha...help please...

 

[flboyinohio]

If i were you I would buy a rubbermaid plastic tub and place all you rock and sand in there with salt water as close to 8.4ph you can. Then go and take your power heads and place them in there so the water circulates and place lights over the tub, the stronger the better. Go to the store and buy "starter" chemicals or algine chems if they sell them (i am not sure). OR you could go buy some live rock and seed it. if you have 10 lbs of dead rock buy 3 lbs of live (you do the math for your own needs). O and a heater you need a heater in there.... but you can make it live again with just time

 

[andrew1113]

tank a piece of lr either buy it from the lfs or get it from your friend put it in the tank and it will seed the other rock and make it live eventually
with the sand its hard to say cause you might be able to take some live sand and mix it with your sand and it might turn back into live but then again it might not
but it should

 

[bknow]

can't i just cure the rocks in the tank it's a 10-12 gallon tank? i have about 15-20 pounds of dead rocks...i'll probly keep some out and put about 5 pounds of live rock...how long does it usually take to seed??
and with the dead rocks...i want to really get rid of all the bad crap that was on their cuz before i had a bad green algae problem...can i just boil the rocks (i also read something about bleaching) or just dry them out??
i'll probably just buy new live sand and brand spanking new clean water from a friend...

 

[acroshark]

this is what i did..i put a piece of LR with my dead rock in my tank and i let it seed for 2 weeks without a skimmer! after 2 weeks I added a skimmer to clean up the water and then let it seed for another 4weeks with the skimmer running! all this time i had my lights off! then i got a few pieces of coraline algae from a friend and blended it up and added it to the tank! once i added the coraline i started to run my lights! all in all it took me 6 weeks to get some life into my rock!

 

[bknow]

dont have skimmer...can i just do water change? also i was just going to use my friends old water...will that bump up the process? oh yeh and did you keep the filter on or just let it sit in the water? or should i just keep the power heads on?
and what the heck is coraline algae?? haha

 

[acroshark]

no filter! just keep the power heads running and do a 25% water change every 2 weeks! im not sure using your friends water will expedite the process but try getting some of his live sand! that will help seed yours! also every couple of days move the rock around abit!

 

[bknow]

thanks for the advice...oh another thing...i never took the water out of my tank hahaha...there's still stuff on my rocks and its just sitting in there...could it still be live?

 

[acroshark]

how long has it been sitting there for? do you know what the stuff is? has the tank been running or has it been shut down for a while?

 

[bknow]

haha shut down...looks like green hair algae i don't know...i rather get rid of that stuff anyways

 

[acroshark]

i would suggest you rince the rock in ro/di water and give it a good scrub down! maybe even blast it with a hose! then you should be good to go! no reason to throw it away!!