What to do next??

[star]

I have just totally redone my 55 Gal. tank after loosing everything. My heater exploded in the tank and long store short, no fish are left. After trying everything to get the nitrates down, I finally removed all the LR and took out and replaced all the LS added about 10 gallons of the original water back which was covering the LR and have the LR back in the tank. All the rest of the water is new salt water. Only living critters are 1 brittle star, one peppermint shrimp, 3 hermit crabs, 2 sand sifting snails and about a dozen tiny little snails. I did this on Sunday and as of this morning everyone is still alive.
Ok - now my question is what do I do next? Do I just let it run for awhile? Do I add a cleaner crew now? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[cdangel0]

By replacing the sand you have removed a large amount of the de-nitrifying bacteria. As long as the rock was kept wet you could be alright to start slowly restocking but I would advise against it.
I'd let the rock seed the new sand bed for a couple weeks (2) at least before moving forward. Make sure you're not going to go through another cycle before adding fish.
BTW - sorry for the loss - I can't imagine how devastating it would be to lose everything.

 

[reefman22]

You are basically starting up a mini re-cycle for your tank by taking out the established bacteria and adding new bacteria (as well as all the water) you will likely see spikes in nitrite, nitrate, and/or ammonia. I would stronly advise not adding any livestock until all of these levels return to zero and sit confidently there. Then you can slowly get back into the swing of things. If you dont lose anything over the next week or so, that is a good sign that either your animals are troopers, or that your spike wasnt a huge one. On a good note though, the live rock will jump start the seeding to the LS you replaced. Hang in there!
reefman

 

[star]

Thank you for the response guys, I do appreciate it. It has really been a heart breaking experience. I've had most of my fish for a couple of years and several of the fish had lived thru some rough patches but always pulled thru.
I am just going to watch it for awhile then.