Resurrecting a 12 gallon nano that has been sitting idle for 2 years - Aquarium Advice

visuvius · 10-21-2009, 02:25 AM

Hi guys. Two years ago I set up a 12 gallon cube on my desk. 3 months into it I found myself swamped with work and it's basically been that way for the last 18 months. I never even got a chance to put fish in it. I had some hermit crabs and thats it.

The tank has been off, with the same 10 or so pounds of live rock, sand and water in it for the last 2 years. Someone told me to just fire it back up and do a huge water change then try to get the levels back to normal over several weeks. Is this the way to do it?

Should I drain all the water instead and put in new water? Do I need to scrub the rock or anything? How should I go about this? I'm using a bunch of live rock rubble as filtration I believe.

Thanks for any tips.

visuvius · 10-21-2009, 05:18 PM

I understand that there is a lot of finger waving and whatnot around here and I accept that, so I take some posts with a grain of salt. Its good to tell people to be responsible with their pets and what have you. Having said that...

Where exactly did I say that I had livestock that suffered? I noted that I had a few hermit crabs (4). Two years ago when I knew I wouldn't have time for the tank at work I pulled them out and moved them to my HUNDRED GALLON REEF AT HOME. THAT WAS THE ONLY LIVESTOCK. Some people are so **** quick to scold others, eager even.

"I never even got a chance to put fish in it...The tank has been off, with the same 10 or so pounds of live rock, sand and water in it for the last 2 years." Tell me, is it the 2 pieces of rock, the sand, or the water that is suffering here?

Reading comprehension psychictentacle, work on it. The only thing suffering here is me from your non-advice and crappy joke.

thominil · 10-21-2009, 05:30 PM

A small tank like that will require some extra attention compared to a bigger tank, but IMO it should be fairly easy to pull off. Best bet is to rise the rock as it is just base rock now due to the bacteria that once made it live now being dead. Trash the old sand and water as they will only cause you problems. Get new sand (aragonite is best IMO), mix new water and grab about 5-10lbs. of live rock and add that to the rock you have which you rinsed. Fill your tank with the freshly mixed water and add the sand. Toss in a raw, unseasoned shrimp that you can buy at your local grocery store to cycle the tank. While the tank is cycling, test your water daily and monitor just ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. When the ammonia starts to fall, you will see nitrites and nitrites will then get converted to nitrates which will be removed by a weekly water change. When the ammonia and nitrites fall to zero and stay at zero and your nitrates rise, it is safe to say your tank is cycled. At this point, do a 40%-60% water change and you are good to go and add fish.

visuvius · 10-21-2009, 07:02 PM

Ah ok, so you think I should toss the sand? I wasn't planning on getting rid of it but if its a better idea I will. I'll go ahead and scrub the rock.

thominil · 10-21-2009, 07:19 PM

If there was nothing in there except hermits, you would have had a lot of die-off from living things on the rock starving to death. They would most likely have fallin towards the sand and gotten buried in the sand due to the current moving the sand over time. If you move things around in there, the decaying/decayed matter will go into the water column and cause more harm than good.

Also make sure you have a refractometer, liquid test kit, heater, thermometer etc... basically just the common essential supplies.

Hope this helps.

**roka64** · 10-21-2009, 08:22 PM

Moved bashing/rude post for topic management.
We have to understand that life happens and some things do come up and sometimes our tanks can possibly fall behind in our priorities.