Is any of this salvageable?

[sloosky]

I have come across a 55 gallon saltwater tank that has been drained of water for the past several months. The empty tank still contains the live rock and live sand that was originally in the tank. Now, is this live rock and sand, which I would assume is no longer live, worth keeping for setting up a new tank? Or is it completely dead and useless to keep around?

 

[carey]

You can clean it off and use it still. But it is officially dead rock now. Might be a few stragglers on it but I doubt it. If used with new live rock it willbecome live again.

 

[40galreef]

I would save it. You could also add some new live rock to help out if you wanted to.

 

[sloosky]

Thanks guys! Good to hear. Yeah, I mainly just wanted to know if I could even put it back in a tank at all. How about the sand? Any harm in putting the sand down in the new tank?

 

[carey]

I would rinse the sand endlessly but yeah, it can be re-used as well

 

[40galreef]

I agree. You should probably rinse the sand.

 

[Krypt]

+1 for rinsing the sand thoroughly. That should get all the built up gunk out of it just fine. The rock is definitely usable and will become live again after a good cycle. If you want to repopulate the rock with all the little critters, then adding a few pounds of new live rock from a lfs or online will do the trick.

 

[crister13]

Also, if you want even more rock, you could by base rock and then use the new LR to seed that as well as the old dead rock. The sand will have all sorts of crap in it so I would rinse it very well. Good Luck!!!!! Start a new thread about the setup when its done or in process of being made!!!!! We would love to see it!!!!!