Live rock

[bugarte1]

Hey guys I'm just about to start up my 30 gallon tank again. I had it going good for a while but I had to move out and during the move i lost all my live stock mostly coral and CUC. Anyway I'm thinking about doing deep sand bed with live rock to start the tank off. My question is I had my live rock sitting in the tank with no filtration and no flow for about 2 months can I still use it ?

 

[Mattyfelts]

Im no expert but i have heard mixed feelings from researching way early on. As far as i know as long as it stays wet it usually can live quite a while. If you want to use it then put a source of ammonia and check if its being turned to nitrates ?

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

If it was sitting for a long time with nothing to feed the bb you will probably have to cycle again. I don't imagine it would take as long as a fresh cycle though as there should still be a small bb pop to help start it

 

[bugarte1]

I wanted to clean the tank out completely before I start it up again. Or do you think I should use the remaining water and sand that's in the tank ? I'm trying to do it right this time.

 

[bugarte1]

It's been sitting there for 2 months I have so much salt on the filter and around the top of the tank. Also have some green algae in the sand and on the glass. What would you guys do ?

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

I would clean the tank and ditch the sand, sand is pretty much the cheapest part of set up so why let old sand start you off wrong. You can drain the water into a food safe plastic container and put the rocks in it and you can take as long as you want to clean, if you pick up some pure ammonia and throw some flow and a heater in there and you can check if it's cycled to
Edit: refill with fresh sw don't re use the old

 

[bugarte1]

I would clean the tank and ditch the sand, sand is pretty much the cheapest part of set up so why let old sand start you off wrong. You can drain the water into a food safe plastic container and put the rocks in it and you can take as long as you want to clean, if you pick up some pure ammonia and throw some flow and a heater in there and you can check if it's cycled to
Edit: refill with fresh sw don't re use the old

That's exactly what I was thinking. The thing about the pure ammonia I can get that at the LFS ? How much should I put in and how long do I wait to test the water ? I'm kinda new to this and the first time I tried setting up the tank I didn't do so good.

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

You can usually find it at hardware stores. Dose it up to 1-2ppm and if it turns to nitrate in 24 hours the rock still has a healthy bb population. If not you will want to dose it up to 5-6 ppm a couple times and let it cycle

 

[bugarte1]

You can usually find it at hardware stores. Dose it up to 1-2ppm and if it turns to nitrate in 24 hours the rock still has a healthy bb population. If not you will want to dose it up to 5-6 ppm a couple times and let it cycle

Ok thanks for the help. Oh one more question what should I keep the salinity at. My first tank I was holding it at 1.026 all I had was coral in the tank. I'm thinking about getting some fish too this time. Is the 1.026 ok for that?

 

[Sniperhank]

That is just fine for salinity. Anywhere between 1.024 and 1.028 is the range that I aim for...though I never end up going over 1.026 after so many weekly water changes, it just always ends up at that salinity without even trying. I keep a mixed reef in that range.