Just inherited a neglected 10g! How can I help it recover?

[Plumber_Ballsy]

Hi, like the title says I just got a 10g tank from a family member and it's been badly neglected for a year.

Nitrates: 50-80ppm (API test kits are hard to read)
Nitrites:0
Amonia:0

My main question is: Can I do multiple heavy water changes without hurting the inhabitants? What are your recommendations?

Stock: porcelain crab, scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp, kenyan tree coral, zoanthid colony, 2 trochus snails, discosoma mushroom.

Just for reference, the tank hasn't had a water change done in multiple months.. to a year. It was also a little over stocked. I picked up the tank, stirred up the substrate heavily and did nearly a full water change. I also changed the mechanical filtration pads and the chemi pure bag. Everything was re acclimated. The corals in the tank have been opening up but it looks like they aren't happy. Am I going to be dealing with extremely high nutrient levels for a long time? There is still tons of detritus mixed in the substrate.

Let me know what I can do! I want to get this tank back on track.

 

[homer1475]

Best bet is to take out the rock and inhabitants temporarily. 5 gallon buckets work great for this as were only talking a couple hours.



Put your rock in some new water, swish it around in some old water to get the extra crap off it. Dump out the substrate and put fresh substrate in. Remember to rinse the new stuff to get the fines out, or your tank will be very cloudy when you add water.



Add new mixed water, match temp, alk, cal, mg of the old water. add stuff back in.



It's the old substrate that is full of crap by the sounds of it and will continue to give you headaches unless you replace it.



You shouldn't have a cycle as you will keep your rocks wet.

 

[Uncle99]

+1.... This ^^^^^^^

 

[mcgyvr]

+2... homer nailed it..

 

[Plumber_Ballsy]

Thanks for the advice. I've gotten all new substrate, rinsed things off and am in the process of adding things back in

 

[NikonN8]

Curious how everything looks after settling in overnight - update?

 

[Plumber_Ballsy]

 

[Plumber_Ballsy]

Looks like the images don't want to link.

https://plumberballsy.imgur.com/all

 

[homer1475]

?
Curious myself.

 

[mcgyvr]

Imgur doesnt seem to be accepted here..
Those pics don't show up...(links show if you quote the blank post though)

 

[homer1475]

imgur links work just fine. It's all I use for third party hosting now.



And I would hate to inform you, even in a quote, its a blank quote.

Imgur link ^^

 

[mcgyvr]

imgur links work just fine. It's all I use for third party hosting now.
And I would hate to inform you, even in a quote, its a blank quote.

So maybe they formatted them incorrectly or this forum is blocking theirs due to the low post count..
Here is what I see when I quote their blank post..

 

[homer1475]

Odd for sure. When I quote his post, all I see is the quote tags and nothing else.