New to Hobby

[gman69]

I'm new to the hobby. I got some stuff from a friend that's heater went out while he was at the beach. When he came home everything was dead. He cleaned out the dead fish and got out the water and let it dry up. My question is what do i clean these rocks and sand with to reuse?

Is any of this worth saving? I have it in some water know to clean it up a little.

 

[gman69]

Anybody have anything?

 

[pyithar]

are the rocks still wet? are they out of the water for a long period of time? if so, there will be die offs. so don't put them directly into your tank yet otherwise you'll get ammonia spike and the tank will have another cycle again.(i'm assuming you already have a cycled system). put them in a container with a powerhead and a heater and salt water of course and "cure" them. when they don't smell anymore when sniffed, they are "cured" and you can put them into your system.

if you're just starting now and don't have a cycled tank yet, you could put them straight into your tank and cycle it.

 

[gman69]

The rocks as well as the sand have all dried out. I will be starting from scratch.
The tank is a Eclipse 3 29 gallon. Will this work for a reef and a couple clownfish?

 

[pyithar]

you'll need to cycle the tank first before getting any fish. cycle the tank with rocks in it. i would not use the old sand though. get the new sand or if you wanna use the old sand, wash them well. good luck.

 

[gone fishin]

what pyithar said. good luck

 

[gman69]

Thanks for the advice. I have read to use bleach or vinegar to clean the rocks and sand. After reading all the different ways i figured it would be easier to get it from the true horses mouth so to speak.

 

[OnceTrueFalseBr]

I'm new to the hobby. I got some stuff from a friend that's heater went out while he was at the beach. When he came home everything was dead. He cleaned out the dead fish and got out the water and let it dry up. My question is what do i clean these rocks and sand with to reuse?

Is any of this worth saving? I have it in some water know to clean it up a little.

weird. heater broke. everything dies.

i would make sure there aren't any parasites being transferred over into your tank with the LR... it seems he may not be telling the entire truth.

fish wont just die after a day of no heat...

 

[gman69]

It was a week.

 

[OnceTrueFalseBr]

It was a week.

oh you said at the beach.

to me "at the beach" means a few hours

sorry for his loss, but still try to make sure you don't introduce fish for at least 6 weeks in case there are parasites.

cleaning, if everything dried out you might just need to rinse off the die out and cycle.

also let them cycle to make sure you have good bacteria in there.

 

[coralsnaked]

I'd power wash them and throw them in the sun for a week or so and let them really dry out. Then cycle them in your new tank.

 

[Sk8r]

Nix on bleach and vinegar. Toss the sand. Rinse off the rock in tapwater, then dip in a bucket of salt water.
Clean the tank and gear with white vinegar. Run the pump in white vinegar.
Put the rock in first, put new aragonite 'sand' in next ---CaribSea is a good brand. If you buy dry sand, you MUST rinse it about 20x a bag, little at a time ---its horrid to get the dust out of, but it's good to do it to save problems. Add salt water (pour into a dish so as not to kick up sand). Turn on pump and heater. And order or buy a very little live rock (ask your local fish store [lfs]). Put that in to an 80 degree warm tank, and feed it a few flakes of fish food a day for the next 4 weeks. After 2 weeks start testing for ammonia, daily. And read the sticky up atop this forum called SETTING uP. It will save you grief and frustration.

 

[OnceTrueFalseBr]

Heaters often get stuck 'on' also. Many years ago I had a FW 29g planed tank and the heater stuck on. When I came home from work I could smell fish. The water was 105 degrees and they were almost all cooked. A few survived.

Ouch!

Sorry about that!

yea thats a nasty thing to come home to.

thats why I am planning on getting the APEX controllers by neptune systems.

They have powered and switched outlets that you can have it monitor the heater and turn it on or off from the brain module.

always new stuff to buy LOL