Reuse live rock after crash?
- Thread starter Jollyg97
- Start date
Ah64av8tor
Premium Member
Sure you can cure the old rock with the new. you may also consider "Cooking" it
Yellow Eyes
Member
Ammonia is a necessary part of the cycle. How high is "too" high? It sounds like you put too much fish in too fast, and/or overfed. Just do a water change to get the ammonia to about 4ppm is what I used. Then wait. If its live rock it shouldn't take long, but if its dead rock it could take a month or two. There are stickies in the forum that talk about cycling. While you're waiting for your tank to cycle, read up.
I wouldn't use a skimmer, unless you have poor surface agitation and need to get oxygen into the water.
I wouldn't use a skimmer, unless you have poor surface agitation and need to get oxygen into the water.
Jollyg97
New member
I had a crash due to my mistake of doing too many water changes and starting a MASSIVE spike of ammonia (beyond api scale) and killed my clownfish and all corals. On top of this my tank sitter overfed a ton too and this tank is just beyond saving. I am going to redo with a 20 gallon, new/old live rock (If old can work for the cycle), new sand, and new ro/di water.
Ah64av8tor
Premium Member
Ok lets start from the top
New tank with corals and fish before properly establishing a nitrogen cycle. Bad combination from the start. Now you want to introduce new sand and rock in a 20 gal tank, so this means that you are starting over.
Your old rock is fine unless there was a foreign chemical introduced.
I assume that your old tank was smaller than 20gal, is it still running?
What type of filter were you using? Is it still running?
Your old sand is a substrate for bacteria and part of your filter system, why do you want to get rid of it? You mentioned Over feed a ton, is there piles of un eaten food all over?
Unless you have just unplugged the whole thing it is recovering from the ammonia spike as we speak and will recover in time with proper maintenance.
