Restarting a tank after a few months and have questions...

[alikat]

I have a Red Sea Max that has been inactive for the past few months. It got taken over by algae and everything had died off, so I drained it. It still has the rock and sand in it, but just a little water on the bottom.

I want to get it back up and running now that work isn't going to require me to be out of town all of the time. So, my question is... What do I need to do to restart this tank? Do I have to get all new sand, rocks, etc. or can I start out with what I have?

Thanks!

 

[alikat]

Thanks. Do I need to try to get all the old sand out? Not sure I can get it all.

 

[alikat]

Well the good news is that the tank was running for a long time without any fish in it at all. I'm hoping any of the "bad stuff" from the fish dying off (just clownfish) is long gone, but will definitely give the rock a good scrub as you suggested.

Not going to be fun cleaning all the algae and salt up. That's basically all that's left right now.

Thanks for the tips!

 

[jdavid]

Just by filling with water and siphoning out with a "gravel vacuum" you can probably get most of the sand out with the siphon

 

[alikat]

Wow. Started getting the last but of water and sand out of the aquarium and was surprised to see my watchman goby sitting there. I don't know how he survived, but he's going to get the star treatment!

 

[jrhunter0000]

AliKat;975307 wrote: Wow. Started getting the last but of water and sand out of the aquarium and was surprised to see my watchman goby sitting there. I don't know how he survived, but he's going to get the star treatment!

eating all that dieoff