Clean up crew dead right away???

As far as the rock you can do this. Then it could be used as base rock pieces if you like some of them and then you do not need to buy as much LR. So say you could buy 25lbs LR and use 15 of the nukes rock. The LR will seed the base after a while. As far as the LS I will look for a good nuke procedure for that and you could if you wanted buy less LS. Process to nuke rock below. FYI I grabbed this from another thread.

Soak the rock in a 50/50 bleach and water solution for about 2 days. Drain the soaking container then soak the rock in clean fresh water for 2 days. Drain the container again, rinse the rock in fresh water and soak again it in fresh water again for another 2 days. Then add a 2lb box of baking soda per 15 gallons of water and soak the rock again for 3-4 days. Drain the container then soak again in fresh water for a day then remove the rock and let it sit and dry for 3-4 days (The baking soda soak is to neturalize the acid and low P.H from the bleach). "

 

why are you thinking about nuking the LR? it sounds like you used water with a contaminant, and had params (pH) out of whack. I agree that this early on it's better to just start from scratch again, but don't chuck or nuke the rock. rinse it in some ro/di with salt in a bucket or two or three at the same time you're draining and rinsing your tank. then fill tank with rodi, add salt, allow to mix in, then drop (gently) in your rock. await new cycle - for many weeks. doubt you'll need a damsel if you're patient.

 

Would you scrub the diatom bloom off or just rinse?

 

sorry im alittle behind but.... i just dumped my snails in and all of them survived and are munching away.... no acclimation at all heh

 

But you didn't use distilled water to fill your tank.....



Gregger, it's up to you if you want to nuke your rocks and sand. The fact that you have only been at this for 2 weeks is a great advantage you are having right now. While some things *may* have been absorbed, I doubt it has been much. Although, I also doubt much is actually alive on that rock, either, since your water killed that CuC so quickly. So the choice is yours and I don't think it really matters either way, since the point is that rock is dead either way you go.

I would suggest once you get it all rinsed out and setup again that you get 1 or 2 nice new pieces of LR to seed the tank and cycle with a cocktail shrimp. Don't go the damsel way. For one, that's just mean to the fish (even though I HATE damsels!!!!!!!) to put them through that. Two, you will probably regret it later on down the road when the damsel gets mean and you want to take it out and have to entirely deconstruct your tank in order to do so.

 

In all honesty this tank is a true reef tester tank for me. I have aspirations for building a much larger tank in the near future when I design my house. I have all the time in the world and want to do things right and learn along the way. I also need to make sure this is something I will keep up with and will stick out for the long haul before dropping house designs and much bigger bucks into it.

I have read all your posts and found this a possible path:

1. Stop trying to fix this water and start over with new water (This is the most universal thought I have seen posted).
2. I will properly clean the LR, reuse the LR, and fill the tank with all new RO saltwater.
3. Wait for the tank to fully cycle using only the live rock and sand (and maybe biocycle); keeping lights minimal if at all.
4. Attempt to add (dare I say) a CUC once tank has fully cycled. If this doesnt work all I have wasted is time
5. Test, test, test and show photos of progress

If this doesn’t produce a viable product then I will go ahead and buy all new LR and LS (nuking the old stuff to use for a larger tanks future base) and do it all again. All the while trying to understand this puzzle as much as I can while making sure I can keep up with it before moving onto bigger and better things.

Thanks for everyone’s help.

Comments welcomed.

 

your path sounds good, One thing I always remember is start with ro/di water that way you know whats in the water, nothing.

 

.....and I thought that bottled water was roughly the same as RO or distilled. Lesson learned there.

 

+K

I am neutral on nuking the rock... I probably wouldn't but I'm not sure :-/

Good luck!

 

Im going to start flushing the tank out with RO water tomorrow. Does this need to be a RO/saltmix or just RO. I will post before and after pics of the rock after cleaning. Should I go ahead and just buy new sand? After I get this info I will post my method for review.

Greg