Sand after 4 months

My whole tank crashed after we had a power outage a few months ago and it has just been sitting there ever since. obviously the sand and live rock are no longer alive because it has been sitting there in cold water for months but is it safe for me to keep the same rock and sand if i want to restart my tank but don't want to buy all new everything? Thanks for any advice!

 

Sure, mix it up... aerate it, and let it cycle.

 

Yea deff keep your rock, that's a major expense when starting up. Of course it will all have to cycle again from base rock. At least you can keep it. I'm not sure if there is some kind of prep you can do for storage.

 

I would agree to reuse the rock, but would like to hear from someone with more experience on the sand. I personally would be reluctant since it is cheap to replace. But I suppose if you rinse it out enough it won't matter anyways.

 

Get a Rubbermaid tote or something, put a heater, powerhead, air stone in it... get it up to temp... and let it cycle. It doesn't need light. Then, when you get your tank set up and ready to go... pull the rocks out and put them in (discard the water since it'll have high nitrates and your bacteria are benthic (on the rock)).

Don't forget to feed the bacteria periodically... though your die off should have this covered for some time.

 

I agree with Marshall, but I'd simply rinse the sand. I reuse sand often, but I rinse it repeatedly until the water runs clear.

Whatever you do, don't stir it up and use it while it's in the tank. There are compounds trapped in the sand (H2S for one) that you do NOT want in your water column. I've seen peeps kill off entire tanks by stirring their substrate up during routine cleaning.

 

Personally, I would dump the sand no matter what, and keep the rock. I would scrub the rock down the best you can and then put it in and let it cycle. Honestly though...if its not a lot of rock..I would dump it too...but if it is a lot of rock...probably worth keeping. I tend to be overly conservative about this stuff though....

 

I would keep the rock, just clean it. I've used the method of putting it in water in a dark container so no light hits it. Let it in there for as long as you can and everything will die off. Then after you remove it just clean it by spraying it off. I've done this to my rock and it came out looking brand new. As for the sand, I would throw it away as nothing good would still be living in it. I tried rinsing my substrate when I moved to a bigger tank and it was very tedious (80 lbs. of sand), it smelled, and then had to cycle again because everything was killed from the rinse. If anything get new sand and just use a scoop or two of the current sand to seed it. Then again, it's been sitting in cold water this whole time so I doubt anything beneficial is still living in it to seed with.