How Do You Tear Down A Tank ?

[Patti]

Hi Everybody,

Due to my very active 4 year old boy, I am left with no choice but to downsize from 2 -80 gallon tanks to a mere one. For the past 2 years I have only had time to perform the bare neccesities of maintenance on both my reef tank and my reef/seahorse tank. I am terribly dissapointed with myself for only being able to do a half assed job on something I used to spend days and days tinkering with.
I found homes for my aggressive tangs, and transfered my clowns and cardinals in with my seahorses.
Now I have a tank filled with 3 inches of coral/sand and approximately 50 pounds of live rock.
I am not sure if I want to add any more LR to my horse tank, or any more sand. What do I do with it all ? Is there a way to store it for future use ? There are so many bristle worms in there,,eww. Now that my fish are gone, the worms are taking over.
If the LR and sand were allowed to dry,, would it be re-usable at a later time ? I think I know the answer to that one,, It would be useless wouldn't it ? Cause all the life would die and contaminate the rock, right. Thought I would ask anyway.
I think that's all I need for now, Thanks in advance,
Hope to hear from you's,
Patti

 

[Anonymous]

I would rinse in fresh water, continuously/repeatedly (the sand) until it's clean. I think it can be done, myself. The live rock is another thing entirely. However, if you don't want to go to all that trouble, try contacting a local marine aquarium society, see if someone would like it (probably sans bristleworms, but I think the majority of those can be baited and removed). HTH!