Katrina killed me

[KJ5432]

I had a reef tank set up prior to Katrina. Needless to say, I no longer have a reef tank. We were not allowed back in the city until 2 weeks after the storm and with no lights and no oxigination due to the power outage, I lost everything. The only thing that I kept that was once living is the rock and the sand.

This brings me to my question...

Should I use the same sand and buy new rock and let the rock replenish the living organisims that belong in the sand?

Or should I buy new sand and maybe a couple of pieces of new live rock and let the sand along with maybe 2 pieces of new rock revive the sand and rock?

The tank is a 29 gallon tank?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hear about your losses. At least you are okay!

I'd keep the rock.

I might even keep the sand.

Do a series of water changes and monitor how things look and smell.

The eyes and nose will know more about what you need to do than what all of us can guess.

Got any pictures?

Louey

 

[KJ5432]

No I don't have any pictures. Trust me you wouldn't want to see what the tank looked like after 2 weeks. I had an air stone but 2 D batteries only last so long and the Acros and other corals need light and water flow.
If I keep the dead sand and the dead rocks how will the bacteria and organisms repopulated the reef?

 

[Anonymous]

If I keep the dead sand and the dead rocks how will the bacteria and organisms repopulated the reef?

If it is truley ALL dead, then you would have to reseed it with some new LR.

I'm not so sure about the sand. Maybe someone else will chime in with an opinion on if you should keep it or toss it.

Louey

 

[ChrisRD]

Sorry to hear that you lost your reef.

Personally, I would give the rock a chance - I think you might be surprised at what survives. I think I would ditch most of the sand although you could save some to help reseed a new bed. I'd recure the rock though - you'll probably get lots of die-off and detritus shedding for a while. Bacteria should not be an issue and if you find you're lacking on the critter end of things you can always reinoculate with some new live rock/sand or get a critter package from a place like Inland Aquatics.

JMO...

 

[KJ5432]

ChrisRD...question for you...

When I got home from being evacuated for 2 weeks I emptied the contents of the tank. I didn't know if I wanted to dry the rock out or leave it in water. I had never had this happen before so I didn't know what to do. I took all of the rock and put them in 5 gallon buckets and filled them with fresh/tap water form the hose outside. They stayed in the buckets for about 2-3 weeks in "freshwater". They started growing algae like a freshwater aquarium does (you know the green stuff). So I knew I didn't want this to continue. So what I did was take the rocks out and leave them on the patio outside. I guess they are "drying out". Do you really think that the rock or anything living in or on the rocks could survive this? It will be at about 2 more weeks or so before I can start my tank up again. Knowing all this would you still try to salvage the rocks?

Also, you mentioned buying a critter package to reinoculate. What is a critter package? Can you please expand on this. Also, do you have a website or a link to get to the site that sells it?

 

[ChrisRD]

If your rock has spent weeks in freshwater and out of water, then yes, it will be pretty much devoid of useful life. It could still be useful as base rock IMO. Personally, I would recure it / clean it up to get the gunk/detritus out of the rock before trying to use it in a reef tank. At this point your easiest/quickest option would be to get new live rock.

As for the critter package - some places like Inland Aquatics sell the beneficial pods, worms, etc. individually or in combo packages that people generally get on good live rock. It's just an alternate way to get these creatures (without buying live rock).

Link: http://www.inlandaquatics.com/prod/tr_invert.html

HTH

 

[KJ5432]

How should I go about recuring the rock?

 

[ChrisRD]

I would put it back in some saltwater with a few powerheads for circulation. Once bacteria get reestablished it should help clean-up the rock. You'll probably see quite a lot of detritus shedding from the rocks initially. Just syphon it out regularly. Once the rock is no longer producing much you'll know it's fairly well cleaned-up. At that point you could use it as base rock. With some good live rock in the same system, eventually the old stuff will all get reseeded with coralline and critters and be good as new.

Of course in your case, I'm not sure how much recycling will go on. I've never tried recuring rock that's already been in freshwater for weeks and out in the open air all that time. Might not be much left to die-off / decompose. You should be able to tell by the amount of detritus the rock produces in the curing vat.

HTH

 

[KJ5432]

So your saying to run powerheads only and not to run any kind of filter?

 

[ChrisRD]

I'd run a skimmer on it too if you can. It may not end-up being necessary if there's not much left on the rock to decompose, but it sure couldn't hurt to have it on there.

Blast the rockwork periodically (say every few days, once a week, etc.) with a powerhead too - helps to loosen up the bound-up detritus so you can syphon it out later.