Need advise for restarting my aquarium after aquarium crashed

[RedSea_New59]

On New Year's Day my aquarium cracked and I lost half the water not to mention my hardwood flooring and some ceiling below. It appears to have been a freak accident, so I replaced the older tank with a newer one - it being the RedSea 130D model. All the fish and corals survived the disaster and are now doing well in their temporary spot in my place while the flooring is being replaced. When it is replaced, I will be moving the tank back to it's original spot. So my question: for 3 weeks now I have kept the gravel from the tank on a separate rubbermaid container with a power head keeping the water moving. When I move the tank back to it's spot, is this same gravel ok to place back in the tank as it is? I have cleaned it of ditritus and crap a few times just by netting it out, but it still appears very dirty if I mix it up. Is is best to place in the new location a little bit at a time or should I purchase new gravel all together when the time comes?

Thank you for any advise.

 

[DaveK]

Generally when you scoop up your substrata and try to keep it in a separate container, you have sort of messed it up, especially if it is very dirty. I think the best idea would be to replace the substrata with new material, but use a few handfuls of the old material to reseed the new material.

I'd also recommend that you do the move from your temp tank back to the new tank slowly. Let the new tank run with the seeded substrata for awhile. Then move 1/3 to 1/2 your live rock back and allowing the new tank to run for a couple of weeks. If everything looks good, then move the rest of your live rock and livestock. You have a lot of latitude in exactly how you do this, but the idea is to keep the old system running while the new system starts up. That way if something bad happens you can quickly go back to the temp system.

 

[RedSea_New59]

Generally when you scoop up your substrata and try to keep it in a separate container, you have sort of messed it up, especially if it is very dirty. I think the best idea would be to replace the substrata with new material, but use a few handfuls of the old material to reseed the new material.

I'd also recommend that you do the move from your temp tank back to the new tank slowly. Let the new tank run with the seeded substrata for awhile. Then move 1/3 to 1/2 your live rock back and allowing the new tank to run for a couple of weeks. If everything looks good, then move the rest of your live rock and livestock. You have a lot of latitude in exactly how you do this, but the idea is to keep the old system running while the new system starts up. That way if something bad happens you can quickly go back to the temp system.

Thank you for that. I do not have a second tank. I will need to empty the present aquarium where it sits, then set it up again 50 feet from where it is now. So it all looks good now excpet the gravel did not get placed back in......instead I just left it out due to the mess, etc. So I am just wondering if the answer is the same? Just use some of the gravel but get new substrata? Also, it is a 34 gallon reef friendly tank with 2 clowns, a sand sifter, 3 chromises and a beautiful mandarin. Lots of mushrooms, leather coral, an few LPS corals and great looking LR. So how deep would you recommend the gravel to be? Is 1 inch average too little....too much?

 

[DaveK]

Yes, the advice is still the same. Replace the substrata using a few handfuls of the old material to reseed the new tank.

The sand depth bead can be just about any amount you like. Some of this depends upon what your trying to keep. Something like a jawfish is going to require a deep sand bed. Other times you can get away with just enough to cover the bottom, or even bare bottom. You can use anything anything in between.

If you want a deep sand bed to reduce nitrates, you will need about 4 inches. My personal preference is about 1 1/2 inches, but I would not call anyone else wrong.

 

[Uncle99]

Seen very, very nice bare bottoms as well if that's your thing.
Manny just needs rock..
I am going to try this next rebuild....