NURSEKITTY99

Unfortunately, A While Back I Became Seriously Ill And Had To Neglect My Salt Water Tank For More Than A Year. I Ran The Filter And Did Water Changes But I Just Was Not Up To Giving It My Full Attention. Now That I Am Feeling Better I Would Like To Start Her Up Again And Hopefully Bring This Tank Back To It's Former Fabulous Self.

I Moved About A Month Ago And Had To Empty Most Of My 30 Gallon Saltwater Tank. Three Inches Of Salt Water, Seashells,sand And Filthy Sediment Were Left In The Tank. It Has Been Sitting There For A Month Waiting For Me To Do Something With It. Amazingly There Is No Odor.

I Am Overwhelmed And Do Not Know Where To Start. Do I Take All The Sand Out And Start Fresh?? What About The Live/dead Rock?? I Had Been Fortifying It But That Did Not Seem To Work. I Am Sure It Is Useless Now. I Do Not Care About Creatures Or Fish At This Point I Just Want A Healthy Tank. I Have Had A saltwater fish Tank For Many Years But Still Consider Myself A Newbie. I Am Willing To Put In The Work To Rectify This Situation I Just Need To Be Put In The Right Direction.

Help!!!!

Nurse Kitty

Oil_Fan

First off, welcome to Fishlore!!!

The beneficial bacteria will be dead by now. However, it won't take much to get it back. You can use a product like Stability by Seachem. That'll get the sand and rock back to live status.

As for cleaning it all up, I would think you could just rinse it with clean salt water and then just put it back into the tank.

NURSEKITTY99

Thank You! You Make It Sound Easy

Oil_Fan

lol...I wish.

You don't have any livestock in there now, right? If not, you can pretty much go to town cleaning the thing. Just don't use tap water.

offminded

bad kitty! lol...just kidding i'm with oil_fan on this. i have heard good things about Stability by Seachem. now its time to roll up your sleeves and get busy...keep us posted.

Tumbleweed

With a little patience and a lot of water changes you get it back up and running in no time. Good luck

susitna-flower

HI, WELCOME TO FISHLORE!

No one here is going to for having a life crisis.....it happens. The thing is to have a lovely tank again is going to make you feel so good.....it is absolutly the best for bringing up spirits and giving you something to fill those extra minutes....so jump in, and we will be glad to help with anything you have questions about....or just to visit!

NURSEKITTY99

Ok, So What I Gather From You Lovelies Is...get My Lazy Butt In There And Scrub!! Using Salt Water Only Correct?? I Can Then Vacume Up The Yucky Crud Thats Been Sitting In There For Eons. I Would Think I Would Just Dump The Dirty Water From Cleaning And Start Fresh But From The Above Statements It Seems I Keep It And Do Water Many Water Changes. Oil_fan I Do Not Have Any Creatures Great Or Small At This Time. The Last Thing I Had In There Was A Cannibal Crab Who Ate Everybody In Site!! I Had Him Since He Was Just A Wee Little Pipsqueek. He Went To The Fishstore To Find A Bigger Tank. I Will Go Look Up Seachem Immediately And See What I Can Lean. Thanks To All Of You Who Participated In My Plea For Help. I Am Still Looking For More Replies So Ill Be Back. Nursekitty

Oil_Fan

As far just cleaning out the tank, you can use tap water. It's just you'll have to be sure to let it totally dry so the chlorine and such will be totally gone. After you get everything clean, then put everything back in the tank and fill it with SW.

Though I'd probably use fresh RO water for the sand and rock just to be sure. Using SW for cleaning may get a bit expensive. But for just cleaning out the tank, I'd take the easy/cheap route.

Amnagrla

Welcome! Sorry - I know nothing about SW tanks. I just wanted to say welcome!