# new used tank



## Tbone (Feb 26, 2008)

I bought a used tank from a guy it's a 55 gal It has a skilter 250 filter, skimmer, 3 powerheads and heater He had it running for about 2 yrs so everything was established.I don't know how long the tank was down for I'm thinking about a week but he had about 70 lbs of live rock that was in a plastic garbage can it was still in the water from the tank.he did not have a filter or heater on them. so I got it home and set it up with 50 lbs of playsand and 20 lbs of live sand not knowing any better I went ahead and put the rocks in without cleaning them.so I'm wondering how bad did I screw up?


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## bettababy (Oct 12, 2006)

Uhhmmm.. hate to say it, but you could have very well screwed up enough to have quite a mess on your hands. 

You'll need to siphon all of that sand out and throw it away, replace it with aragonite sand. (if you need help on how safest to do this, let me know) Working with something like AgagAlive by Carib Sea is a good idea so you can replenish some of your bacteria culture. Depending on how long it has been this way, you may also need time to reseed or at least partially reseed your rock once its fixed with the live sand. Please make sure your spg/salinity is between 1.023 - 1.025 before adding sand or rock to the tank. You may need to store the rock in buckets of the existing water to accomplish all of this.

Once the changes are made, watch it, regular water testing, and be patient. It may take a bit longer to cycle, but long term you should be ok if you are patient about waiting until the cycle is complete before adding any animals.

Best of luck to you, let us know if you need more help!


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## Tbone (Feb 26, 2008)

Thanks for the quick response! I was afraid it was going to be bad,yea I would like to know the safest way to get the sand out so you don't think the live sand is not a good way to go? Thanks for the help


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## bettababy (Oct 12, 2006)

Live sand yes, play sand no.

Easy method, move your rock to buckets with tank water. Have a few empty buckets ready. Once the rock is set off the the side, start your siphon into an empty bucket, but intead of siphoning up in the water, get the hose down into the sand and suck it all up. When the bucket is 2/3 full, move on to the next and do the same thing, suck all of the sand and water together into the bucket... again stop at 2/3 full. Now go back to the first bucket. The sand will have settled on the bottom leaving you with water at the top. Pour the water back into the tank until you get it as low as you can to the sand at the bottom. Go to bucket #2 and do the same thing. Now start your siphon again and repeat until all of the sand is removed. When you're finished, you may want to dump out that water and start over. This would be the best thing to do at this point, while it is all still new. Start everything over as if this were a new tank. Leave your rock in the buckets for a few days, rinse/wipe out the tank, fill it up, get your salt and power heads, and heater in there and let it mix for 24 hrs. Then check your spg/salinity, adjust it as needed until you reach 1.023 - 1.025. Then add your rock, then add the live sand to help anchor the rock, and let it cycle. Idea temp would be 76 degrees. 

If you need more help, let me know.


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## Tbone (Feb 26, 2008)

well that sucks, but I really appreciate the help thank you


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