Help! Tank Has Been Sitting For 7 Months..

[AK77]

Because you turned off the powerheads and left the rock in a tank with no heat and no circulation. Its the same as establishing the bacteria in an external canister filter. The bacteria needs water circulating in order to supply it with oxygen and nutrients to survive. Since you did that, you put the final nail in the coffin as everythign else died and then you killed the LR too

 

[SkiFletch]

Correct, water circulation, nutrients, and energy (light) are required to keep it alive. Basically everything rotted until there's nothing left

 

[Sonic99]

Ok... That sucks. So after I get it back in the tank with a few pounds of new LR, what precautions do I need to take when it comes to stocking the tank? I know the filtration of the LR wont be nearly as effective. So keep it to a couple damsels? If so, for how long?

Sorry for all the questions, I have just been out of this for awhile...


BTW its a 24gallon tank and i weighed the rock when i was cleaning it and its an even 30lbs... I would say another 10lbs is all I can fit in there because I would really like to keep all of my old LR. Is that enough filtration for a few fish until my LR livens up?

Thanks a lot!
-Ryan

 

[SkiFletch]

As long as you start slow and only stock one fish at a time you should be fine with adding 10lbs of LR to your old BR.

Edit: Also remember you may struggle with algae problems on the base rock.

 

[Sonic99]

Ok well the tank is up and running. I put in the clean sand yesterday. I only used about half as much as last time. And all the rock went in yesterday too. I got all my water from the LFS. It comes from the ocean and gets filtered... He was raving about it... Anyways dropped a cocktail shrimp in this morning. Of course so far the water is still unaffected:
PH=7.9
AMMONIA=0
NITRITE=0
NITRATE=0
TEMP=79
SG=1.022

Ill post a picture of how it looks now in a few...

 

[idlefingers]

You don't need to seed it with ammonia (via dead shrimp) if you're using live rock..

 

[Sonic99]

Well thats the thing. They said my rock is more than likely dead having sat so long without any flow... If it were alive, the dead shrimp wouldnt hurt it would it? Seems like it would just make a bigger cycle ultimately creating a stronger bacteria filter correct?

 

[idlefingers]

oh, sorry.. I thought you were using the old (dead) LR as base rock and buying new LR on top?

 

[Sonic99]

yes that is the plan but I have been to a few lfs and havent seen and good lookin LR yet and I wanted to get the cycle underway. Shouldnt harm anything though right?

 

[idlefingers]

No, it won't harm anything. You'd be better off adding ammonia as a liquid rather than the shrimp so that you can control the amount and frequency (otherwise any good bacteria which does form will die). I assume you're running a filter of sorts if you're seeding it?

 

[Sonic99]

Um... No real filter other than the sponge that goes in the back left corner of the nanocube. Here are some pics of the tank I just took. SORRY I used my phone! I left room for some more rock this way.

Left side

Right side

Angle

Side

 

[SkiFletch]

Nice pics for a cell phone

 

[idlefingers]

Lookin' good!

 

[Sonic99]

Thank you thank you. Its not bad. 2MP its a sony ericsson w810i. Its a great MP3 player!

So can I leave the shrimp in? Ill most likely pick up about 10lbs of LR tomorrow...

 

[idlefingers]

Personally, I wouldn't.. but to be honest, I have difficulties justifying why. I guess it doesn't really matter either way.