# Need to love my salty again



## O.C.D Fishies (Apr 21, 2010)

Hello all
First off I miss you guys and I think my tanks do too. 
So I have had my salty going for about 7 years now. I have fell in and out of love with it many times. The last out has been a few years. I lost my last clown in Jan (Only ever had 2) after pretty much neglecting him. However I really want to make my tank great again. Here's the details. 
34 gallon solana tank 
about 40lbs live rock 
1 1/2 inches of live sand 
a couple soft corals 
tones of bristle worms 
150 watt medal halide light fixture 
My skimmer died about a year and a half ago, so its been running without. Tonight I picked up a Nuvoskim DC midsize protein skimmer. 
I have several questions 
Can I rip apart the tank and store the live rock in a bucket with a pump and heater for a few days to scrub out the tank? how long would the rock last in buckets?
what is the best way to get rid of all the coraline algae off the back plastic wall? I think they look so sleek with a black background.
Can I just totally clean out the sand and then put it back in? 
I imagine that all of these things will put the tank through a new or mini cycle, however I don't have any plans to put any livestock in it for awhile. I need to try and work on it and fall in love again. 
Also, I blindly bought the skimmer and it seems like it is supposed to sit on the bottom of the tank. My tank is way to deep to do that. Could I make a little stand or something of the sort to stand it on? And Anthony my homie, I still don't know how to do the rock scape. 
Thank you everyone in advance and for all the support in the last 9 years I've been on here. I will see if I can figure out the pic thing again soon. 
BTW I cant remember who just did a total overhaul on (I think it was your brothers tank) you tank, it looks amazing and was such an inspirational thread. thank you for that.


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## O.C.D Fishies (Apr 21, 2010)

Ok so I've had a ton of time to research and not study for my exam I have in a few hours. Here is a few things I have come up with. 
First, the tank isn't really as bad as I make it out to be. 
Second, if I was to take all the sand out, I'd probably be better off just buying new sand due to the huge die-off of organic material. 
I just noticed that I actually have lots of shrimp (cant spell anphepods good enough for spell check to pick up) and some sort of worms in the sand bed. I dont know that i really wanna kill all of these off. 
I just really dont like the look of all the coraline algea on the back wall, however I'm sure it would just be back in no time. 
So, my new plan. Do about a 40% water change every week for maybe the next 4 weeks. Vacuum as much of the sand bed as I can. I know it can cause issues if i losen up to much organic material though. 
I still might put the live rock into a 10 gallon with a heater and powerhead cause I've never got to vacuum under them. I also kinda wanna get rid of some of the rock, seems too full. 
And I need to clean out the back chambers, they have never been done. 
I'm not entirely sure at this point the best plan, especially since it's 5:23am but I'm hoping someone could give me a couple tips. I'm also going to continue researching it. 
Thanks all and hopefully my pics work. Also please dont mind the random net in there.























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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Hiya,

You can really do one massive water change (I did 90% in December to catch out a fish) and it shouldn't harm anything, especially since you have no fish. Just match pH, salinity and temp between new water and tank.

Siphon out the back chamber, add some hydroton biomedia back there, and vaccum out your sand bed. I would use a net to catch any pods from the siphoned water and try to release those back into your tank. If you want, I'll trade you some easy to keep coral, red macro algae and seeded (cycled) hydroton for your extra live rock. Once cycled, hydroton will house bacteria to consume Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. 

Anthony

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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Btw good luck on your exam.

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