Suggestions / Protocol for restarting crashed tank?

[ryanyde]

Guys,

As you know I moved out to the SF Bay area and am looking for a set-up to husband while I'm out there temporarily (6-8 months min, maybe more). I found this tank: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/for/5005943893.html

and am planning to pick it up this weekend.

Issue is that he had an ich outbreak and it killed most of the livestock.

I'm wondering whether I should keep all the live rock wet and cured or whether I should dry everything out and start from scratch.

The downside of starting from scratch is obviously the time factor (since I have a limited time for the set up). Are there any risks of keep the rock as it is? In other words, does Ich / etc. live on live rock?

Would also appreciate any other tips for taking over a tank from someone else. How should I transport? What should I test first?

Thanks for any help!
Ryan

 

[phg1960]

Crypto cysts lives on the rock and in the sand. Either dry everything thoroughly, treat with chloroquine phosphate or bleach the system.

 

[ryanyde]

Thanks! So basically best to start off from scratch. Will it live on the fish as well if they're still alive? Should I treat the livestock in there (Angel Fish / Shrimp)?

 

[phg1960]

From everything I've read, it won't live on the shrimp, but certainly on the angel. Since this is going to be a short-term set-up, and if you have no desire to do coral/inverts, you could do a copper treatment. That will take care of the fish and ich, but the copper gets into the rock and sand then slowly leaches out making it toxic for coral.

 

[William]

http://www.chucksaddiction.com/ich.html

I would run the system without fish for 6 weeks just doing normal maintenance if it's just ich that caused the crash... Cryptocaryons need fish to survive and their life cycle is 28 days. 6 weeks assures you starve them out.

During that 6 weeks you can have a quarantine tank set up and have your livestock ready for their new home.

 

[ryanyde]

That may not address the root cause though, I should probably check the parameters first right? I'll be curious to see how bad of shape the tank is in and will probably go from there. Copper if I can, maybe just a full reset if I can't.

Cheers,
Ryan

 

[William]

Don't use copper in the tank unless you plan on fish only as it will be absorbed by the live rock.

 

[William]

Good article for water parameters
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.htm

 

[wpeterson]

I'd start the tank over. You never know what kind of pests you get from the previous system.

Cook the rock, put in new sand, take live sand/rock from a hobbyist you trust.

 

[JasonandSarah]

Yeah I wouldn't use copper in tank at all. It's gonna get into the rock, sand and everything else. If you do in tank copper treatment everything in the tank will be trash when your done as far as a reef tank.
Offer them something cheap for the 14g bio cube.

 

[JohnK]

If ick is the concern, then I'd run the system fish less for 8 or better yet 12 weeks, and during that time QT (and I'd do the TTM during that time to be safe).

That said, I'd also want to see and evaluate the health of the rest of the system. If it's full of Valonia and manjos, or if it has a stagnant sand bed, or other major issues then you'll need to deal with those issues. I don't think there is one general protocol for any situation, it depends on what you are trying to fix, but I wouldn't be very likely to do a full restart over ick alone.

 

[JohnK]

Thinking about this a little more.....

Are you sure it was ick? Ick rarely wipes out or "crashes" a tank. If it was a parasite and several fish were wiped out in a short amount of time it may well have been a more aggressive parasite?

 

[ryanyde]

I'm not sure TBH, it's not my tank. The guy says it was Ich, but I haven't been able to test the water at all yet. I'm telling him so far to keep everything wet and running because given my limited time out there, spending 8-12 weeks rehabilitating a tank would not be ideal.

I'll post here once I find out more and before I do anything drastic. I'm not for copper but if it is only Ick, I could run the biocube (if he'll toss it in) with the shrimp and the angel for a few weeks while everything gets back to normal.

Thanks for all of the help!