Last night at 1:30 in the morning I woke up to a noise. The unmistakable noise of a pump running without water. My system is such that I don't have an overflow so I jumped out of bed and RAN to the living room and half the tank was empty (29 gallon) and the water was all over the floor.
First things first. It turns out that the bottom glass pane broke. Thats where the water was coming from. Don't know how it happen as the tank wasn't moved or anything. It had been happily sitting there for over 2 months now. My wife and I thought it might have been the cerith snails burrowing around under the rock and then it dropped, but we really have no idea how there could be a crack from one side of the tank to the other on the bottom pane.
Nothing was ruined except the tank. Everything is still in perfect running order.
In our half asleep state at 1:30 in the morning we were able to pull out most of our livestock and put it into the quarantine tank (10 gallon that has not been medicated) and get most of the
live rock into it (Although one piece was out of the water for an extended amount of time, like 3 hours before it made it into the
QT) as well.
Another container with about 8 pounds of the sand from the tank and a little water to keep it moist is sitting next to it. All fish and corals also made it into the
QT.
My large CPR aquafuge is still half filled with water. It's not being heated like the
QT is right now, but sand is in there along with the
live rock rubble. I tossed the chateo that was in the
fuge into the
QT for a little extra filtration.
Now for the questions. After the tank had finished emptying on my floor we carefully (cause the break was on the bottom) set it outside on the patio. The
Live rock that didn't make it is obviously a throw away at this point, but the sand is still moist.
Can I use the sand for the replacement tank as long as it stays moist or would I be better off getting a new 20 pound bag of live sand? Keep in mind that their are some corals in the
QT waiting to go home.
Also, how best do I handle the "new" water issue? When I say new, I mean there are about 7 gallons of tank water left. The other 18-20 it will take to fill the display tank will all be new. What kind of effect can I expect that to have on my fish and corals? I don't have a way to really let the new 29 gallon tank cycle while the 3 fish, the shrimp and all those coral sit in my
QT for a month. Not a realistic option right now. A little help and advice from anyone would be GREATLY appreciated.
