Just got a 12G Nano Cube (used w/old sand) - now what?

[ReefGirlSara]

I just bought a 12 Gallon Nano cube from a guy for $24, it is really nice. It was in storage for a while with the sand still in it. It stinks and is a little dirty.

What do I do now? Can I re-use the sand? I have a lot of live sand I can seed it with from my other tank. I want to make a nice little reef tank out of it. For now though, I need a quarantine tank for a couple of new fish I'm getting tomorrow- so what do I need to do to get this thing ready for fish?

Any help is much appreciated!

[kkyyllee]

dont use the old sand, throw it out, rinse the tank, then add new sand, get ur liverokc and let it cycle, no where near adding fish

[ReefGirlSara]

I was thinking of doing a 12 gallon +/- water change on my 54G corner tank and using that water. I thought that would work out ok to be able to use it as a quarantine tank tomorrow. Could I do that and not have any sand in it?

I know it's not cycled yet, but I was hoping I could use it as a quarantine tank first. or not...

[kkyyllee]

you would need to add some sponge filters to ur main tank for aweek then add them to the tank when u use it as a QT tank

[ReefGirlSara]

I use those blue and white filters in my wet/dry, the one that's in there needs to be changed, can I just use that? Where would I put it?

If that would work, can I do that tonight and use it tomorrow? I don't want to rush it, if it's not a good idea, but I didn't want to put the new fish straight into my main tank.

I'm getting the 2 new fish tomorrow whether I like it or not...

[ReefGirlSara]

For the long term though, regardless of whether or not I use it as a QT tomorrow, I eventually want to turn it into a nice little reef tank. Is it definitely a bad idea to re-use the old sand? Even if I wash it several times and add some of my live sand to it to get it started? And then let it cycle for a month or so with some good LR in there?

It's just really nice sand, and I hate to throw it out if I don't have to...

[kkyyllee]

u dont know whats gotten into it when it was sitting around, if you want you could use it but id get new sand to be safe