Cleaning Questions after hurricane

[discordipinna]

Hello all. I got hit with an evacuation and power outage last week and lost pretty much everything in my 12 gallon NC. Including my 1 1/2 year old pair of flaming prawn gobies. (I had a tank thread that got deleted in the crash and never got around to re-starting it.)

So now, I want to restart, but I'm not sure when my stuff will be safe to use. I've rinsed the tank out with diluted ammonia, then fresh water, then diluted vinegar, then fresh water. I'm going to scrub it with vinegar again to get the dead coralline off, wash it with freshwater again, and fill it and test for ammonia. Is there anything else I should do to make it safe?

Second, my RO/DI was in the basement, which got flooded with river water and who knows what. Is there a way to clean it that it will be safe and effective again? Right now it's sitting in the back yard, tinged slightly brown with mud I haven't had a chance to even wash off yet.

Will the pumps/heaters/media basket/etc be ok with a good scrubbing in vinegar and rinsing?

Thanks for any advice you can give. This was my first tank, so cleaning out this much death and muck is new to me. And I really don't want to have to buy a new RO/DI...

 

[The_Codfather]

Sorry to hear this.. First off make sure the membrane in the RO stays wet.. The only way you will know if the water coming out is OK is use a TDS meter if it comes out 0 you are ok.. if it comes out 1-5 it could be your DI got trashed but the flood water should not of got inside due the the unit being water tight...pumps/heaters/media basket/etc should all be ok as long the pumps and heater was all submersible If not just make sure thy are 100% dry before plugging in but i would still keep a eye on them specially the heater

 

[redfishbluefish]

Just like your RO/DI unit does not leak water out, it’s not going to allow water, in this case river water, to get in. Agree with Sid (Codfather), let it run and check TDS….it should be just fine.


As far as the tank is concerned, sounds like you’ve cleaned it up, but now you’re going to have to fill it up with rock and saltwater and let it cycle. I’d watch that ammonia spike especially with what I’m going to assume is rock with some death as well

 

[discordipinna]

Thanks guys. It's nice to have confirmation. It didn't occur to me to use TDS as an indicator of whether it's ok or not. I will do that!

I actually scraped all the rock and sand I had. It was just too much to try to clean. So I'm going to be starting over with new rocks and new cycle...

 

[mnat]

You are doing the right thing with the live rock and sand, we lost power a few years ago and our sand went sulfurous and was quite nasty. With a 12g it is nice and easy to start over.

 

[redfishbluefish]

blah, blah, blah.....................sulfurous..........

Wow! Elemental sulfur in the plus four valence state!

Sorry, it’s the chemist in me.

Great word though….it almost sounds adjective….."wow, those are sulfurous farts!"

 

[mnat]

sul·fu·rous

   [suhl-fyoo

r-uh

s, suhl-fuh

r-] Show IPA
adjective1.of, pertaining to, or containing sulfur, especially in thetetravalent state.

So yes you can have sulfurous farts

 

[Fish Brain]

Sorry to hear about your loss. I know parts of Cranford, Westfield and Garwood were without power for a long time. My friend who lives on Grove street just got his power back Friday. Downtown Cranford got hit hard, First Aid squad was underwater and the police station also had to be evacuated.

 

[TanksNStuff]

Well, aside from all the "chemistry" talk, I think everyone gave good advice so far.

Sorry about the loss and hope the rebirth is successful.