I will bring you up to speed on my situation, firstly I setup a new 67litre tank, no pump or filter added and also put in ocean rock with the sand to keep the pH steady. I have my salinity around 1.017 and added some micro algae which has held up OK considering it was for a marine tank.
The tank was setup in late November and this is where it went wrong, or so I thought. A sibling needed to store all his home furnishings and items from a house he lived in, this all went in my spare bedroom where the tank was cycling. With this storage issue I could not get to my tank to keep taking readings etc. Anyway now the room us empty and I am left with the tank that has been stood without water flow for 6 months, un manned!
The tank doesn't smell and only lost a very little amount of liquid to evaporation so I will top it off this weekend when I pick up some more RO water. The sides of the tank, sand and ocean rock are covered in green algae and some gunk. Do I take it all out and clean it and start over before buying any opea ula or do I scrape the sides and hoover the sand, do a 50% water change and hope the plant rotting down fed the bacteria?
Just need some guidance as the only place that sells opea ula in my country (UK) has just run out of stock so I'm worried the tank will go back to how it is now without anything living in it?
Should I be looking to change it all up and clean it or is it perfectly matured and ready for shrimp, obviously I will test the water for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites + pH etc. Also should I start adding trace minerals to the tank like I do with my fresh water shrimp to aid in moulting?
Pictures to come when I'm home from work.
Thanks again
