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Rebuilding a crashed aquarium

I just read your FAQ's on the WEB and I will be purchasing your book shortly. Thanks for all the information I received so far...

I have been keeping saltwater aquariums for the last 7 or so years and have gone from a small 30 gallon fish only tank to a 55 gallon reef tank that I started about 3 years ago. Unfortunately, I have moved twice, barely survived several power failures (some for several days) and built an addition on my new house that kept me away from proper maintenance. My poor reef tank has suffered terribly. It now looks like a swamp. The 90 lbs of live rock is covered with algae and almost all of the snails and hermit crabs have long since gone. There are also several Apitasta anemone in the tank and some small bristle worms as well. I still have a large leather coral and a few anemone left.

On the bright side though, the addition is complete, I now have a generator and I was just given a 125 gallon tank. I am excited about restarting a new reef tank.

Here's my question / plan. I would like to re-use the live rock in the old tank as base rock for the new tank and add some new rock. Can you suggest a way to clean the rock and get rid of the Aipatasia anemone and the algae? Is soaking it in fresh water for a long period of time (a few weeks) acceptable?

I have several inches of live sand in the tank that I would like to re-use as a seed for the new tank. My only concern is the bristle worms (I think I can eliminate the Aipatasia if I'm careful). I have read that some bristle worms are beneficial and some are bad. Is there a way I can distinguish the difference?

I have seen them munching on a dead snail but I am unsure if they killed the snail or they were just eating the remains. They are 1" in length or smaller, orange in color and they are not bothering the anemone or the leather coral. I have not seen any larger worms even at night.

Should I just flush the old tank and start over or can I save some of these animals, sand and rock?

Thanks for any help you can provide,

I would read my book first. It sounds like you have some experience so... you know what to look for. Couple of things

1 After reading the book you may decide to use the eggcrate method which doesn't really use much base rock

2 I wouldn't recommend soaking the rock in fw. Essentially you would be killing the rock. If you decide to use the rock, the process of cleansing it in such a way that you would remove the rock anemone and hair algae would probably be more work then its worth. Although it could be done.

3 Besides the power outages, your tank has suffered from neglect. The neglect being

In order to clean up the rock you would want to improve the water conditions and lighting that its in, so in essence you would have to correct conditions... then wait for the rock to respond then add it or incorporate your *new* tank to it or vise versa

You sand is a different story and would transfer with minimal problem to a new tank. I wouldn't worry about the bristle worms. Your other livestock should be fine

In summary I would read SRK then develop a plan (decide on tank size, water purification, lighting etc) Then make a decision on how to proceed

My best advise is to get informed of what you want, make a plan and carry it out. Planning is the key Robert --
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