Crashed tank

[Vanlife-reefer]

I had my aquarium crash and literally everything died.

How can I sterilize the equipment and tank so I can use it again? Is it doable?

 

[Pridedcloth3]

Not saying this is the recommended way, but I waited for all flesh from don't coral to flat away then agitated the sand like nobody's business. One everything was suspended i cranked the power heads and carried out a few water changes over a week. Changed out carbon daily and had the skimmer ruining full force. Added fish and waited for things to settle then added a Monti cap to use as a gage. It attached to a rock after a week so I did a coral dump and had mostly good results except for a few chop shop coral that would've done bad regardless. My crash was due to my apex going haywire leaving the heater on all night and boiling everything.

 

[DrkNMighty]

Do you know why it crashed? Parasites? Malfunctioning equipment? Knowing the reason would help determine what the best next steps are to get you back up and running.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

It might not need to be taken apart and cleaned, it depends how and why it crashed? Need more info to answer the question.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

As others have stated, It all depends on what caused it. It could be as easy as draining and refilling. This will preserve bacteria as long as surface areas stay moist.

Do you have a sand bed? How deep and how often do you clean it?

Also saw this was a 10 gallon air with bioballs and skimmer running refugium light and looks like a fairly tight lid for display.

How often was light and skimmer on for a day?
This was also setup in January based on posts so how often, when and what was the amount of last water change?
Do you have an air pump.

What I am possibly thinking is an oxygen issue and not enough gas exchange unless skimmer was constantly running 24/7 or the lid didn't cover entire display and good surface agitation.

I keep a glass lid that seals the main display. So my back chamber has an air pump to add more contact to oxygen.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I agree with others; it depends on how it crashed and on how you want to go about starting the tank again. I had mine crash due to dinos, but I'm doing a complete restart on my tank, new rock and everything.