Hello All - I have had a mix reef tank for ~10 years. For most of that time it was very prolific, after about the first year figuring things out until the last year as my tank slowly crashed. That is why I almost got out of the hobby. It was very hard to see my beautiful reef tank and most of my favorite corals slowly die. After I had sold off all of my fish and remaining corals I was about to fully break down my tank and then I had the inspiration to get an octopus... and here I am.
For reference the slow crash was 10 years of waste slowly building in the sand bed. I actually bought the first 55G used with a deep sand bed (6"+). After I upgraded to a 75G a couple of years later the sand bed was not quite 4 inches... When I finally broke down the tank and tried to rinse the sand it stunk like low tide. I rinsed it ~10X and it still stunk. Then I chucked it and realized that was my problem that I would have never solved unless I emptied the tank and removed the sand and rock.
The sand and live rock I have now are new or from another system.
For reference the slow crash was 10 years of waste slowly building in the sand bed. I actually bought the first 55G used with a deep sand bed (6"+). After I upgraded to a 75G a couple of years later the sand bed was not quite 4 inches... When I finally broke down the tank and tried to rinse the sand it stunk like low tide. I rinsed it ~10X and it still stunk. Then I chucked it and realized that was my problem that I would have never solved unless I emptied the tank and removed the sand and rock.
The sand and live rock I have now are new or from another system.