Replace sand after overheating crash?

[PaintGuru]

So my father went on vacation and during that time the reef tank got up to 93 degrees for a few days and pretty much killed everything but their 2 resiliant clowns. Anyways, he is trying to get everything cleaned out and was wondering if he needed to rip out the sand? Basically all he has is a thin 1-2" layer of large grain aragonite, not really a DSB of anysort. He just didnt know if any bristleworms, etc. (he still saw some alive, but isnt sure what may have died) would sabatoge any cleaning process. As for this being a perfect time to change to barebottom, he was having such good success with what he had, I don't see any real reason to change methodology, again unless die off in the sand will mess things up in the future.

[SPC]

Sorry to hear this, Paint,

Its really not a question with a yes or no answer IMO, Paint. If it were mine I would replace it because although it is only an inch or two deep, it could still have contained alot of life. I have read on the various boards where people have had their tank crashed from the sand bed going south.
Steve

[WilyGuy]

Go to www.garf.org and order some Garf Grunge.

It is about $5 per lb and WELL WORTH the money. A bud of mine got some and kicked about .5 lb to me and boy did it jump start me back after a similar meltdown.

WG

[PaintGuru]

I'm not as much concerned about getting it going again as leftover dying stuff causing problems. However, I may have him look into the Garf stuff to at least get things rolling again.