Lights been off for a year, any life?

[odlaw]

My little 30 gal tank lights have been off for about a year. Left the pumps running and obviously topped off the evaporation. Lost all corals and livestock a long time ago. Just bought new bulbs and did a 30% water change. SG was a bit on the low side before the change. Most of the coraline algae has disapeared or turned white. No signs of life. There is about 50 lbs of live rock in there also that has been in the dark.
Do you think the rock has animals that went dormant and will grow again?? Water params are ok with the exception of nitrates at 10ppm.
Tank has the big tidepool sump for filtration and I replaced all the filters before the water change.
Any suggestions are welcomed.
Thanks

 

[Agu]

[welcome]

If water parameters were reasonably stable you may have tons of life left. I would recommend you start feeding the tank lightly and see what developes.

 

[revclyburn]

Why did you do that, ;leave the light off all that time? I would think that most things, life is gone, can't be sure.

revclyburn

 

[Scuba_Steve]

I would think that with no feeding it all died. I would feed it for a bit too and check with a red lense flashlight often to see for sure

 

[odlaw]

I had purchased one of the first hooded AGA style pc light fixtures a few years ago and the bulbs were hard to get back then. The bulbs crapped out and I resorted to the old standard coralife florescents but that didn't cut it for my corals and they slowly died. I was also upkeeping a 120gal and was on a weak well system. RO was taxing my well too much so when the last lights burnt out I just left the tank running hoping to keep the rock, and besides no lights does wonders for killing hair algae by the way. Time just flew by.
Was going to sell the 30 gal but decided to buy new pc bulbs and start her up again. I am now on city water and can keep up with the water changes again.
Thanks
Dave G

 

[Entropy]

You will have lots of bacteria and maybe worms. I just pulled a bristle worm out of a system that was down for a least two months. No circulation or anything. The simple critters are extremely resilient.

Personally though, I would cook the rock, and start over with new everything (water, sand/substrate/etc.).

 

[SaltyDr]

There is lots of life that does not need light. I am sure you have bacteria, worms and probably pods that are still alive. To get the coralline going again, though, you'll need a piece or to of LR that have coralline on it. With proper care your tank will do just fine.

 

[coyoteseven]

I have some LR that's been "cooking' for over 9 months now... it's absolutely amazing that I still have quite a bit of coraline and pods/worms. It gets no light and I have only topped off with RO/DI, added no food or suppliments either!

To quote Jurassic Park... "life finds a way".

 

[celano]

I bet thier's lots of life still left. Heck a giant meteor hit the earth and blocked out the sun for how many years and life still found a way to survive.
Light that baby up and see what happens!

 

[revclyburn]

What meteor, when, huh


revclyburn

 

[coyoteseven]

Originally posted by revclyburn
What meteor, when, huh

About 65 million years ago, give or take a century. Supposedly wiped out 90-95% of all life on earth... think dinosaurs.

 

[RedSoxReefer]

I left the lights off for about 6 months and just started back up again too, I thought everything would be dead but have been surprised to find that bristle worms are everywhere now. They not only survived but multiplied pretty significantly. I have seen some small snails and a few pods too.

 

[celano]

One's similar to This one. Now I'm not saying that this is the exact one but to believe the Earth has never been hit by a giant meteor after all these years....
Well thats just my opinion and opinions are like____(I'm sure you know)everyone has one. Lets just try and stay on topic and not let the lesser things said get in the way.
I still stay go for it! Its kinda like a science experiment. Add lights and see what survived! lol....ya I know I'm a dork....dont laugh.

 

[coyoteseven]

I'm with Celano and the others... ... ... go for it!!!

You might be very surprised and happy with what survived.

Let us know in a couple of weeks what you discover.

 

[Drix]

I had a bit of a pest problem when I started my first 55G tank, (my LR came in with all sorts of nastys) so I turned off the pumps and the lights, and evaporated that thing to the half way mark over a period of 4 months.

One day I filled her up, turned on the pumps, borrowed a buddys spare skimmer (giving me 2) threw a ****e load of filtration in, and let er rip.

I still had life... First day I was looking at copods. Which do you think is worse, doubling the salinity in your tank or turning the lights off for a year?

 

[PVChick12]

worms live...forever it seems like.
i have a friend thats obsessed with the worms in my tank.
so from time to time i catch them and give them to him in sandwich bags....they live a good 4 weeks in a plastic bag with no food...kinda scary :/