Restarting SPS tank

[cham]

Hello all, my tank and system has been up and running for about 7 or 8 years. Most of that time being an all SPS system. I took a break from the hobby for about 2 years and left the tank running as just a fish system. I haven't changed any of the equipment (equipment list in sig) but it has been running with just a powder blue, yellow tang, hippo tang, one damsel and two clown fish.

I haven't done a water change in those two years or done much other than feed the fish (auto feeder of NLS actually :hmm4. So I'm thinking about restart techniques. I know lots of water changes are in my future, I have 3 buckets of red sea coral pro on hand with a few boxes of reef crystals in the mail.

I'm thinking along with the water changes I'll need to run some GFO for awhile and carbon. I don't have an algea problem at all, but that could be due to the tangs, I have a hanna colorometer to test phosphates and I'm sure my nitrates are up there.

Any other thoughts?



Here is the tank 2 years ago when I stopped taking care of it:

 

[Wiskey]

Very nice looking tank!

If it were me and I was looking to restart I'd probably blast all the LR with a powerhead really well to get any settled detritus out, do a couple huge water changes and then let it sit for a week and check my numbers. Assuming they come out okay I'd put a tester frag in there.

I see you don't have sand in the display, but if you have a RDSB or anything I'd take this chance to swap that out too.

Oh, I'd replace my bulbs too.

Whiskey

 

[cham]

Thanks whiskey, being away for a couple of years and not reading the forums I feel like I've missed out on a lot of hobby changes. I set this tank up in 2008 and from then to 2013 there seemed to be constant change and innovation.

I'm not seeing too much change since I left, which concerns me. Maybe I'm missing it? lol

Yes, blasting the rocks and huge water changes are happening. I took the skimmer and bio pellet reactor and scrubbed them to sparkling new last night. I'm waiting on some parts to come in before I can do it all. The water change station was taken into the driveway and scrubbed. As soon as my salt arrives and DI resin I'll be making a go of it.

 

[Tweaked]

Tank looked great, and the equipment list is perfect. All I have, is maybe use a less expensive salt for all the water changes?

 

[cham]

Tank looked great, and the equipment list is perfect. All I have, is maybe use a less expensive salt for all the water changes?

Thanks

That's why I ordered the reef crystals. Two 200g boxes that I'll use to do my major water changes with. I'm thinking two 25g water changes per week for a few weeks and once the RC's are gone switching back to my normal routing of 10g changes weekly with the Red Sea salt.

I wanted to use a reef salt for the massive changes because I'm imagining all of my trace elements from the past 2 years have been taken to near zero, not just the alk, mg & ca. So I wanted water changes that would elevate these while keeping my mg and others up.

 

[cham]

If I were you I would skip multiple water changes and drain the tank down to nothing and swap in all new water. Just get a 150g rubbermaid stock tank or even 100 and a couple of brutes, pre-stage the water (heated, etc.) Put fish in holding tank, swap out the water, and let tank cycle (probably will be very minor mini cycle depending on speed of your pump you use to take out the water) for 3 days or so and then put fish back in. I did this on my tank (using an MJ1200 to pump water 30ft each way, LOL) and I had SPS frags growing within 4 days of doing this.

I could, but I'm not in a hurry. I've got new parts coming and I am still soft selling the cost of restart to the lady figure.

Plus my #1 issue of the past was speed, I'm always in a hurry and found that it caused way too many issues. I don't think my nutrient issues are large, I don't have much algea growth, actually little to none. I'm mostly concerned with trace elements

 

[cham]

Just bought a fifth MP40, I hate having to remove detritus manually.

Might need to mount some live vests to my incoming SPS frags

 

[gasman059]

haha coming back is always hard

 

[plyle02]

Welcome back,
I met you in the past and saw that tank in it's full glory. I am sure you will get things back in line and be fully engaged in no time at all. If you ever need some frags let me know Good to see you back Cham!!!
Regards,

 

[cham]

haha coming back is always hard

It is, I've been debating selling off everything or restarting for over a year now. I love the hobby but after 5 straight years of maintaining the tank I was burnt out. When I plugged the main lights in (have been just using 3 reefbrite LED strips for lighting the past 2 years) and checked all my equipment and it was all working great I decided to stick my toe in and order the replacement impeller for my XP3000 cone. After taking the skimmer and bio pellet reactor out and cleaning them I found myself itching to run the tank again.

It's developed into a full rash :lmao:

Welcome back,
I met you in the past and saw that tank in it's full glory. I am sure you will get things back in line and be fully engaged in no time at all. If you ever need some frags let me know Good to see you back Cham!!!
Regards,

Hi Perry! Yes I remember you. If I recall we've traded some frags and equipment and you had two daughters about my sons age.

Glad to see you're still in it. I'll definately let you know on the frags. This time I'm going to be super picky about what corals I put in the tank but I remember you had some really nice ones.

 

[plyle02]

Update time bro!
I know you got a bakers dozen or so from me, how is everything settling in?

 

[Deftones2015]

Tank was amazing! Hope you can get it back to where it was!

 

[cham]

Restarting SPS tank

Okayyyyyyy. Prepare for tapatalk oversized pics with terrible iPhone photo quality. And I still haven't downloaded a photo editor. So you get them raw

Wish I could capture my tank, my phone hates the blue hues.

 

[cham]

 

[cham]

Top of pic 2 you can see the milli I got from you (Paris Hilton?). It's slowly starting to show color but green of all colors :/

 

[cham]

Tank was amazing! Hope you can get it back to where it was!

Thank you sir. My excitement this time is I'm only doing corals from small frags and just things I like that are aqua cultured.

The other tank I'd often buy large maricultured pieces and lots of "rescues" from stores that didn't do SPS well so I had a lot of odd pieces that were soaking up room. I'm also not going to put in monti caps and monti digis/monti's until the acros have matured. I love the look, shapes and colors of them but they'll be last in to save room for the acros to do what they want.

 

[cham]

 

[cham]

Red robin still encrusting

 

[plyle02]

Frags look healthy, that bottle brush is looking sick, better than in my tank I think, love the bushiness... Anyway, one of these days I will make it your way, when I do, I will bring my camera, that way we can get the white balance, I am sure the tank looks great!

 

[cham]

Let's do it, but I'll need a couple of months to try and get my tank up a bit to rival yours!!