Restarting an tank

[swubasketball]

Hey guys i guess i am still a newby or i wouldnt be asking this question, but i am going to re-setup my exisiting tank that had a bad pump for over a year. The water, rock, and sand stayed in the tank for over a year. What should I do and what else would i need to get this reef tank back up and running again.

I have a 200gal tank, 200lbs of sand, 350lbs of rock(not live anymore i guess). I have a 30 gal wet/dry sump, protein skimmer, and a new 4750 gph dolphin pump.

I have 3 400watt MH and 4 65watt Compacts

 

[Ted]

So every thing dried out? I would get new bulbs if you ran those for a year or more for sure.

 

[Amba]

If it's been sitting that long, it no doubt has some nasty stuff in it. I would drain all the water, bleach the rock (or let it sit in the hot sun for a while), and ditch the sand for new sand. Most people get new sand when they restart a tank, it gets really nasty over time. Also like Ted said, if your lights were running that whole idle time, you may want to invest in new bulbs as well, as MH decrease in light output over time.

 

[swubasketball]

The lights have not been on i turn those out why waist power if nothing was inside. So new live sand? or just normal sand. Anything else i might need to have a succesful reef tank?

Again thanks for the help.

 

[little_fish]

I think you would be fine to re use the rocks (no need to bleach and all that stuff), but i would change out the sand. All you need is the dry agronite sand. No need to spend the money on live sand.

 

[Ted]

I had two tanks that...well one boiled and the other never had much in it. I ran the power heads and such so they didnt stink and kept the live rock...well alive. When I started my new tank two weeks ago I moved all the live rock over. From the larger tank just moved it straight over and the small tank I had to take a toothbrush to the rocks. Was a lot of bubble algae on those rocks anyway used all new sand. I used all of the water from the tanks as well because it tested good. With the exception of the two buckets of water I used while scrubbing bubble algae. My new tank had a three day minni cycle and that was it.