Ok so here's my current situation... I had my 45g saltwater tank set up and fully functional with fish and inverts up until the end of last august. Everything was fine until I began battling with an algae bloom that ended up getting the best of me. I returned all of the livestock which was all ok back to my LFS and never got back to it.
The reason I had the algae outbreak was because I made one of the biggest rookie mistakes ever and went against everything I read and did not invest in an R/O unit. After returning the livestock I cleaned the whole tank and sump and its been sitting ever since. I had it up for sale but did not get any interest in it and I'm now planning on starting it back up again.
Now its been running (heaters/sump/filters/skimmer/powerheads) pretty much everything but the lights for the past 6+ months with nothing but sand and live rock in it. The water has not been changed or tested in that time as I was planning on taking it down.
My question is what do you think the status of the live rock will be by this point? Will it still be "live" or will I be starting will base rock now. I am placing an order for an R/O unit this week and I want to know what is my best bet to start things up again. Should I do a 100% water change? Is my rock still "alive"? What will I need to do to "recycle" everything?
There is also some algae growth that has progressed over the past few months that is mostly in the sand up against the glass. Should I just try and clean as much of it out as I can?
I know how to start from scratch but I'm not sure what to do to get things back up and running since they've been sitting for so long... Any help would be greatly appreciated!
The reason I had the algae outbreak was because I made one of the biggest rookie mistakes ever and went against everything I read and did not invest in an R/O unit. After returning the livestock I cleaned the whole tank and sump and its been sitting ever since. I had it up for sale but did not get any interest in it and I'm now planning on starting it back up again.
Now its been running (heaters/sump/filters/skimmer/powerheads) pretty much everything but the lights for the past 6+ months with nothing but sand and live rock in it. The water has not been changed or tested in that time as I was planning on taking it down.
My question is what do you think the status of the live rock will be by this point? Will it still be "live" or will I be starting will base rock now. I am placing an order for an R/O unit this week and I want to know what is my best bet to start things up again. Should I do a 100% water change? Is my rock still "alive"? What will I need to do to "recycle" everything?
There is also some algae growth that has progressed over the past few months that is mostly in the sand up against the glass. Should I just try and clean as much of it out as I can?
I know how to start from scratch but I'm not sure what to do to get things back up and running since they've been sitting for so long... Any help would be greatly appreciated!
