Getting back into the hobby

Hey folks. After a 10 day power outage last year I quit the hobby because everything in my old 10 gallon nano reef tank died. I also have a 75 gallon FO tank and the only thing that survived was my snowflake eel.

I've decided to get back into this exciting hobby. My 75 gallon tank didn't get a water change in over a year. The only thing I did to the tank is top off with RO/DI water and feed my eel once a week. The only filtration on this tank is a HOB filter and a HOB bak pak skimmer (the skimmer has been off for a year :/ ). The first thing I did was clean out the filter and put new carbon in it. I also cleaned the skimmer and hooked it up. Im currently making fresh RO/DI water so I can do a water change.

Anyways here's some pics






Here's my RO/DI system. Filter blocks are absolutely DISGUSTING! The built in TDS meter says 0 TDS but I still put an order into BRS for replacement filters and RO membrane

 

Welcome back to the hobby!

 

Welcome back to the hobby! Your eel looks like he's come through it all fat and happy. What are your plans?

 

My plans now are to change the bulbs (they are a little green. Can't tell by looking at it but the pics bring it out). I'll do 5 gallon water changes every week like I used to do on this tank.

Btw I just did some water testing. My nitrates and nitrites are at 0 (surprised the hell out of me lol). My phosphates are at 0.5. That's all I could test for because I lost a lot of stuff when I had to put EVERYTHING in the house in giant trash bags and put them on the front porch due to bedbugs (most disgusting thing ever). Anyways I will have to buy new test kits cuz I can't believe that the nutrients are so low, even though the tank is crystal clear and virtually no algae.

Oh and the cool thing about my tank is that it's on the top of my stairs. (my room is in the attic). I put a piece of wood on the carpet and put the tank on top of it





There was also so much salt creep on the top of the tank I filled up a 2 gallon bucket with it.

 

Man would be neat placement but a PITA to do any maintenance on!! No wonder you didnt do a WC in years lol

 

I set up my CPR bak pak skimmer after I did a 5 gallon water change after its year long hiatus. I had to deep clean it in my tub. It skims ok but am thinking on upgrading to a reef octopus bh1000 skimmer

 

welcome back and great looking tank! can't wait to see how it turns out!

 

If your nitrates are 0, I do truly give up

 

Lol. Yea I tested with an API reef master test and a cheapo test strip. I tested many times today and it always read 0 nitrates and nitrites. I know these aren't the most accurate tests available so I'm gonna go to the LFS tomorrow and pick up salifert test kits for nitrate, nitrite, ammonia and phosphate. I'm also going to pick up some new bulbs

 

Well today I went to my LFS I used to go to so they could test my water parameters only to find out that they closed . This is a shame because they had so many nice fish and beautiful coral. They were a little expensive but I could always trust that their fish and corals were very healthy. So I did a quick google search and found out that there was a new store that opened up about a month ago. So I got back into my car to check it out (CTE aquatics in Timonium MD). They didn't have much but that was expected considering they are so new. I asked them if they could test my water which they were happy to do with some top of the line test kits The only thing out of whack was my phosphates which were only 0.5 ppm. Nitrates nitrites and ammonia were all at 0! So considering my tank hadn't had any new inhabitants in over a year, I decided to pick out a fish . They had a tank with 2 eels, 2 lionfish, and a beautiful Niger trigger. I stared at the tank trying to decide on either the lionfish or the trigger. I finally decided on the lion considering mine died in the tragic power outage last year. He is acclimating now so I'll post some pics of him later.