It Once was live rock...

I have a 175 gallon tank and about 100 lbs of what was once live rock. The tank and the rocks have been sitting in the garage for the last year and half. The rocks are in buckets of water that were supposed to temporarily be its home for like a day or two but we never got back to them, now a year and a half later we want to start up the tank again. Where do I start? I was planning on using dead sand in the tank and putting the rock in the tank too along with just a few lbs of live rock and allow it to work its own process. Is this ok?

The last time we started this tank up we had live sand and live rock. However I dont want to have to go and buy all new rock all over again. I really would just like to use what I already have. I know its going to take a while before we can start putting any livestock in it, I'm ready for the wait.

Any suggestions?

 

bleach it (nuke it)

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/live-rock/let-nuking-begin-59320.html

 

Thanks for that info! I think i will have to start this today = )

 

Yep. Its fine to reuse (and a good idea), just make sure to nuke it. You might want to get a little bit of live sand as well to seed your other sand.

 

So what if i plan on buying dry sand? Would that still be ok for my tank? Using both dry sand and dead rock. I will have a little bit of live rock. A few in the tank and more in my sumps.

 

You can mix live sand with so called dead sand & mix it. Like it was said before it will seed it. For live rock, I'd buy some live rock & mix it in with your old rock, after nuking it of course.

 

You can do either the little bit of live sand or live rock to seed it. It doesnt take much (a cup of sand or just a few pounds of rock)