Need help with 3yr old tank

Hello 3reef forums...

I've come to this great place looking for help. I have a 3yr old 50 gallons saltwater tank that at one point was healthy with plenty of fish and corals. After landing a job that required much of my time I found my self neglecting my tank and over the time loosing everything I had worked so hard for. Frustration kicked in but I never gave up on my talk so I never took it down. For the past 8 to 12 months I've kept my talk half way filled with water so the live rock/sand would not go bad and I've kept the power heads running to circulate the water with the idea that someday I can bring my talk back to life. I have changed the water every other month and kept is as clean as possible.
When I had my talk up and running. My only system of filtration was my live rock. I only ran my filters about a week per month just to keep things under control.

Here is my question. How can I bring my 50gal. tank back to life?
I am ready to give it the attention it needs.

1) Do I need to let the tank cycle again?
2) I do not mix my saltwater. I purchase my water from a mom and pop aquarium in town.
3) I have plenty of live rock and sand (original rock and sand for the past 3yrs)
4) I have a protein skimmer
5) I have a canister filter if need it.

Please feel free to ask any questions... I would really like to get my fish tank back to the beautiful talk it use to be.

Thank you

 

sounds good to me the first thing i would do is get me water level back up and salinity spot on .i also expect a cycle seeing how things haven't been quite right . next thing after that i would get my parameters in check . and also wouldnt add anything until all ur test come back positive

 

+1
I would get the protein skimmer online once live stock is introduced.

 

So what does that mean? When you had fish and corals, or just when you had sand and rock?

You will cycle again when you put in fish. You have not had anything for the bacteria to feed on, so your rock is not very "live" right now. Just what was said. Get some water in, get you parameters in line, get a cycle going get some fish back in and get your skimmer going.

 

i would maybe consider replacing the sand. might be some bad pockets in it, and could bring about old tank syndrome. some nice new fresh sand would IMO be a good thing/

guy

 

Thanks Powerman for taking the time and reading my post.
I don't think you are understanding me.

At one point my fish tank had plenty of corals and fish.. I had a pair of clown fish, a brown powder Tang, a Copperband Butterfly and plenty of crabs to keep things clean. After not keeping up with my tank my corals started to die and fish slowly die after. Since I did not have the time to keep up with my tank I did not force my self to add any more fish until I felt I was ready. Now I feel I have the time to invest to my talk and bring it back to life. At the current time I just have a tank with live rock an sand.

Today I will stop by aquarium store and get enough water to get my fish talk running.

 

Do you believe replacing the sand would be a good thing? Wouldn't this just kill all the good bacteria that I have built over the time?

 

Can any one provide additional advice/help?

 

I would say clean up your equipment and tank and start with fresh sand. It isnt that expensive and even though you may lose beneficial bacteria you wouldn't have to worry about any bad stuff in there. Get everything back to square one and don't cut corners. In a couple months it will thriving and looking great again.

 

I would

add enough SW and get the heat up to where it needs to be.

Get SG where you need it.

Run your param tests and post them here (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, phosphates).

Take some pics and add it here.


I dont see why the sand would go bad... How much LR do you have?

Once we know your params, it'll be easier to get you back on track.

We want pics to see what kind of algae problems you may or may not have.