Restarting a tank that has sat dormant.........help please.

[anthonyhicks101]

Ok, I am new to this forum, or any online forum for reefs, though not new to forums in general or reefs in general. Here is my situation....... I have 2 DAS tanks, 75 and a 55, both fully setup with Marshall rock and had them going for about 5 years. For the last 2, they have sat "still", I. E. no lights, no pumps running, water slowly evaporating to the point of being about 2/3's full still. There were a few reasons that I neglected these tanks, one of which was the glass was starting to get scratched to the point that it just did not look clear anymore, no matter how well clean it was kept. I am looking at getting a new 75 DAS and combining the contents of the 2 into the new one. MY main question I would very much appreciate having opinions on is, is this "live rock" any good for anything other than decor, or can it sustain life again. Or could there possibly be life still in it? Again, any opinions will be appreciated and hopefully I will soon again have a reef up and running and possibly be able to help with any questions others may have that I might be knowledgeable of.

[Anemoneman]

I would use this rock at least as base rock in a new tank. The high specific gravity from the evaporation will have killed any delecate inverts and the lack of oxygen from the stagnation may have finished off the rest but who knows for sure. There may very well be dormant life in the inner regions of the rock. There is a newer school of thought (that I have not bought yet) that warns about the accumulation of heavy metals in older tanks and, if true, may be aggravated by your circumstances.
My advice is go ahead and set up a tank using this rock and a DSB (populated by the appropriate detrivores), let it cycle and see what happens.

Mark

[michealprater]

Even if the rock does not have any life left, if you put it in with good live sand and new live rock it will become live rock again, in around 6 months to a year. So definatly dont discard the rock.