90g restart

T

txmcse

Almost a year ago I made am awesome purchase. I got two well established tanks. One was a 30g reef setup, and the other was a 90g bow marine tank. They came with everything, and both were perfect examples of what someone can do when they really love the hobby. I was renting a room from a guy, and as part of the rent, I gave him the 90g tank. I taught him how to put fresh water in because of evaporation, and I was doing water changes for him. I came home from a month long trip to Europe, to find both tanks completely wiped out. Unfortunately his air conditioner had broken, and the heat proved to much for the tanks. I later learned that he had been using chemical from petco to treat tap water, and had been using that to back fill from the evaporation. *sigh* everything died except one tomato clown. I put him in a 24g nano cube, and he's fully recovered in there. But the rest was a total loss. I've never turned the pumps off in his tank, but I've not done much except an occasional water change. There is no life except what might still be alive in the live rock.

Now i have a little money to help him rebuild, but I have no idea how. I picked up the tank as a fully functioning setup. It is a reef ready tank. There is a 25g sump under it, and some kind of protein skimmer (I never really learned how to use it). There is a good 5 inch sand bed, and maybe 30lbs of (live?) rock.

My question is... what all do i need to do to get this thing set back up?

1) I don't know if it's worth doing a water test at this point. would it? I'm thinking I'll need to do a 100% water change. yeah?

2) Then wait weeks for it to cycle again. Will the tank cycle again?

3) It had cheato in the sump, but that's all gone now. Do I need to put life in the display tank for the Cheato to feed from, or Cheato first and then life?

4) What unexpected things do i need to check for?

This will never be a reef tank, just marine... what else do I need to plan for? I've never setup up a tank this big on my own... I've never even watched in detail as other people have done it.

I would be happy with comments, and I would also be very happy with links to good documents.

THANKS!
 
I'm not an expert by any means, but I would think you need to really get an idea of what you're facing before you come up with a plan of attack. Find out what chemical your friend used with while you were gone, and like dyno said, copper = bad, so this step is important. Also, ask your friend and find out what if anything he did to the live stock as it died, did he remove it? Did the hermits dispose of them? Are there any hermits or snails wondering about now? You should go ahead and do a round of water tests to find out what everything is at. Here is the link to the water parameters stickied in the beginning of this forum section.

List your parameters, temp., what chemicals he used and any other info you collect and maybe someone else with a little more experience than myself will have some more input on the best way to get this back up and running. Good luck, and hang in there!
 
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