Few questions from someone looking to get back into the hobby!

[Justin_Freebords]

So as the title says, I am starting to get the itch to start a tank again. I was heavily involved in reef keeping about 2-3 years ago when I first started college. Unfortunately school, moving my tank 2-4 times per semester, and my social life was a little too much to keep me in it. It got to be more stressful than fun to keep my tank.

 

I started with a 5.5 then moved on to a 10 gallon and kept a range of corals including zoas, lps, and towards the end of my run I even had a few small SPS frags that actually did pretty well given the conditions.

 

 

My questions mostly relate to old supplies. I have a handful of API test kits that havent been used in ages.

1. I bought these test kits around 2009, will they still be acurat enough for me to test my water during my initial cycle?

 

2. How the heck do I go about cleaning my old gear: filter, heater, koralia nano's ect. When I finally sold off all my coral I left for school and left the tank at home where the water eventually evaporated 100% so now I am left with this ugly tank sitting in my room, dry for about 2 years now with salt caked on EVERYTHING. I know I shouldnt have done that but I was extremely lazy and at school.

 

3. I have an open bag of oceanic salt from the same time frame, there is a good 3/4 left in the bag and its been sealed since i last used it. Should I just get a new bag or is this salt good enough to use? I also have a brand new bag of instant ocean that I never used and I would prefer to use the oceanic but if its likely gone bad I guess ill default to the instant ocean.

 

4. Should I assume any open bottle of nutrients (kents, ect) is bad? I have a few bottles I will definitely throw away considering somehow they have white stuff caked all on the outside of the bottle (no idea how the stuff inside the bottle magivcally made its way outside).

 

 

Any answers to these questions is greatly greatly appreciated. I am just in the planning stages of getting a new tank up and running. I plan to buy a 2 gallon (ive always loved nano tanks) from micro-reefs along with a BoostLED light. I want to make sure I can at least salvage some of the stuff I have from back in the day before going ahead and spending another $200 to set up a new tank...I kind of have a base line price range of spending no more than $250 on everything so to reach that goal I really need to be able to use those old test kits and some of my old equipment.

[Nano sapiens]

My questions mostly relate to old supplies. I have a handful of API test kits that havent been used in ages.

1. I bought these test kits around 2009, will they still be acurat enough for me to test my water during my initial cycle?

 

Impossible to tell if they are still accurate. Most of the tests should have expiration dates, but I've used test kits past their exp date and they were often still fine. You could take them to a local LFS and compare their readings to your kits to see if they are still okay.

 

2. How the heck do I go about cleaning my old gear: filter, heater, koralia nano's ect. When I finally sold off all my coral I left for school and left the tank at home where the water eventually evaporated 100% so now I am left with this ugly tank sitting in my room, dry for about 2 years now with salt caked on EVERYTHING. I know I shouldnt have done that but I was extremely lazy and at school.

 

I can just imagine what that looks like . Rinse/scrub everything in water first to clear away as much as possible. Anything with white residue soak in a 50/50% vinegar/water solution and scrub with a brush (toothbrush works for me). Chlorine can be used for any stubborn organic material that just won't come off otherwise, but you'll need to rinse the items very well once cleaned.

 

3. I have an open bag of oceanic salt from the same time frame, there is a good 3/4 left in the bag and its been sealed since i last used it. Should I just get a new bag or is this salt good enough to use? I also have a brand new bag of instant ocean that I never used and I would prefer to use the oceanic but if its likely gone bad I guess ill default to the instant ocean.

 

Depends on how well the Oceanic salt was sealed. Is it now a big solid rock of salt or is it still granular? If its rock solid and considering its age, I'd personally use something fresher.

 

4. Should I assume any open bottle of nutrients (kents, ect) is bad? I have a few bottles I will definitely throw away considering somehow they have white stuff caked all on the outside of the bottle (no idea how the stuff inside the bottle magivcally made its way outside).

 

Sounds like the bottles weren't closed all that well. I have supplements that I currently use that are 5+ years old, but they are always tightly capped. I'd definitely toss any of these old supplements that have organic material.

[Justin_Freebords]

Thank you for the great response! I will definitely at least try the test kits now. I originally planned to test my water at home first then get a local store to test it as well just to compare.

 

As for the salt its sealed tight enough to the point where if I squeeze the bag, I dont feel or hear any air escaping. I just picked it up (literally the first time in like 2 years) and it was rock hard but after lightly squeezing the middle and top layer it all instantly went to the fine granules. Just based on how it felt it didnt remind me at all of when a bag gets moisture in it and solidifies to where you wouldnt want to use it.

 

 

As far as the micro nutrients I think I may clean the bottles and see if there was a leak or if it was just 1 bottle that leaked on the others (they were just in a big pile, so a leak of 1 is likely). My immediate plans dont seem to require any supplimentation beyond weekely water changes. If and when I start housing more than softies I will likely look to get some quality supplements to help keep my Ca and Alk in line.

 

And last but not least, thank you for the advice on the cleaning. I knew there was some sort of water/xxx mix (turns out it was vinegar) to help clean. That will be my task for labor day since I have nothing going on.

 

Would it be a good idea to let things just soak for a few hours in a mxture of water and vinegar?

 

And as far as water pumps/power heads go would it be smart to turn them on and let them run in the mixture to try and flush as much through them as possible? (of course I would rinse everything really well after and then probably soak/run them in ro/di to be extra safe)

[Nano sapiens]

Yes, you'll need to soak the items in the vinegar/water. How long depends on how encrusted they are. I have used straight vinegar for the really stubborn cases with lots of scraping/scrubbing.

 

Take your time and take the pumps totally apart as opposed to just running them in a solution. You'll be able to assess if there are any issues with the magnets and such as well as doing a much better cleaning job.

[Justin_Freebords]

Yes, you'll need to soak the items in the vinegar/water. How long depends on how encrusted they are. I have used straight vinegar for the really stubborn cases with lots of scraping/scrubbing.

 

Take your time and take the pumps totally apart as opposed to just running them in a solution. You'll be able to assess if there are any issues with the magnets and such as well as doing a much better cleaning job.

 

 

Will do! thanks for the advice! Now I just need to figure out what set up I want to go with....so many choices for a desktop pico