Starting my reefer 525xl back up

[sailfish72]

Hey everyone,

I purchased a red sea reefer 525xl back in 2018 and had it filled until around 2020. Since then I've been moving around alot and haven't had a chance to start the tank back up. The tank was kept indoors for most of the downtime. Except for about one year it was kept in an outdoor storage container. I don't know what temperatures were going on in this container. Reading about all the red sea issues, I was concerned about the silicone in the tank as well as in my sump. I would like to keep the glass/cabinet though and would like to hear what I can do to safely start my reef again.

Also, I have had my equipment just laying around in a box in my garage (pumps, powerheads, heaters, etc). I did not clean them properly for storage so Im also worried that the salt might had messed them up. I also still have my rock from before which also is just sitting in my garage.

 

[Peace River]

Congratulations on the restart of an adventure! I would recommend a bath in citric acid solution for all of your parts using the powerheads for agitation. You could soak your rock in a bleach or acid solution, but if they have been dry for six years then it is unlikely that anything is still living in or on them. Good luck!

 

[BryanM]

hate to be the bearer of potentially bad news, but there are a lot of seam failures with these tanks... While I 100% want you to restart, I'd do some searching, and see if you might want to switch lanes to a different tank vendor.