Restarting a tank which has been off for 2 months

[ozwald]

Hi

Bit of a strange one this, a friend of mine has a 250L tank which he switched off (cut power to filter and heater) but left water in.
Now he needs to get it going again.

Seeing as it's full of water and so is the filter, how would you get it going again?

Surely there must still be some bacteria alive in there, but should the water remain, or be changed?
We want to get it going as quick as possible. How long do you think it's going to take?

 

[hmt321]

have there been fish in the tank this whole time?

I would empty the filter out, and rinse with de-chlorinated water

most likely the Beneficial Bacteria has died, if are still live fish in the tank then you may still have BB colonized in the substrate on the tank glass.

if you turn on the filter w/o cleaning it first, you may get a nasty mess coming from the filter outlet, it could be toxic.

 

[ozwald]

No, there's no fish been in there either. So its a start from scratch job then?

 

[ozwald]

Sorry to bump this, but has anyone else got any other thoughts before we clean out the filter, use the current water and switch it all back on again?

 

[crisper]

I would clean every clean everything and start fresh.

 

[gt1009]

Yup, just treat it like like you are starting up a brand new tank. Rinse the filter, probably drain and refill the tank. Besides that you should be good to go.

 

[markx2005]

i agree start from scratch