I'd like to start by thanking the members of this community for the wealth of knowledge and advise you so generously give.
I am returning to the hobby after being away (dormant really) for 16 years. I had considered myself an advanced beginner back then. I had a beautiful (IMO) 75 gal. almost 5 year established LPS and softie tank with premium equipment. Then in the summer of 2003 (August 14th to be exact) the east coast of the United States experienced a blackout, during the middle of a heatwave here in NY. The outage lasted for 25 hours in my area and I could do nothing but watch the water temperature rise. Once the power was restored the fish and all the livestock seemed to be OK and since I had performed a water change about a week prior to the power outage I thought I was safe. Had I truly been an advanced beginner I would have had water ready for a water change anyway. My tank is located in the basement of my home. 2 days later my wife and I were returning home and as soon as I opened the front door we were hit with a terrible stench (like rotting fish). I ran downstairs but even before reaching the tank I knew I'd be met with a catastrophe. Everything was dead, many hundreds of dollars worth not even a snail or copepod had survived.
I immediately began to empty the tank and clean all the equipment. I put the live rock into bins and began the curing process with multiple water changes. I knew that the curing would take a couple of months so I went to an iron shop and had them build a wrought iron open stand like the one it replaced only about 9" taller than standard for better tank viewing. I like the open stand, to me the sump, plumbing, and equipment add to the viewing experience and does not distract from the Mod 60's (paneling) basement decor.
So after about 2 years of an empty tank in the same spot and 2 brute trash bins with live rock in water (about 90-100 lbs.), my wife began urging me (about every other day) to sell off the tank because I was never going to start it up again. Knowing that she mostly went down to the basement to do laundry I started to do the laundry (I think she played me).
Now that I have been retired a couple years (and less income), I walked into an LFS and showed pictures of the equipment I have and was told that I could still use most of it but there have been many improvements and I should do a lot of research on youtube (there was no youtube when I last owned a reef tank) and on reef2Reef.
So here I am about 15 months later $3,000 later ready to give it another try.
Sorry for the long post (hey I'm old). Thanks for all the info. and I'll try to keep you posted.
I am returning to the hobby after being away (dormant really) for 16 years. I had considered myself an advanced beginner back then. I had a beautiful (IMO) 75 gal. almost 5 year established LPS and softie tank with premium equipment. Then in the summer of 2003 (August 14th to be exact) the east coast of the United States experienced a blackout, during the middle of a heatwave here in NY. The outage lasted for 25 hours in my area and I could do nothing but watch the water temperature rise. Once the power was restored the fish and all the livestock seemed to be OK and since I had performed a water change about a week prior to the power outage I thought I was safe. Had I truly been an advanced beginner I would have had water ready for a water change anyway. My tank is located in the basement of my home. 2 days later my wife and I were returning home and as soon as I opened the front door we were hit with a terrible stench (like rotting fish). I ran downstairs but even before reaching the tank I knew I'd be met with a catastrophe. Everything was dead, many hundreds of dollars worth not even a snail or copepod had survived.
I immediately began to empty the tank and clean all the equipment. I put the live rock into bins and began the curing process with multiple water changes. I knew that the curing would take a couple of months so I went to an iron shop and had them build a wrought iron open stand like the one it replaced only about 9" taller than standard for better tank viewing. I like the open stand, to me the sump, plumbing, and equipment add to the viewing experience and does not distract from the Mod 60's (paneling) basement decor.
So after about 2 years of an empty tank in the same spot and 2 brute trash bins with live rock in water (about 90-100 lbs.), my wife began urging me (about every other day) to sell off the tank because I was never going to start it up again. Knowing that she mostly went down to the basement to do laundry I started to do the laundry (I think she played me).
Now that I have been retired a couple years (and less income), I walked into an LFS and showed pictures of the equipment I have and was told that I could still use most of it but there have been many improvements and I should do a lot of research on youtube (there was no youtube when I last owned a reef tank) and on reef2Reef.
So here I am about 15 months later $3,000 later ready to give it another try.
Sorry for the long post (hey I'm old). Thanks for all the info. and I'll try to keep you posted.
Plenty of great users here ready to answer any questions you may have 
