Please help- father-in-law died and no one has a clue about his 130 reef tank

[vandejd]

My father-in-law passed away and he had a 130 gallon reef tank. He seemed to have everything on this tank. Prizm Pro protein skimmer. Phoban Reactor 150, Chiller kept to 77, Ultravoilet, Fluval ??. He has a Tang, Clown Fish, Butterfly and a blue one with a yellow tail. An anenomine that the clown does not touch. The levels were Nitrite .025 right after we fed it dead shrimp. Nitrate 0, ammonia 00, alkalinity normal, Salinity 32, ph 8.2. It is an established tank and need the basics. Invertabret include clams, snail, live rock???. I need help on the daily maintenance, weekly and monthly. We have not done a water change and need guidance on how to do the water change. Thanks for any help you can give.

[Doodaa]

Yikes!

First, let me say I'm sorry for your loss.

It's hard to start where someone left off. You need test kits and I'm assuming you do since you posted some values...keep monitoring them and if they fluctuate you are doing something different. There are too many variables to give you a straight answer on what to do. Read a lot if you want to keep the critters alive and thriving. Find out what species you have of each creature and learn what kind of care it takes to keep them alive. I'd assume your basics are covered since everything is alive now...lights, filtration, chemical levels and such...the problem is in the chemicals...what did he do to keep them in balance? This is a big responsiblilty for you if you want to keep the tank healthy...it's not like you can stop in for 10 minutes per day and feed the fish and expect it to last long term.

The water changes and equipment maintenance depends on the quality and type of equipment...and of course your analinity

I'm not a newbie, but I'm not even close to an expert either so maybe someone else will have some better advice.

[vandejd]

Here are some pictures of the reef

[scubadude]

This is a big responsiblilty for you if you want to keep the tank healthy...it's not like you can stop in for 10 minutes per day and feed the fish and expect it to last long term.

I 2nd Doodaa!

First off welcome to RL vandejd

I think one of the main things to touch on is water changes, I would do about a 10-15gallon water change every month, do you know if he is using filtered water? does he have a RO or RO/DI water filter? I would use the SAME name brand salt that he has been using. I would also try to get some bigger pictures...the pictures you posted are small and lo resolution. so its hard to tell what exactly you have there. It appears there is alot of macroalgae growing but I cant say for sure from the pictures.

[rjs5134]

I too am sorry for your loss... Would your location be Madison, WI?? Madison, NJ and I'd be able to help a little, but WI would be a little too far to travel.

Good luck.