Dusting off Eheim 2028

Hey guys,

*** been out of the hobby since early in 2006.(save a 29 piranha tank) I had 3 large setups and mother nature decided to decimate my SA cichlid 125g, the glass just gave way right down the middle. Luckily I was home but I merged the Large fish with my africans and the JD, Oscar and large shovelnose made quick work of a lot of the smaller africans...... I became happy with the setup and unusual mixture, but lightning struck my home sometime later and killed the whole electrical system in my home since it was old and had hardly any ground wires through the entire home.. Thank god for home insurance, hehe. I ended up losing a few more fish and taking many back to LFS, I lost a couple emperor filters and some other equipment after the ligtning, but I kept all of it.

So here we are and my interest in the hobby is starting to come back strong and I stare at my medium sized piranhas in the 29g and Im ready to setup my remaining 125g again to give them more room.

My 125g has sat the whole 2 years in the same spot, substrate still in it, and covered with a sheet. *** spent the last few days sifting through the substrate and getting some of my old equipment out. I have 2 large canisters a magnum and eheim 2028. I cannot find the operating instructions for either and the priming pump of the eheim is sticky when I push it down, really sticky. I soaked the whole housing in warm water overnight and that did help, but very little and Im kind of afraid to leave it soaking anymore since that is where the motor is. Is there some kind of lubricant or "grease" that I could use on the priming pump? Also, I did clean the filters before I shelved them, there wont be any issues with the media after sitting will there? And I believe I had to fill the eheim partially or fully before starting to prime, but I can't fully remember....

Also looking for any other suggestions or "need to know" stuff that I may be overlooking as far as using the same substrate thats been sitting there(it was actually still moist in spots) for a couple years, its cichlid fine sand that came from fosters&smith in a wet bag supposedly "already cycled," when purchased.. As far as filtration, the magnum will be supplemented with an emperor 400 and hopefully I can get the eheim working, if not, I have a handful of both 280 and 400 emperor sitting around. I have a stealth "unshatterable" heater, and another 220 watt glass heater, hopefully they still work....... and basically if I get all of that hooked up, I planned on buying 2 dozen medium sized feeder goldfish and getting a fresh test kit and a couple air pumps from fosters, and just letting the goldies cycle the tank and drop the piranha in there to eat whats left after 10 days or so..... Thats mainly it.

Finally, I do have a wet/dry filter that came with one of my tanks, looks almost homemade, but good quality. Its large, has a couple of sponges, and the "media" is just large shredded paper. I never bothered setting it up in the past as I had no need, nor the know how. I know it needs some kind of air pump, and maybe you can tell me if it may be missing something else and what kind of air pump, and if it sounds like its worth setting up. Im not sure if they are noisy or not but from what I remember my eheim ran quiet and the magnum was only a minor noise....

Sorry for the novel, thanks for the time and info