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View Full Version : 1st saltwater tank, may have found a bargain. Opinions please



willisrad
04-11-2007, 10:44 PM
Ok.
So I put an ad on craigslist looking to slowly "collect" items for a saltwater aquarium. This guy has a LOT of things to sell me for pretty cheap. He claims it's all that's necessary.

What do you guys think? Is it a great deal? Should I ask any specific questions? Anything else that I will need?


Hello.

I just wanted to know if you were still looking for any items.
I have a complete 55G setup that I will be selling since my wife and I no longer have time to care for it.
It looks a little rough right now but I will make you a smoking deal on it. The rock (fiji, tonga, and carribean) has some algae (not too bad) buildup from lack of maintainence but if you are wanting the tank, the major water change alone will likely resolve any issues with the rock since the parameters are currently a little out of whack- but not so bad that the fish or corals are affected.
55G tank with stand (wrought iron), 2x65wt 30" PC Orbit light system w/ 2 lunar lights, Canister filter, CPR Aquafuge (large HOB), CPR BakPak2 skimmer, Seio powerhead, roughly 50lbs of Live Rock, live sand bed, 2 firefish, 1 leopard wrasse, crabs and snails, and a couple corals that are still alive. Also have all kinds of chemicals, carbon, and some fresh filters for the canister. Pretty much any fish supplies we still have are included. This includes nets, gloves, hospital tank, food, scrapers, timers, power strip, water test kits and SG meter, etc. . I think I may even still have a dosing pump somewhere. If you have any buckets (I may have a couple) I can even give you roughly 30G of mixed saltwater. Oh, I also still have approx. 150G of Instant Ocean salt (almost full bucket).

We have easily $900+ invested in this setup. We don't really want to part out but if you found some items already, let me know what you need and I can make you a deal. I will just have to get rid of the fish and coral first (if you want hardware of any sort). Obviously, if I part items out, I can get a lot more for it but I would like it gone in one shot thus my asking price and you could probably sell some items and recover some of your costs.
We want it gone for $300 cash. The lighting, fish, and SG meter alone are worth the asking price.
This setup is plug and play- you need NOTHING additional and will not need to buy any salt, calcium, test kits, food, or anything else for quite a while.
Let me know if you are interested.

Chris

Lady Hobbs
04-11-2007, 10:51 PM
Sounds very good to me.

Rue
04-11-2007, 10:52 PM
Snap It Up!!!

:18:

Drumachine09
04-11-2007, 11:16 PM
:18: :18: :18: :18:


Sorry, got a little carried away there. DO IT NOW!

willisrad
04-12-2007, 12:49 AM
Hahahah.
That's pretty much what I thought.

I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing anything obvious.

This is WAY cool, and I am totally stoked!

cocoa_pleco
04-12-2007, 01:20 AM
grab it!!!!!!!!!

Chrona
04-12-2007, 01:45 AM
Make sure it's all in good/decent shape. You'll need a new light fixture too. a 30" fixture on a 55g is just.....lol

willisrad
04-12-2007, 02:05 AM
Good good. Keep the advice coming!!!

cocoa_pleco
04-12-2007, 02:14 AM
salt tanks are fun fun. you can put the live rock in so many ways its like tetris. Fiji live rock is good too. Mine is full of critters.

My 10g nanoreef has cost a little over 300$, not including the anenomes and fish in it, so youre getting a great deal

Rue
04-12-2007, 02:17 AM
My 10g nanoreef has cost a little over 300$, not including the anenomes and fish in it, so youre getting a great deal

ACK!!! I think I would've purchased a 10 g SW nanotank for $200 instead...

cocoa_pleco
04-12-2007, 02:30 AM
heres how it adds up...

10g tank- 20$
light- 60$
marine glo lightbulb- 20$
heater- 20$
huge salt pale- 60$
2 powerheads- 60$
Fancy UGF-25$
12lbs live rock- 96$
substrate- 12$
filter-25$
regular fluorescent fixtures, 2 at 10$ each

328$

Rue
04-12-2007, 02:35 AM
And? Would you have been ahead buying a system?

Chrona
04-12-2007, 02:37 AM
No, he would have been better off buying online ;)

8 bucks a lb for live rock...sheesh...lol

cocoa_pleco
04-12-2007, 02:40 AM
8 bucks canadian though.

Still, its quality live rock. They are a small shop, and use the finest equipment and lights, so you kinda have to expect to pay a bit more. Their live rock also has many more kritters than other stores i used to buy from.

Chrona
04-12-2007, 02:42 AM
Dr Foster and Smith supposedly has some of the best LR around. Aprox 5 bucks per pound shipped to your door.

Rue
04-12-2007, 02:47 AM
Don't forget we live in The Great White North...

...can't so easily ship from US sources...ultimately cheaper and less hassle to buy from local suppliers...

Chrona
04-12-2007, 02:53 AM
Oh right, you crazy non-Americans

;)

2manyfish
04-12-2007, 02:29 PM
If you're going to argue about live rock, the very best of the bunch is the aquacultured stuff from TampaBay. Not only is it aquacultured so nothing is taken from a reef, but it is shipped in some water so a huge amount of the life on the rock will arrive alive and in good shape!! Awesome stuff! :ezpi_wink1:


As far as the tank for $300. The tank, stand, heater, aquafuge, rock etc....that's all worth the $300. The lighting though sucks big time! Not only is it too short (why buy a 30" light for a 48" tank??) but the wattage is too low to keep any kind of coral. It's just slightly over 2 watts per gallon (lunar light doesn't count as far as corals are concerned) and in such a deep tank, it is pretty much worthless. Be prepared too by his statement that he had a "slight" problem with algae and that it "will all be taken care of with a water change"!!! NOT!! There is a very good chance that the rock has absorbed phosphates and that is fueling the algae growth. The statement "corals that are still alive" kinda scares me.....what kind of shape are these corals in? Pretty bad I'm guessing.

My point is, this is a pretty good deal but don't think it's all peaches and cream. There is a good chance you will have problems with it, and you will definitely need to upgrade the lighting if you want to keep corals successfully.
What you could do is sell the corals to your LFS, put an ad in the paper or on craigslist for the lighting unit and sell that off too. Take the money from both to put towards a better lighting unit.
Of course, if you decide that you don't want corals at all you could just keep the lighting unit as is....

HTH

willisrad
04-12-2007, 04:15 PM
Well, I definitely want corals. That's for sure.
So, you think that the corals are possibly going to be trashed?

Stinky cheese.

willisrad
04-14-2007, 02:45 AM
I think that I may steer clear from this deal.
I am not 100% positive that I am ready to wander into the world of saltwater......and especially with one that may quite possibly have a problematic ecosystem to go along with it. And having to buy new lights that are coral friendly........it's just starting to lose it's twinkle and turn into more of an initial investment then I really want to go through.

I don't want to buy this just for everything in the tank to crash.

Rue
04-14-2007, 02:55 AM
It's still a good deal...you can always put away the SW only stuff and use the tank for FW for now...

...don't quite talk yourself out of it yet...

...it really is a good deal...

willisrad
04-14-2007, 03:08 AM
Yeah, I know that it's a great deal, but it's hard for me to justify spending $300 at all right now, especially if it means having to spend more to keep my investment going.

I work off of commission, and it's not the greatest sales season at the moment either........

But I think that I may have found another deal from a buddy to make up for my disappointment with this! hahaha.

2manyfish
04-14-2007, 12:42 PM
I didn't mean to scare you off of saltwater!!!
Why not get the tank, sell off the corals and just maintain the tank with rocks, fish and other inverts? You could take care of any issues while you save up for another lighting unit. This would give you time to deal with any algae problems before investing in corals. It would also give you experience with keeping saltwater (which is always good!) before you attempt corals, etc....

cocoa_pleco
04-14-2007, 03:00 PM
thats a good idea. salt water is a little less work with just a few clown fish, a yellow tang, the live rock, and a few shrimp