Is this a good DEAL?

[Dewman]

One of the local stores that used to sell only freshwater stuff, had decided to try salt. Well, the they had some shipments get refused by customs over Christmas and lost over $3000 worth of animals. They decided to go back to only freshwater, so they still have one 75 with some star polyps, and bubble coral and christmas tree rocks, with some small sps and 2 Lps are left in the tank. They have about 10 margarita snails and 15 red leg crabs in there with 65 pounds of live rock and 65 pounds of aragonite sand. He also has about 12 bottles of Coral-Vite and Kent suppliments @ about $10 each.
We wants to sell the entire contents of the tank to me for $125. Would you do it?
He's NEVER used copper and has had it skimmerless for the past 4 months. The LPS are bright green Flowerpot corals. I know they have bad reps but at least they won't be thrown away! \
The more I think about it, the more I want to do it. I think writing this just convinced me.

Any thoughts?

 

[Bucktronix]

it sounds like the rock alone is worth the money!

 

[Sea Serpent]

Wow - what a deal. Go for it!

 

[Anonymous]

Holy smokes yeah!!!

Hey, if there are some things in the tank you'd rather not take home, I live about an hour away and would be willing to go splitsies with you.

 

[Dewman]

Benjemon, I'll let you know. I know he has 3 green flowerpot corals all together and I may not want to mess with them. I will have to see. I may be able to spare some live rock too.
I have a 75 that's fresh right now, but I would gladly ditch the fresh to have a 75 salt. I think I will consolidate my 29 into my 75 and take my VHO's off my 29 and put 4 foot bulbs in them instead of 2 foot.
That will at least give me some light until I can spare $250 for MH.

 

[Anonymous]

Sure thing, let me know what you decide. My email address is [email protected] Btw, where are you finding MH's for $250? I've yet to find anything more than a single 175W for that.

 

[Dewman]

Well, you go to An electrical supply company and buy a an electronic ballast for a 175 MH or Mercury Vapor (about $65 x 2= $130). Two MH bulbs from the same place are about $30 a piece. then buy a reflector. If you want a cheap pendant, buy a couple of big steel mixing bowls from the kitchen supply outlet or Wal-Mart ($20 a piece).
You can get fixtures at the same electrical supply company. Cords, and connectors, etc... I have done all the figures, and I have it down to about $250 plus labor.

 

[GateKeep]

You should check the kelvin rating of that bulb, it's probably well under 6500K.

FWIW, I found a 2x250w MH Ballast used for $100, it's been running trouble free for a year.

 

[MandarinFish]

SCORE dude

 

[Dewman]

GateKeep,
he said he has some that cost $30 and some that were $65.
Does Home Depot or Lowes sell bulbs 6500K and above?

 

[Dewman]

OK, so I emptied my 75 of it freshwater inhabitants and drained and removed gravel. Then, at about 0900 started transferring his tank to mine.
I ended up still working on the whole thing at 1100 lastnight.
I used half of his water and mixed up fresh for the rest. He had about 75 pounds of rock and two five gallon buckets worth of substrate. So I went to the LFS and bought a 30lb bag of Arag-sand.

Needless to say, my tank is still cloudy today. I didn't have aby pre-filters, so I took two painting sponges and cut slots in them and shoved my power head intakes into them. They have helped take much of the cloudiness away. I also took more sponge and shoved it on to the intake of both of my Penguin 330's and put them on there. It should be clear by tomorrow. My only problem is, that when I move a piece of live rock to remove the sediment. it re clouds the water.
Does anyone have a solution for me? I want to take care of this now so I dont have to fool with it later.
Sorry this was so long, I have more questions, but I will start a new thread.

Any help would be great...

 

[jchonline]

Well, I just got done starting a new 75G reef tank, and I feel your pain. What you and I failed to realize is we are supposed to wash the sand THOROUGHLY in a separate container before adding it. I didn't wash mine to start, and I had cloudy water for about 24 hours. I thought, OK, but then I needed to add rock. Another 24 hours of cloudiness. So I decided to take the rock out along with about 75% of the sand. I washed the sand. This took about 1.5 hours. I was amazed at how much cloudiness there was in the water as I cleaned. It kept coming and coming... Finally it went away. Then I added the sand back. The thing you do not want to hear is that cloudiness upon stirring the sand up is not going to go away unless you clean the sand. You can do this in-tank with a siphon attached to a cannister filter (like a MAG 350 deluxe, etc). THIS SUCKS!! I know. Good Luck.

 

[Bucktronix]

well if you thoroughly wash the sand, it will no longer be live sand! i would say that try letting the bulk of it settle, then vacuum the worst parts of the sediment out in a series of small water changes. also running a micron bag and charcoal in the sump would probably help. also turn off your powerheads to let the junk settle.

 

[samurai9]

your water will stop being cloudy naturally, just leave it alone. And what type of sand is it? If its sand from a previous set-up, then put it in the tank and leave it alone. If its dry aragonite, do the same thing. Aragonite is meant to dissolve naturally over time in the aquarium, so if you wash it you are just dissolving the sand. IT ISN'T DIRTY. Just sit back and let the bed settle by itself. And also, when you set up your sand bed you want it to be disturbed as little as possible. So if you're moving rocks back and forth, do it only at the onset.

[ February 03, 2002: Message edited by: samurai9 ]</p>

 

[Dewman]

Well, this morning the tank was settled, but I had to go to work. I will dust off the live rock and stack it tonight. I think I will keep it dusted off using my turkey baster until it all settles.
I have never used sand before. It's a little more work than just plain crushed coral. It took forever for my 29 to cycle out the nitrites because I could never get an anerobic area established in my loosly packed substrate. This time it will be different. The live rock was cured for 4 months in the previous tank and the trip to my house was only 4 minutes. So I shouldn't have much cycling to do. I just need to get some ammonia in the tank, I might throw a piece of shrimp in the tank to start things off.
How much dead material should I put in the tank to start the cycle? 1? 2? 3 dinner shrimp?
I used uncured live rock last time and there was plenty of material on the rock so it cycled itsself.

 

[Anonymous]

Do you have a skimmer on your 29? Just use the skimmate. Otherwise, add about as much 'crap' material as you would if you were feeding everything that you're going to put into the tank. The bacterial growth is dependant on the amount of nutrient available which is the food that moves through your livestock. This way you can match your bioload so your tank won't spike again after you add your fish.

 

[Anonymous]

Hmm, the point to washing the sand is to get the aragonite 'dust' out that is created as the grains rub on each other. Here's what I did when I made the same mistake.

Turn all of your ph's upside down so the intake is pointing up. Then move it as far down as you can without it blowing all of the heavier grains to kingdom come. Get yourself a filter apparatus that you can pack full of polyfil and get that running. Then, take your hand or whatever and stir the living daylights out of anything that looks silty. The heavy grains will settle out regardless of the ph's, and the lighter dusty junk will be suspended until it gets trapped in the polyfil. It took about about 10-12 hours in my 58 with 200gph powerfilter. I did have to change the polyfil 3 or 4 times.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I add the cloudy aragonite dust and PAY to do it with a product called 'Aragamight!' from Carib-Sea!Have some patience-the dust will settle but you must give it some time.

 

[Dewman]

MAN!! You would suugest something like that!!!
Lastnight I dumped and washed my skimmer cup!
It was a dark thick black soup and would have been perfect!
Where were you when I decided to clean my skimmer for the first time in two months.
I will have to use the shrimp then. I already have a nice pretty, peaceful tank. Now I want to make the 75 more fish oriented. Like some Lions or Scorpionfish, something a little aggressive.

 

[John 3:16]

which store was it. i live about an hour from fayethville.