Deal or no Deal?

A friend of mine is trying to sell his 40gal breeder reef tank w/ 29gal fuge. It comes with the following:
40gal breeder tank drilled overflow and return
163watt (4 - 36inch)Aquamedic t-5 Fixture with all bulbs working
29gal sump (fuge) with a deep sand bed and lots of cheato
Light for the fuge
Return pump
2 Koralias
200watt unbreakable heater
Sand in the DT
40 - 50lbs of live rock
Red Open Brain Coral
Hammer Coral with lots of heads
Pagoda Cup Coral
Tons of hairy mushrooms
Royal Gramma and Tank Raised Percula Clownfish
5gal bucket of aquarium salt
1 extra T-5 bulb
Frozen Blood Worms and Brine Shrimp
Small container of Pellet food
Water test kit
Siphon
Plus lots of other bits

I just got back from his place and the tank is set up and running nicely. Very quiet. There is no skimmer but could buy one second hand for around $100. The rocks are covered with Green Hair Algae and Aptasisa
$300 but i could prolly talk him down!
Question is, " Is this a good deal or what?"
What should i do?

 

Sounds like a lot of work to get it cleaned up and to eliminate the aiptasia.

What is the price and are you willing to pay the time and effort to get it right?

 

sorry i just edited and posted the price.
$300 obo

 

With Aptasia covered rock, I would say NO deal. if they get out of hand, they are very hard if not impossible to eliminate without drastic measures.

thanks,

 

What if i were to get rid of the LR thats in there and replace it?
I think this is a pretty good deal minus the algae and aptasia.
And i am willing to deal with the issues and even re-start this tank.

 

so i am getting the setup for $200 I am going to start over like it were a new tank.
I am going to get rid of all the sand currently in the setup. If anyone needs any LS let me know. I am going to keep the LR around to c if i cant nuke it or rid it of its nasties, but its not going in this new tank. I am going to buy new LS for the set up as well. I have a couple questions about transferring my two tanks into this one.
1. I would like to use my "pest free" LR that is currently in my two nanos but i am unsure of how i would transfer the rock over to the new setup? If i take the rock out of my tanks that are running now, how will i keep the inhabitants while this new tank is cycling? Can you cycle a tank without LR? I guess i could buy new LR but would than have to sell all my old once the transfer is made.

 

Good deal, I would buy dry sand and get more for less. Stirring up live sand can cause a world of hurt in the tank releasing bacteria into the tank that you do not want released.

If you have pest free LR then you should have at worst a very minimal cycle and should have no major problems. Simply set the new tank up with sand and some new water, move the live rock over, add enough water to fill the tank do your aquascape and then add your critters.

 

i am a little worried about the tank cycling if i just add all my tank inhabitants as soon as i set up the tank. Can anyone elaborate? Has anyone done this type of swapping of tanks, without a cycle killing fish and corals? I would rather buy new LR or Base Rock for the new tank than to have everything die.

 

When I moved I rinsed all my sand very thoroughly and seeded it with some leftover live stuff. This could save you some money on buying new sand. My cycle was massive, but all my fish and corals survived. All of my rock was still live though, and I used the water that was in the tank when I broke it down.

You could always keep the aiptasia rock in until the sand is live again and then take the rock out and nuke it.
Just my thoughts, keep us posted

Best -Jarrett

 

I agree on getting dry sand and dry rock. Nuke whatever rock is already in there and keep it somewhere to add later down the road, when everything on it is as dead as it could get.

As far as the aiptasia, believe me... it will be super hard to get rid off. So this is something serious to think about. Starting over is a good way to go, IMO. New sand, new rock, new water. You'll have to cycle again. So you may want to keep all your inhabitants in the current tank until the whole process is done right.

Just my 2 cents, as they say.

- Mag.