Tear down take over

Wanted to get everyone's opinion on taking over someone else's tear down? There are several people in my area that are tearing down their 75gal tanks that have been up and running for sometime? The prices range from $600-850 from what I have seen. Most include lights, tank (would sell), sump (most wet/dry) and fish, corals, live rock and live sand...

What are the risk?
What should you look out for?
What how long should you wait before adding all the rock, sand, fish etc?
If you take the tanks water how much change should be expected in the level upon setting up.

 

Skip the used sand. The only sand I'd take is a cupful if I were using it to seed a new sandbed & it sounds like you already have an established tank?

On the rock look out for pests such as aiptasia and majano anemones, hydroids, flatworms, nudibranchs on the corals, sundial snails on the zoas, pyramellid snails, unknown crabs, hair or other pest algae, etc. Also watch for any diseases on the fish.

No reason to take the tank's water.

 

I do not have a tank set up as yet just weighting the options to set one up. I came across some tear downs and thought this could speed up the process. I have a 75 gal tank but is empty now and not drilled. I am trying to get into the hobby maybe rushing into something too fast. :-/

 

Yeah, I would suggest going slower. Take your time, get your tank drilled and do your own sump(if you are planning on a sump). doing this slowly is the only way for success. Taking on that much and being new could be disastrous.

 

Ah, thought you were just going to take their stuff and add to yours.

Definitely skip the sand and get everything you want for the tank set up first, such as drilling it and getting the sump in. It's easier when it's empty to do all that.

If you just took over someone's already set up tank, you'd still want to skip the sand, and just keep everything else. And you'd still get a small cycle.

 

Ok thank for the advise.. I just looked over the thread on drilling your tank so I think I will do that soon and start from there. I agree starting too fast could be more of head ache then a foundation for a newbie.
I have a order in with lifereef.com for sump but he hasn't even got close to getting started on it. Thank again