Ready to upgrade! This a good buy??

go with the third one. good deal.

 

IMO it would be crazy to get anything other than the one steve just posted between the three. That small amount of extra money will be spent in a matter of seconds to get gear that will already come with that tank. You could also turn around and sell the wet dry and PC fixture for some extra cash towards the gear you actually want. if its "reef ready" there will more than likely be lots of extras that wont come with the other tanks.. aaand i think that stand, trim, and canopy would look really nice sanded and re-stained. just my 2 cents.....

 

I think it would look awesome if I sanded it and dark stained it.... but I hate how the tank is covered up. I like the glass to be totally frameless almost, and that has a large portion of the sides hidden :-/

How much would a new 55 with an overflow cost me? Obviously I'd love to jump on a great craigs deal, and I'm ok with the idea of a HOB overflow, but maybe it'd be a better idea to get a tank that has been drilled.

I just want to be sure I'm getting what I want, and not being overly thrifty.

 

I'm sure that the tank was just framed around it. I sure you can remove that wood from around the tank. A new tank with the built in overflow is going to be very high, then the stand isn't going to be cheap either. Check on that one and see if the wood around the tank can be removed. If not, I would keep looking on craigslist before I would buy a new one. IMO

 

only if petco's sale was still active. a $1/gal deal was going on up till e 15th I believe. you could have gotten a 55 (tankonly, no overflow) for $55

 

also, I found a 90 gallon... not to sidetrack you from the 55, but here's the link. 90 Gallon Aquarium with stand and accessories it looks tall, meaning that it won't really take up more floor space than a 55.

 

I think both of the ones we've narrowed it down to are 90 gallons. As much as I'd love to "go big", 55 is really my limit at this point.

55 gallon saltwater set-up with fish,frogspawn, 2 bubbletips.. etc.

This one looks kinda promising. I hate the stand, but I could easily paint it or stain it. It looks like he has an algae problem, but I'm liking the idea of getting all that rock! I'd just pressure wash it and make sure it's pretty much "base" rock before starting the tank up.

I'll give him a call tomorrow and see what he says.

 

Great deal, and usually there's a reason for this great deal. Always use caution when buying someones tank that is up and running. You may be buying their problems as well. Not to say that I wouldn't go for it. Everything may be fine in it. You don't need to pressure wash it. Just mix you two buckets with saltwater the same salinity, one to wash and one to rinse. Put one or two pieces of rock in one and scrub the rock in the water. Then rinse it off in the other saltwater bucket, then put it back in the tank. Make sure you test the water when you buy the tank and check to make sure everything is healthy. No need to restart the tank from scratch if you don't have to. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

Thanks for the advice man.

I'm just so weary of putting in rock that might have something on it. :-(

The issue is that I'm going to be carrying over my livestock from my 29 gallon set up right now. I hate the idea of cycling again.

Would I just combine my live sand + live rock with the stuff that I get in the tank? I'm really not sure how to go about combining two tanks / turning 29 gallons + 20lbs LR into 55 gallons. I guess some research is in order.

 

You can just transfer everything over including your water. I assume you can make up 26 gallons of saltwater and slowly add 5 gallons at a time. That should be fun. I'm not saying that's how to do it, just an assumption.