To buy or not to buy.

So today we went and looked at a potential new investment. We have been thinking of upgrading our tank and an opportunity came knocking. A guy here in town is wanting to sell his 180g setup. Complete with a very large skimmer, calcium reactor, sump, fuge, chiller, carbon/gfo reactors, halide lighting, and any accessory you can think of. Test kits buckets of salt, etc etc. the tank is full of live rock and he has several nice fish. The only huge drawback is that due to lack of care and maintenance, all of the coral is dead and the rock is covered in what appears to be green hair algae. So this would be a huge tear down and rebuild project and I would hafta try to trade in the fish to Lfs and so on. I'm currently run I g a 29 g and it is doing amazing. We just have been wanting to upgrade. What are opinions? The asking price for the 180g system is $1200 and it's around 7 years old

 

for 1,200 I would ask him if he would take a grand straight up !!

but either way, with all the equipment and aged sand/rock, the price is beyond good.

bottom line is, I would be all over that tomorrow if I were you lol

 

Sounds like a great deal.

Key Questions/Comments:

- Is the tank drilled with an overflow? If not you might want to do it yourself after you break it down.

- What wattage are the lights? How many? What type of bulb base? - You will likely want to get new bulbs regardless

- What type of ballasts?

- Are there other lights?

- What's the return pump?

- What circ pumps?


If you were to buy things separately used on Craigs List I'd expect you'd spend about:

Tank & Stand: $300 - $500
Chiller: $100-$200
Lights: $150-$200
Skimmer: $150-$200
Calc Reactor: $100
Chiller: $100
Fuge: $100

I think I can stop there - you're getting a good deal.

 

the tank is a very nice tank with two overflows. it has 4 return lines with locline fittings. has a huge pump with a squid looking flow system. and another huge pump that runs the skimmer. there are 3 halide bulbs and it has actinic bulbs that look to be t5. im not sure if the halides are 150 or 250 watt though. the dude has an entire closet full of extras. looks like a dang labratory lol! the fuge has a very nice light on it and it has a nice ATO system incorporated. I saw a GFO and a seperate carbon reactor and he has several containers of extra media to go with it. about 40 used filter socks....the list just goes on and on....

Im just worried about the general state of the rock. its covered in green mess that looks like hair algae only not as long. im not sure that I can get the tank moved and all the rock scrubbed and get it running again quickly enough to try and keep the fish that he has. two nice tangs, several clownfish, gobies, etc.

im thinking if we buy the setup, Ill hafta try and trade in the fish and let this thing run its course for a month or more to get this green mess under control. ....

 

Actually, with a little TLC and proper maintenance, the algae will die off on its own. It may take a little time, but would save all the headaches.

 

If a tank that large is your wish it does sound like a good deal.You would of course have to consider the exspense of maintaining it and added energy cost before jumping into such a project. I would definitely plan on replacing the substrate and all bulbs.

 

yeah im already planning on replacing all of the bulbs. Ive never ran halides before so Im not sure what to go with. my current tank uses power compacts. the guy has a couple large bags of dry aragonite sand. so I was considering doing something with the substrate.

so what are reccomendations? move the system and scrub the rocks in the process, put everything back together and try to nurse it back to health?

 

Nope. If you scrub the rocks, you'll need to start over. If you want to "nurse it back to health", leave it as is, start proper maintenance and let nature run it's course.

 

If the systems been running for seven years with the same substrate I really think it would be best to replace it,if it is disturbed at all during the move it could release alot of nastiness.You could scrub the rock in tankwater to remove the algae as apposed to nuking it which I think is what Mr Bill was thinking when he said you would be starting over.It might be wise to look the rockwork over very closely to ckeck for aiptasia and other pests as well.I did use a 250w sunpod for a few years liked the phoenix 14k bulb,it had a nice bluish look and not real exspensive.I would stay away from the cheap ebay bulbs theyr'e just not worth buying,even at a low price.

 

yeah. WHat I had in mind was manually removing as much algae as possible by scrubbing it in tank water. then putting it all back together and re-scaping. I want to remove all of the old SPS coral skeletons that are present.

so a complete substrate removal? granted this thing has a very well established fuge I would say this would probably not hurt