guidedbyechoes
Fishaholic
Hi I've been poking around this side of the forum for a while. I've been wanting a nanoreef for about 12 years now and finally got a break. This will be a tale of triumph and tragedy. One night I was having difficulties sleeping and I decided to check craigslist(a classified website in the states) I came across a complete setup(29 gal us) with 4 fish that had been going for 8 years. It also included a power head and a cansiter filter and the best part 40 pounds of live rock. All for the whopping price of 200 dollars. I did the math and the rock included was about 10 per pound. So that around 400 in rock give or take. It even has some nice figi rock in it. Not sure about all of it.
Anyway I email the guy as soon as I wake up the next morning. He gets back to me saying another guy is coming over to look at it and if he doesn't show or take it its mine. I figure the guy is a moron not to take it or the tank is a mess. Well long story short, the guy doesn't show. The owner emails me back and says I can come that night and pick it up its mine and he doesn't want to worry with it all weekend as he is being to pack for his move to New York.
The fish included a black and white percula, a rare butterfly fish that I would like ID'd, a coral beauty and an engineer goby. They are in great condition. I load up and get home start unpacking everything and prepare to start mixing the salt water. But this is where things start to go downhill. He forgot to include it, as did I. What I thought was the salt was not salt. After I realized this, it was too late and all the stores were closed that sold marine salt. The only thing I could do is fill the tank with some water and try to keep them in bags floating. I had to be at work before the stores opened so I called in a favor from my mom and she got the salt but by that time everything but the goby had ceased to be.
Being that she knew very little about the hobby I had to get her to mix the water for me and acclimatize the goby into the water. She couldn't do it properly because she had to get ready for work. By some miracle he lived. I then promptly returned him to the lfs. In hindsight I wish I could have done that in the first place. As most of the would not fit future plans and I did not care for such a drab colored clown. I far prefer the false clowns. After returning the fish I came home and started placing all of the live rock in. I knew there would be die off so I didnt get any other livestock while I was there which was a wise decision.
After getting it all in and setting up two powerheads (one he included and a cheaper one I had for my freshwater tank)mine started to make noises like a rock was in the impeller, I went to grab it and as soon as I touched the water I got a nice shock. I hit the power and the power strip, unplugged it and binned it. I then notice his rio wasn't doing anything, so I grasped it by the cord this time just in case the other power head wasnt the shocking culprit. I was shocked again. I saw airbubbles coming out of the compartment where the cord met the device and it went in the bin as well. Currently its has two heaters but I'm not sure if they are both working as the water is about 72 degrees.
SO my plans so far will be to get 2 new heaters. One for the main and one for mixing/ backup and 2 new power heads. I also plan to upgrade the lighting(It has a 15 watt t8. I have a power compact illuminare that needs new bulls and will be ready to go.) and scrape out the purple algae thats in there as it doesn't appear to be coraline. I also have to get all the macro algae he had floating around in it out. So after all that fun stuff I am going to let it cycle for a month after I upgrade everything except the lighting before I even think about adding any inverts.
Sorry for the poor grammar and punctuation. It is late or early depending on perspective. No pics of the tank yet, but after being put through all this there is no way I can give up. I'm gonna take it slow, get some test kits, not cut corners and have fun. I have a 55 gallon african cichlid tank to worry with as well. So no danger of rushing to fill it with my first cool pretty fish. Thanks for reading if you made it this far and cheers
Josh
Anyway I email the guy as soon as I wake up the next morning. He gets back to me saying another guy is coming over to look at it and if he doesn't show or take it its mine. I figure the guy is a moron not to take it or the tank is a mess. Well long story short, the guy doesn't show. The owner emails me back and says I can come that night and pick it up its mine and he doesn't want to worry with it all weekend as he is being to pack for his move to New York.
The fish included a black and white percula, a rare butterfly fish that I would like ID'd, a coral beauty and an engineer goby. They are in great condition. I load up and get home start unpacking everything and prepare to start mixing the salt water. But this is where things start to go downhill. He forgot to include it, as did I. What I thought was the salt was not salt. After I realized this, it was too late and all the stores were closed that sold marine salt. The only thing I could do is fill the tank with some water and try to keep them in bags floating. I had to be at work before the stores opened so I called in a favor from my mom and she got the salt but by that time everything but the goby had ceased to be.
Being that she knew very little about the hobby I had to get her to mix the water for me and acclimatize the goby into the water. She couldn't do it properly because she had to get ready for work. By some miracle he lived. I then promptly returned him to the lfs. In hindsight I wish I could have done that in the first place. As most of the would not fit future plans and I did not care for such a drab colored clown. I far prefer the false clowns. After returning the fish I came home and started placing all of the live rock in. I knew there would be die off so I didnt get any other livestock while I was there which was a wise decision.
After getting it all in and setting up two powerheads (one he included and a cheaper one I had for my freshwater tank)mine started to make noises like a rock was in the impeller, I went to grab it and as soon as I touched the water I got a nice shock. I hit the power and the power strip, unplugged it and binned it. I then notice his rio wasn't doing anything, so I grasped it by the cord this time just in case the other power head wasnt the shocking culprit. I was shocked again. I saw airbubbles coming out of the compartment where the cord met the device and it went in the bin as well. Currently its has two heaters but I'm not sure if they are both working as the water is about 72 degrees.
SO my plans so far will be to get 2 new heaters. One for the main and one for mixing/ backup and 2 new power heads. I also plan to upgrade the lighting(It has a 15 watt t8. I have a power compact illuminare that needs new bulls and will be ready to go.) and scrape out the purple algae thats in there as it doesn't appear to be coraline. I also have to get all the macro algae he had floating around in it out. So after all that fun stuff I am going to let it cycle for a month after I upgrade everything except the lighting before I even think about adding any inverts.
Sorry for the poor grammar and punctuation. It is late or early depending on perspective. No pics of the tank yet, but after being put through all this there is no way I can give up. I'm gonna take it slow, get some test kits, not cut corners and have fun. I have a 55 gallon african cichlid tank to worry with as well. So no danger of rushing to fill it with my first cool pretty fish. Thanks for reading if you made it this far and cheers
Josh
to the salty side of the forum
