Looking for a favor!?

[ZMattie]

Ive been having a hell of a time trying to get my nitrates down and it doesnt seem to be working for me, and to be honest i just cannot afford it with bills and being in college at this time. I am moving soon into a small house/ BIG apartment (in about 4 months) and im guessing it would be difficult for me to move the whole system and keep the livestock alive. So what i would like to do is find a temporary home for my LR, mushrooms and fish. The fish are as healthy as they can be with the nitrates being so high. I have about 40-50 lbs of rock, a few mushrooms, yellow star pollops, a firefish goby, a green clown goby and a false percula. Im guessing that it would be VERY difficult to catch the gobys from a system without tearing it apart so they would be my gift to you for helping me though this problem. Although, i would like to have my coral, the false percula and LR back. I figured I would throw this out there to see if someone was willing to help. I AM NOT DONE WITH SW! and that is for sure! it has just gotten to overwhelming for me with beggining college and trying to keep up with this EXPENSIVE hobby! I look forward to the new house and starting the system all over again! Who knows maybe by then ill have to money to upgrade!
Thanks alot,
Zach M

I may change my mind about this but I would like to see if I do decide to go though with this that there is someone thatll help!

[Jrmass]

Zach, if you need a place I can definately make some room. 40-50 lbs of LR wouldn't be hard for me to find a place to put and the corals could simply be placed in my 70 gallon or my 20 gallon frag tank until you would be ready to set back up. I'm a bit out of the way is the only issue so if there is someone in LaCrosse/Onalaska that can house them then it would be a better/more viable option... But, I figured I would just toss it out there. Also, I would just house your fish for you as I wouldn't keep someone elses fish (unless they decided that they did not want them back). Heck, I'm holding onto a few of Ted's fish right now (maroon clown as well as a small goby).

Like I said I wouldn't want to have someone get stuck with no where to go.. Otherwise whenever you'd be ready to move I could definately help you move the tank to your new place and help ya get it setup that same day. I would just need a few days notice to make sure that my schedule would be cleared to give ya a hand!

Jason

[Afish4u]

if it helps when we have the next meeting I'll bring down a container of nitrate sponge. This should help you out alot otherwise.

[condiman]

I have plenty of room in my tank as well if you need a place for it to go.

[OLDETOWNENORTHPETS]

I can help you out too Zach. Just let me know.

Matthew

[ZMattie]

If I went through with this....

How could i go about keeping my sand? or would I need to get new sand?

[Jrmass]

You can do a few things... You can send the sand with whoever you would have watch the tank for you thus leaving it with the system.

You could always wash it very very well with FW and then dry it out and just start it all over later (it's not that bad as I started my ENTIRE tank out with DRY Sand as well as DRY Rock).

Or you could toss the sand and start over... But, I would definately lean towards one of the two first options. If you do try to wash the sand though. You need to put it into a tank fill it with FW and run your hand through it. Drain the water. Fill it back with FW again run your hand though it. Drain the water. Fill it back (you notice a pattern here) and continue to do this until the water is clear or mostly clear. This is to remove any fine sand as well as any residual debris/detrius.
***I have personally done this with Playground sand on a FW tank and it takes time but, it does work... It DEFINATELY takes time though*** I could be worth it in the long run as replacing the sand is expensive and if you didn't have anything to do for a few hours it would be a cost saver if you didn't plan on sending it with the tank.

Jason

[ZMattie]

hmmm... So I would basically do what I did when I put DRY sand in to begin with? So what i would be doing is washing it before I DRY it out to let it sit?

And... if you still could house everything (jason)... how would you store the sand? Ive got a place for the tank and the equipment to go, so i would just need a place for the sand, LR, fish and frags.

[Jrmass]

Well, once the sand is dry it can just be put into covered 5 gallon buckets.

If you are going to be out for a while you could just dry out the LR as well unless you want to keep it alive. And if you wanted to keep it alive I could move some of my rock from my sump in the basement to my 70 gallon and replace it with your rock thus allowing it to keep. The perc could very easily be placed into the 70 gallon (seeing there are already 2 in there) as could the firefish goby and the green goby. Or better yet if this isn't going to be a long-term holding I could put the gobies into my 20 gallon frag tank (as long as they are not jumpers) *or I could put a screen over the top of the tank if they are* and then they would be super easy to catch. Especially because in my 70 gallon there would be like 170 lbs of rock. All the frags would go into the frag tank or the main display tank on my frag racks (more than likely the display tank so that the cleaners can perform their magic).

Like I said just give me a heads up sometime and we'll make arrangements. Btw my offer still stands if you decide not to go this route I'd give ya a hand moving the tank to your new place.

Jason