whoo boy what did I get myself into?

[Kyuss]

As Matt, Jake, and John know I found a slight leak on the base of my 75 It is just salt creep at the moment but I am finding it at the base of the tank where the plastic guard is at. Also underneath where the plastic guard is, if I scrape away the salt underneath it feels damp.

Soooo... I got paranoid of the tank breaking. I began looking for a 75 replacement, I did an eBay search by zipcode and found a 90 gallon tank RR with a 1/8 hp chiller/heater with a ranco controller, 75 pounds of liverock, a lunar wrasse, royal gramma, firefish, serpent stars. A CPR #194 filter/skimmer, Iwaki MD55RLT return pump, a 65 gallon tank for water changes, which I think I am going to turn into a sump. A 4 bulb florescent hood and a bunch of other goodies.

I ended up winning the bid at $401.00 I am going to pick it up on Sunday AM and take work off Monday to move everything over. I plan on plumbing to the basement. I then plan to seal the 75 gallon and set that up downstairs as a FOWLR in the basement and move the eel down there and probably get a dwarf lionfish also.

I don't know much about that skimmer but I am guessing it is crap, anyone care to chime in?

John, are you still interested in helping me on Monday?

[mjsandbe]

It sounds like you got a pretty decent deal. I am not jealous of you having to move it though

[Kyuss]

lol! I know not looking forward to that part either, Madison is about 1.5 hours away from me, but it should be worth it. I don't want to be put on the curb with a broken tank by my wife after my existing tank explodes.
Way way back in the day (college) I had a 10 gallon fresh explode huge mess and ten gallons is not that much water..

[mjsandbe]

It may just be me or the time of day, http://www.handsomefella.org/default.aspx?aid=12,but is sloooowwwww

[Kyuss]

yeah it's horrible. not just you. I need a new server really really bad. I am runnning tons of stuff on it. I have 1meg up so it's not my connection, it's my webserver. It's a 2003 domain controller, running 2003 exchange, ftp, web server, file server, SQL, and a bunch of other crap. all on like 512 megs of ram, and a really old proc.

[mjsandbe]

Sorry to hijack your thread, .... but how do you go about hosting your own site. We (RMMAC) recently got www.rmmac.org, www.rmmac.info, and www.rmmac.net. Currently they are hosted for free, with advertising. I would love to have a clean & simple landing page that introduced RMMAC (great for prospective members) that would be pretty much static that pointed to the TRT RMMAC forum.

[jakecaps]

When I said you would be moving up to a 90gal I didnt think it would be that quick. Leak smeak is that what you told you wife too....you dont have to lie to us.

[jakecaps]

Glad to hear you dont have to drill this one!!!

[hansmatt]

the famous scooby doo laugh....hee heee heeehaaheheehaehhaa
you are now hooked...line, sinker, the whole thing!

About the skimmer...I'd say that it's under-powered for a 90 + 65g, however Dave Faas ran a CPR sump/skimmer on his big in-wall system. I personally like to pull a bit more crap outa the water for that sparkley clean look, and not run too much extra carbon/phosban etc unless I need to. I've got a mesh-moded/gate valved ER that I have to empty every day. You can get away without a bigger skimmer for now, just run your old and new ones at the same time, but ideally you'll want a bigger one when you add more livestock & get better established.

Like I told you the other day...plan plan plan...measure twice and cut once!
use unions on the plumbing for quick/easy maintainence, use gate valves if possible to regulate flow downstairs into your fuge for less gurgle up top (better than ball ball valves)
If you need tools, let me know. I'll help if I can.
oh, your coralfood came in today...lemme know when you want to pick it up!
matt

[Sndwave80]

Nice find, post pics when you can and good luck on moving everything!

[Cruiser]

Monday AM looks good, also later in the afternoon, (appt. 1-3). Give me a call when you get back Sunday.

[Jrmass]

Sweet! Now I'm not the only one who has bought an ENTIRE Saltwater setup on Ebay lol. *that's where my 70 gallon setup in the basement came from which was the start of all of this evil hobby for me* Congrats on the setup and yes Matt you are right that the skimmer is underpowered for what you would be doing with it. It'll surfice for now until you can look at an upgrade but, whenever you do plan on upgrading DO NOT SKIMP ON THE SKIMMER. I bought my skimmer *which at the time was more than adiquate* and since tied all the rest of my tanks together and now is barely getting by (I pull 1/2 gallon of skimmate Everyday or at least Every other day). Thus, I'm constantly checking the skimmer to make sure the venturii isn't clogged and having to clean the skimmer every other day to make sure it isn't getting bogged down. Thus, if I had planned a little FURTHER ahead I would have a skimmer still large enough for my needs instead of "just surficing". If you need any advice on the move feel free to give me a call as I had to pick that setup up from the far end of the cities (over 3 hours drive each way) and had to set it up after we got it back *at midnight* lol.

Jas

[jumpman420]

I have yet to win an ebay auction for a tank, but I have bought 3 tanks off of craigslist in the past 3 or so months. A 125 full of frontosa, my first saltwater was the contents of a 10 gallon from Appleton, about an hour from me, which I put into a 20 gallon. Then this past month I picked up a 55 gallon, stand, approx 60 lbs of rock, Skilter (obvious junk), 2 clowns, 2 blue w/ yellow tail damsels, a yellow damsel, and a scooter blenny for $100. Bad part with gas nearing $4 a gallon, I had to drive to Shawano, a 2 hour and 15 minute drive to tear it down and load it up, then up all night setting it up. Fish were in styrofoam for 8 hours, and all are doing wonderfully in a "fresh" tank. Of the 55, I had 20 from my tank, 10 from his, and 25 new, his rock, my rock, and doing good..........so far!

Good luck with the move. I'm done for a while. I'm down to 220 gallons total.

[Kyuss]

Originally Posted by jakecaps

When I said you would be moving up to a 90gal I didnt think it would be that quick. Leak smeak is that what you told you wife too....you dont have to lie to us.

LOL well it is true, Cruiser saw it. Granted it is not leaking like crazy but my fears are that it will. Of course I can justify just about anything

I will get pics as soon as I can. Jason, can you send me your phone # again. I want to pick your brain as far as plumbing goes.

AS far as skimmers go, I am going to have my buddy keep an eye out for skimmer returns from Fosters and Smith. What would you guys recommend?

[Kyuss]

Originally Posted by mjsandbe

Sorry to hijack your thread, .... but how do you go about hosting your own site. We (RMMAC) recently got www.rmmac.org, www.rmmac.info, and www.rmmac.net. Currently they are hosted for free, with advertising. I would love to have a clean & simple landing page that introduced RMMAC (great for prospective members) that would be pretty much static that pointed to the TRT RMMAC forum.

You just need a web server and a static IP address. Actually you don't even need a static, you can just use something like no-ip www.no-ip.com A static is more reliable but the dynamic dns apps work pretty good too.