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WOW sad and happy start to hobby

2K views 32 replies 12 participants last post by  DebsSisterFlo 
#1 ·
Ok here is the story (long) of my fish tank! I think some of you won't mind reading it even though it is long, there seem to be many helpful enthusiasts here!

The story is partially tragic and also positive.
The story started with me in a bid war on ebay for a complete Reef tnak 90 gallons. I won this item for $585.00 That is when I entered TRT and met most of you.
Well we went yesterday to pick up the tank with the knowledge that he has a 180 gallon tank that did not get any bids on ebay. Well the 180 was beautiful and I went with money and the notion of buying the bigger tank if I felt it looked nice and would fit my living room.
WE MET
The 90 gallon looked so-so, but the 180 was beautiful but missing about half the rock he had advertised. We spoke with him and I agreed to pay his asking price on ebay but he would have to dump the rock from the 90 gallon into the 180, throw the R/o filter (with 100 gallon tnak) and a small flat back hex 33 gallon tank for my girlfriend.
He agreed, and I was very pleased.
Dismantling
The 180 needed to be dismantled (4 hours) later it almost was. Had to cut the pvc to the 40 gallon sump because the tank has 2 corner overflows and would rather not mess with the seals there. No biggie. My father who came to help me drops the 40 gallon double bulk head drilled sump tank on the floor and shatters it!! He was real upset as was I but I know I can replace this and we get past it!!! Keep Reading !!
Transport to truck
We used a dolly/truck to maneuver this massive beast through his home. Well we get to his outside stoop and the corner of his bottom stair has a metal v strip on it, and DISASTER HITS!!!! The top right front corner of the tank scrapes on it in a 1 second awful booboo and I have like 3 scallops in the glass the size of a quater on the top 4 inches of the corner of the tank OMG at this point I am almost moved to tears!!! They did not go deep and I dont think the integrity is compromised so I decide to keep it anyway (I hope I didn't make a mistake) Every one assures me it is no big deal and can be easily filled and look like new with no complications to integirity...
We get everything into the trucks and we spent a total of 6 1/2 hours at this guys house and still need to go back tomorrow to get the live rock and stuff that would not fit in the trucks!!!
ON THE WAY
On the way home a truck going about 45 mph in the opposite lane does not see that traffic has stopped and barrels into the car next to me!!! OMG I have a near heart attack the sound was awful and I figured the tank had fallen out of my truck...
HOME NOW
What a trying day it is 105 degrees out about 7 pm and the task of getting the tank into the house lies with just my father and I. Well with much work an ingenious way to use a soft sliding carpet as a transport medium we get the stand in the house (level it) and sit the tank on top...
We are done for today... That is Wed.
On to Today (Thurs.) I wake up and call every glass place I can find to ask about my corner scalloped tank. No one has any advice and they tell me I am screwed!!!!!!!

I figure I can try to resin or silicone it myself jsut for aesthetics, or maybe because it is in top corner and not too large I can jsut put some trim on it!! Not sure have to decide later !! WOULD LOVE SOME ADVICE HERE !!!!!!!!!!

Went back and picked up the live rock and sand... it went smoothly thank god I couldnt handle another day like that. The rock and sand are in 6 40 gallon garbage cans in my driveway. was going ot bring them in the house but it is 86 degrees in the house read more later..... How long can they survive out of water ? a week or so I hope ?????

I called all over for sump replacement and found a guy trying to sell me one for 300 bucks hahahaha found out htough he can custom drill a 40 gallon breeder for 20 bucks a hole !!! Will either buy predrilled online if I find a good deal or have to ride the three hours and get it done this weekend or next!!!

My tank is empty and sad looking but in the end it could have been worse.
To top it all off the Central air on my new home died and it is 86 degree in the house... Rough week !

Out of pocket so far
$900 for tank and equipment
$50 gas
$50 garbage pails
$50 lunch and such
$35 lumber

What I got
A 180 gallon tank (scratched) with 2 corner overflows boxes and black stand
250 gallon protein skimmer
about 200 lbs live rock
an inch and a half of black hawaii sand
500 gallons of salt mix
full entarage (spelling sry) of test kits and such
PH meter
kalkwasser bucket with drip
a decently fast (1200 gallons per hour?) submersible pump this is an extra
huge like 2000 gallon per hour external pump for returns
35 gallon per day R/O filter
100 gallon R/O tank
33 gallon flat hex tank (black stand in box filter, double lighting 100 gallon protein skimmer 20 lbs live rock and cool black sand)
I think that is the bulk of it

My feelings
The tank still is so beautiful, I am real excited and have been uterly depressed today and learned to slow down my anxiousness (hard to do) but I ultimately feel good!

Things to do list: (any advice with any of these steps would be valued beyond belief)
Order or get sump..
Do the plumbing for the R/O filter need water pipe taps or something
Try to get the tank corner looking nicer
The tank has no lighting (order lights prefer hood set up to hanging would love to spend under 600 bucks) ?
Bought lumber need to reinforce in the crawl space tomorrow
PRAY TO GOD that it holds water safely
 
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#6 ·
LOL. Sorry to hear your pain but i have to admit my first decent set up that i bought fully loaded was a pretty ugly fiasco as well. NOT nearly as ugly as yours but my dilemna was that i had 10 buckets full of corals.......and i couldnt figure out how he had the stupid tank set up so i had to replumb EVERYTHING. He took it apart before i got there and forgot some parts and of course didnt take any pictures.....

I aged a year in the next 24 hours.....


anyways...sounds like you have it under control now.
The only advice i would give right now will also save you some headach that you mentioned being concerned about...but it will cost a few bucks.

DO NOT use his sand. Ditch it and start with fresh new sand. Buy a couple of hundred punds of aragonite and either seed it with maybe ten pounds of his or just let it seed itself from the rock. If the rock is healthy the sand doesnt need to be live. Old sand sucks. Dont ever reuse it.

The rock needs to be kept oxygenated.

Good luck and keep us posted. :thumbup:
 
#9 ·
NYer said:
with out about 5 more pumps for garbage cans
or the underground sump to put water in tank I dont see how I can :(

Won't dead rock become live rock again???? please say yes ?
Do not kill your rock..........find some pumps asap

yes it will become live again but it is SO much easier doing what it takes to keep it alive now.....
 
#10 ·
as far as the support chose a spot on about 5 2 x8 trusses in the floor and tomorrow I will put 2 2x8s under it and 2 4x4s as colums to support...

The rock how many rocks can I put in a garbage bin ? do I then fillit with water ??? and if i have one pump how often do i swap it between like 4 cans ????? or can i use freshwater baby pumps wiht little air stones ????

I got like 4 or 5 40 gallon cans fillled to the brim with rock....
also have two 40 gallon cans filled half way with his sand ? someone said dont keep the sand ...
Everyone agree with this ????

ques.
1.rock
2. sand
 
#14 ·
Ok well the big hold up on putting water in the tank will be the sump.. if you read it got dropped to the floor and smashed ?
Can I order one online...drilled and overnight it....
Do they come drilled to order or do I need to make a long drive and go get one.. Cant fill tank untill then and the garbage pailthing will only last so long...
 
#15 ·
Wow! I don't know if I could have handled what you've gone through! I also agree to get powerheads and keep your rock alive, and get fresh new sand. Take a breath, and maybe join a local reef club? There are lots of helpful people in the area if you know how to contact them, and I bet they may have powerheads and knowledge to lend to you!!! My very best of luck to you!!! :D
 
#17 ·
thanks for the sympathy all that on top of my first 1 day old house that has no cable or internet yet, tomorrows to do list includes getting my car worked on tires and brakes... get cable... get trash pickup started.. install mailbox... call postoffice and change address... did i mention I HAVE NO CENTRAL air lol the system died !!!

sigh and the live rock peice is adding a sense orf urgency to the tank so rather than do the tank over a few weeks it feels like i need to move on it in the next 2 to 3 days :(

but my spirits are back up now, and my g/f is bing supportive :)
 
#18 ·
just get them in water asap! dont 'waste' about $1400 killing your live rock! use airstones or whatever you have to do, man! get to it! ;) (no, seriously!)

also, I agree on not using the sand. get some new, and use maybe a gallon of the old and dump it on top of the new. that along with your live rock and itll become biologically alive in short order.

yes even if its been 48 hours, GET THAT ROCK WET!
 
#19 ·
Ok wow I did not realize this was such a big deal... the previous owner said they could sit and that most crap on them dies during cycle anyway, and that even a week or two of sitting and they would stil lbe fine afterwords, but based on all of your suggestions, I will tomorrow fill them with water adn hit the lfs for 4 or 5 of the cheapest powerheads i can find
 
#20 ·
NYer said:
Ok well the big hold up on putting water in the tank will be the sump.. if you read it got dropped to the floor and smashed ?
Can I order one online...drilled and overnight it....
Do they come drilled to order or do I need to make a long drive and go get one.. Cant fill tank untill then and the garbage pailthing will only last so long...
yes you probably could but it could cost you a grand too.

Take your time here unless you have a couple grand to spare.

first thing i would do is plug the overflow on that tank and fill it up with the rock and get some powerheads with venturis to keep it alive.

then shop for a sump
 
#21 ·
NYer said:
Ok wow I did not realize this was such a big deal... the previous owner said they could sit and that most crap on them dies during cycle anyway, and that even a week or two of sitting and they would stil lbe fine afterwords, but based on all of your suggestions, I will tomorrow fill them with water adn hit the lfs for 4 or 5 of the cheapest powerheads i can find
The longer they are out of water the longer your cycle will be
 
#23 ·
use tap, just mix up salt water and submurge those rocks. It really is a big deal, and you have so much it would be a shame for them to die. There is so much good bacteria on that rock, as well as tons of little critters that you don't see. If nothing else, wrap them in sopping wet newspaper to keep them damp for the very SHORT TERM, but don't let them dry out... :(
 
#24 · (Edited)
i didnt realize that the rock was aout of the water...i thought it was in water in buckets the whole time.

Honestly, your going to have a pretty good cycle anyway, go buy a couple of 75 gallon garbage cans and cook your rock..............

http://thereeftank.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66551

1st post of this thread

your tank will be happier in the long run ...

you need to get that rock in the water asap whether you do that or not........youll be glad you did......
 
#26 ·
in the meantime any way you can keep the rock wet (drizzle some saltwater over it) will help too. good luck. I second flyguys suggestions to plug up the tank till you can get a sump. lots of people run a tank with no sump; you can do it for the short term.

what a rough start! you'll see, though, itll all come together, and when it does.....its a beautiful thing!
 
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