Hello from Rogers, Ar

[robertshear]

Hello! I posted a something in the March meeting topic before i found this topic. I am new to this and know nothing, except what i learned over the last couple days. My wife always says i need to find a hobby and i think i found one i will enjoy. I am currently in the process of finding a tank and think i found a 125 gallon that i like. I know it is a trial by error process in the beginning, but with your help i hope it is a very short process.

I have lived in NW Ar for almost two years now. I am from Chicago, but joined the Marine Corps and ended up in California, then Washington D.C, and North Carolina. I met my wife in DC and will have been married for four years in April. When i was in Iraq, my wife moved here and got a good job with Johnson & Johnson, so i had no choice but to move here when i got out. I worked at the Benton County Jail for a year, then decided i needed to go back to school. My wife and i bought our first house in Rogers in october 2007. I currently attend NWAAC full time. Thankfully i have a great wife who supports my decision to go back to school.

Now back to the fish! I want to make a reef tank with fish but dont want to spend a million dollars, so if anybody has anything for sale at a decent price, let me know. Here is the tank i am hopefully going to get saturday---> http://tulsa.craigslist.org/for/1051693966.html. I know its big, but go big or go home right? I dont know if this stuff will do for what i want, but It says it comes with this:
VHO lighting system
DAS filtration system
over 100 pounds live rock

From what i learned over the last few days, i dont know if i need it, but i think i will need this stuff:
r/o filter thing??? (so i dont have to buy water from the store??? remember i dont know anything)
refugium/sump tank(will need help with plans, and what i need exactly)
______________---heres where i need help on what else to get.
All help will be greatly appreciated, and i hope to meet you all at the meeting...
Thank You, Robert

[pinkrblu]

Welcome to NWAAS, Robert! I hope we can be of assistance to you. Look forward to meeting you.

[sumpnfishy]

Be careful about jumping in so deep so fast. Reef tanks are decidedly NOT for beginners. We'd be happy to answer all kinds of questions at the meeting or here, but do some MAJOR studying before any financial decisions are made.

[etheonut]

Welcome Robert!

125 gallons of reef tank as your first tank, I hope you like reading and listening. There sure is a lot of information and misinformation out on the web and in books for you to filter through. Ten years ago I would have called you insane for trying a reef tank as your first tank, today I will just call you crazy and pat you on your back. We will be here to help, but please be ready for at least some failures in this process and a lot of work.

Kevin

[robertshear]

i'd love to think i am a quick learner, but know i am going to have some trials and tribulations. im not going to rush into buying anything expensive and am going to use the first few months as a learning period.

[sskruzr]

Welcome aboard Robert. Don't listen to sumpyfishy, just put your chest waders on and jump in.

If that 125 doesn't have an overflow, I have an overflow I can sell you for about 30 bucks and a bucket of salt I'll GIVE you to get you started. Hiropro gave it to me and am happy to pass it along.

[robertshear]

thanks. i decided to not get the 125 gallon, it didnt come with much. im lazy and dont want to spend a lot buying all new equipment. basically looking for a package that comes with close to everything i want. i found a 92 gallon corner tank that seems like a good deal, and i talked the guy down a little bit. i havent spoken to him on the phone yet, and cant tell if the tank has an overflow, so i might be interested in that deal. the guys says its a 92 gallon but to me it doesnt look so big. pretty cool deal though. http://springfield.craigslist.org/for/1055940479.html

also, i know that most of you are fresh water aficionados, but does anybody also have any saltwater tanks?

[etheonut]

I have kept salt-water in the past and maintained salt-water tanks commercially. We actually have some very knowledgeable salt people on here. You might start a post in the Salt-Water section to get their attention. That 90 looks pretty good for the pictures that are offered. You would definitely want to see it in person. If you are going up there to see it any time soon I would gladly go with you to 'advise' if you want. Aurora is only a 35 minute drive from my place.

Kevin

[robertshear]

that would be great. i hopefully am going to go on saturday, but the guys hasnt called back yet so thats tentative. my godfather is going to go with me and help because i dont have a truck. i figure if the guy has the tank running, i should bring something to transport the water in. any ideas, cause i dont think bringing a large amount of five gallon buckets is practical. oh and the guy agreed on $400 for everything instead of $500. i dont really like the idea of a corner tank, but it seems like too good of a deal to pass on. also, if i found a better deal on a tank more to my liking, i could transfer everything and sell the corner tank. i really like the way the oak stand and canopies look, but havent found any great deals

[Sundance]

The 90 gallon would only be 5 5 gallon buckets. While you might want bigger containers, weight becomes a factor when you consider you're going to have to carry them. If you had a fish safe 55 gallon drum or 2, you could transfer from the tank to the barrel, but I don't know what kind of truck you're going to have for the other equipment as well. It's always tricky. If it wasn't saltwater, I'd throw the water out because most of your bacteria are going to be on the various surfaces in far greater numbers than in the water itself anyway. But salt is expensive. Let us know how it goes. Denny

[robertshear]

that makes sense, thank you.

[etheonut]

I would personally toss half the water anyway. A good 50% water change never hurt a salt water tank especially one that has been sitting ready for sale. You would need to have some aged salt water waiting for you at the house to refill it. That would leave you only transporting 40 gallons of water, give or take. Keep in mind that you will want to keep everything from inside the tank moist and transporting things in an aquarium is usually a bad idea. I suggest bringing along some plastic sweater boxes and clean rags. Anything that needs to stay moist can be placed in a sweater box covered in a wet rag, then you just put the lid on it. Newspaper can be substituted for wet rags, but then you have to deal with ink and that can be bad.

I will be out of town this weekend.

Kevin

[Sundance]

Boy, my math was really screwed up figuring how many 5 gallon buckets you would need. Focus.

[robertshear]

the problem is that i dont have any aged salt water. i was going to leave the sand in the tank, and wasnt sure what to do with the live rock. at first i thought i could just put it in a bucket with water. i figure i will go with a lot of buckets, and go from there. ill get a more detailed list of whats in the tank from the guy tonight, that is assuming he calls

[robertshear]

sad day yesterday. the 92 gallon tank i was going to buy was sold. the guy told me we had a deal, and i agreed to pick it up on saturday, then he emailed me last night and told me he sold it to some other lady. bad business.

[sskruzr]

That bites. There's a 90 set up for $200 on our work classified. I can get you the number if you like. I have an "in" with the guy that posts the ads and anything fishy, he sends my way before posting. He sent me the 90 ad and I responded by asking him to make sure he attends my funeral. Needless to say I passed.

[robertshear]

what is included in the setup? sound stupid saying this, but i dont quite understand the part about him attending your funeral though, does that mean its not a good deal?

[sumpnfishy]

It means his wife would shoot him!!

[robertshear]

i drove all the way to tulsa this morning and picked up a tank. its a 55 gallon and came with a black stand. it also came with a seaclone protein skimmer, a couple powerheads, a filter and a heater. it came with a really nice coralite lighting system that uses 4 21" bulbs and has 4 leds. unfortunately the owner didnt take good care of it and i spent like 3 hours taking it all apart and cleaning it. 2 of the leds dont work, but i think i could probably find them online somewhere. also only 2 of the bulbs work, and i went around town looking for them and the only place that had them was petsmart and they cost 49 dollars a pop. i didnt buy them, could find those online cheaper also i think. the protein skimmer leaks, but i think i only need to replace an o ring. the anemone suffered a little bit from the trip, but after i set the tank up, he came back well. dont really like its color to much. somehow when i got home and set up the tank and put the water in, its salinity rose to about 41 ppt. i went to exotic tropicals and got some water without salt and poured it in. it went down to about 37, so i need to change some water tommorow. im exhausted. also went to the store and got some fluval biomax media for the filter. cant wait to get some fish. oh and it came with a bunch of live rock, i think i did a good job setting it up. the only problem is there is not any algae on them, and i have no idea what to do to get it going. here are some pictures, ill take all the pointers i can get. does any one know how to build a refugium?
rob

sskruzr, do you still have that overflow? what kind is it?:
sorry, the site says my pictures are too big

[sskruzr]

Not sure what type it is? I haven't looked at it for quite a while. Bought it off Ebay a while back and never used it. It has double outlets on it and will move some water.

[pinkrblu]

what is included in the setup? sound stupid saying this, but i dont quite understand the part about him attending your funeral though, does that mean its not a good deal?

We are almost all in this position... I I bring home one more aquarium, my husband will kill me.

Frequently said during club auctions: "I really need those fish, but Mark said "Don't bring more fish home from this meeting!""
And so, that's how I got the crawdad...can't call her a crayfish, though.

[robertshear]

Not sure what type it is? I haven't looked at it for quite a while. Bought it off Ebay a while back and never used it. It has double outlets on it and will move some water.

not sure if i need it anyways. i will bring my computer to the meeting to show some pictures. if youre still offering, ill take the salt though