Brought home dream tank tonight! Was SW, have ?s!!!

AnnetteG

AnnetteG

getting back to basics
Sep 24, 2007
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Okay, ya'll, tell me what to do! I swear, I need an expert to come over here and help me sort thru all this stuff this guy gave us for $200!!!!!!!!!!!!! He JUST took it down tonight when we went to pick it up, so the rock is alive, the gravel probably has good stuff in it, the 2 canister filters, he left full of water. We need to paint the stand cuz it's fugly. We have to buy a new light fixture, which we can do on Tuesday. SO, what do I need to do to make sure the rock stays alive and the filter media stays good in the day or so it's going to take us to get the whole thing in the house and plugged in and filled up again? The guy gave us 2 buckets of water from the tank, plus he poured water over the rock and it's sitting in a lidded cooler. The gravel is all in buckets and is wet, but not full of water.

It's 110 gallon tank!!!!! Could you DIE?!!!! OMG, an EHEIM canister AND a FLUVAL canister AND a HOB of some sort and a protein skimmer, which I have no idea how to set up. He gave us all his chemicals, food, a python, EVERYTHING! I literally have no idea where to begin. But I REALLY want to take advantage of this opportunity of having already cycled filters and live rock and try to have a go at a SW tank!

HELP!!!!!!!!! :help:

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
well, first things first, i would make sure that the rock is completely covered in water, check his salinity, and get heaters, and power heads in the water. hopefully, by the time you get that done, someone else with better advice will have stumbled along!

I am by no means an expert, however, I would suggest atleast figuring out what his params were, so you can keep them similar, did he say what temp he was keeping the tank at?..You have a long night ahead of you! I bet you are really excited!
 
well i was hoping someone else would have chimed in for you! how are things going?
 
I'm downloading manuals right now for the filters, since everything is taken apart and is a jumble of tubes and cords and :eek3: I think we'll have to move the rock into another cooler since we need the heater because right now it's in a Styrofoam cooler. :nilly:
 
Judgemax has given you good advice for now and keep water movement over the LR with a heater till you setup. Good luck
 
i would't worry about filters at this moment. you can run everything without them but with rock only. the same goes for protein skimmer. set up the protein skimmer last. just put the set up together as soon as possible. put the water in, rock, sand, live stock that he gave you, plug in the heater, powerheads, and light. make sure the rock is covered with water before you'll put everything together. make sure the new water has the same or very close parameters to what his water was. $200 is a good deal. post pics of everything.
 
Surprised nobody else has chimed in yet.

Place all that rock in a container that you can heat to about 78 degrees. Make sure the rock in covered by the water he gave you and have a pwerhead to run some flow through it. That should be fine for the rock.

As for the rest of what you got. I am far from the most qualified on this site but gravel is not ideal for a marine set-up. Not sure you will even need it so I wouldn't worry too much about it but if you want to keep it I guess you could place it all in an airtight container (garbage bag) and it should at least stay wet.

As for filtration, if you have enough LR it will serve as your filter for the tank was it is re-established so I wouldn't worry about the canisters so musch either, just use what ever water is left in them for your LR.

The skimmer will come in handy once the tank is set-up again. Read all the stickies on this site for newbies. Helped me out a lot but remember that at this point the rock is likely the best stuff you got from this so far and if you can keep it cured it should be fine. If it smells bad that is because there is some die-off on it but even a little won't hurt it.

Good luck and keep us informed.
 
I'm having trouble deciding for sure whether I want to keep it SW or go FW. I do love plants and cichlids. And loaches. Have to go over to Aquarium World in the am and look at fish to try to decide.

Right now, we've got a heater and air stone running in the live rock cooler. May see if I can get store credit for the rock. Anyone in Houston want to buy it from me? :Angel:

decisions decisions! It's a good problem to have! This tank is HUGE! Wheeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Sounds like you found a terrific steal... Hope you decide to join us on the salty side but I can understand the decision can be difficult. There are quite a few nice african cichlids that I would like to try and propogate since I've been out of the FW side..
 
don't forget to keep us updated!
 
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