"Rescued Tank"-advice???

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Els9547

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Sep 4, 2008
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We were just wandering around on our local craigslist when we saw an ad for a 45g SW tank, fish LR, everything for a strangely cheap price...curiosity getting the better of us we went to take a look. This tank was in HORRIBLE condition, water so thick and gross you could barely see through the tank..LR stacked in a huge wobbly wall, brown algae taking over EVERYTHING, filters, powerheads and skimmer so gross you could hear it struggling to run.

He had a Coral Beauty Angel, a pair of sand-sifting gobies (although after he could only find one he mentioned that the other must be dead somewhere in the tank), a choc-chip starfish and two hermit crabs.

We bought it all from him and did our best to move the fish and LR without stress (although we honestly didn't know how they were surviving in the first place) and spent a few hours cleaning the tank. All of the equipment was in really good condition, it just needed a MASSIVE cleaning.

I posted some pictures of the tank, it is now Day 3 since we've cleaned everything up. I know it needs a background, but does anyone have any other suggestions? Maybe what to stock it with when the time comes? Live rock placement opinions?? Any suggestions on things we need to be looking out for since we acquired the tank in such a strange manner? I haven't ever started a tank this way before, so it's kind of new to me!!

GP's 002.jpg GP's 003.jpg GP's 005.jpg GP's 006.jpg
 

AquatiCreations

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Feb 25, 2008
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My first question is do you have experience with marine Aquariums?

check all the water parameters,(Nitrates Nitrites,Ammonia,PH,S.G.)And see if everything is in the correct range. Brown algae usually indicates a problem with nutrient balance.As for stocking its up for you to decide.Would you like a reef setup or,FOWLR(Fish Only with live rock),Research the inhabitants that you would like to put in the tank,including compatibility and space issues.
 

Els9547

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Sep 4, 2008
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Yes, I have had one other marine aquarium, about the same size but it was probably 5-6 years ago when I was living at home with my parents. I should have mentioned, but we have been checking the levels daily and so far everything is within the correct range..We also used brand new seawater, I live right next to a college Marine Science Center who just happens to sell it. I know it wasn't great to put all of that live rock and the fish into new water just like that, but the water we saved for transport was just not going to work.

We had been looking to get into saltwater, we already have a freshwater tank, so I had been doing a lot of research on species, etc. I was mainly concerned about the goby because he had been mated, but apparantly lost his mate and I had read that if that happens there is a chance he would starve himself. I say he, but I'm really not sure which of the two lived. We were thinking, the angel (provided it makes it through all of this), a royal gramma, and a pair of clownfish along with the goby (and a mate??) and the starfish already in there. Also, we were sure about inverts, as the starfish somehow managed to catch and one of the hermit crabs already.
 

AquatiCreations

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Feb 25, 2008
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It looks like you have a pretty nice setup,I would probably get the goby another mate,look the species up and find out how to sex them before hand though.Definitely make sure you have no loose rocks,you don't want to crack the glass.and rockscaping is an experimental process,you need to move things around abit,and figure what you like best.If the Brown algae persist,you may need a powerhead to bring the flow up.
 

Els9547

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Sep 4, 2008
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I finally managed to get a picture of the goby, but I can't seem to find anything that looks like him online..can anyone help to ID him/her? I know the pictures aren't great, he's very shy...

GP's 019.jpg GP's 020.jpg GP's 018.jpg GP's 017.jpg
 

Els9547

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Sep 4, 2008
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There was no way to even tell it was a tank before, it was just a big brown mud puddle contained in a glass aquarium!!!!
 

antimatter

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Aug 2, 2007
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There was no way to even tell it was a tank before, it was just a big brown mud puddle contained in a glass aquarium!!!!
Awesome work cleaning it :thm:

I love the dimensions of the tank. To me it looks a little taller and wider than some standard aquariums. Those are my favorite. are you going to make it a reef tank?
 

Els9547

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Sep 4, 2008
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For right now I think we are going to leave it a FOWLR, I have ZERO coral experience and would for sure need to spend a lot of time reading up on all of that stuff. I will probably end up like everyone else, fish for awhile and then suddenly I will put "just one" coral in there..and the rest will be history!!!
 
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