SW Tank Price Advice

Again, for that deal, I would throw my couch in the trash to make room for that tank it is such a steal. hahaha. I still can't get over that.. you went from a pretty crappy deal in your first post to the best deal I have ever seen. I have seen a lot of people leave the hobby and sell stuff cheap, but never anything close to that cheap.

Still though, your going to have to consider other things as well with that tank.. water changes on a 180 is going to be costly, and so is the electricity if you run all those lights. You are going to be required to run that tank on 2 seperate circuits because one will not handle the lights and everything else. If you put your sump in the basement, then you can do it that way, but that is definately something you will have to decide if you want to do.

Your other option like I said is to just keep the equipment you want and sell the tank/stand. You can easily sell off the stuff you don't want for $250 and make your money back AND have $1000 in equipment out of the deal. That will give you a little cash to put towards a smaller tank if that is the direction you decide. A 180G tank is very intimidating, even to me. I would love to have a tank that size, but I don't think I could afford to keep a tank that size running myself. On my 75G it cost me over $200/mo just in electricity, and another $150+ a month in other supplies like salt, carbon, phosphate media, etc. It is a very expensive hobby.. well, Reefs are.. Fish only is a fraction of the cost, like 1/10th.
 
Ace25 said:
Again, for that deal, I would throw my couch in the trash to make room for that tank it is such a steal. hahaha. I still can't get over that.. you went from a pretty crappy deal in your first post to the best deal I have ever seen. I have seen a lot of people leave the hobby and sell stuff cheap, but never anything close to that cheap.

Still though, your going to have to consider other things as well with that tank.. water changes on a 180 is going to be costly, and so is the electricity if you run all those lights. You are going to be required to run that tank on 2 seperate circuits because one will not handle the lights and everything else. If you put your sump in the basement, then you can do it that way, but that is definately something you will have to decide if you want to do.

Your other option like I said is to just keep the equipment you want and sell the tank/stand. You can easily sell off the stuff you don't want for $250 and make your money back AND have $1000 in equipment out of the deal. That will give you a little cash to put towards a smaller tank if that is the direction you decide. A 180G tank is very intimidating, even to me. I would love to have a tank that size, but I don't think I could afford to keep a tank that size running myself. On my 75G it cost me over $200/mo just in electricity, and another $150+ a month in other supplies like salt, carbon, phosphate media, etc. It is a very expensive hobby.. well, Reefs are.. Fish only is a fraction of the cost, like 1/10th.
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:)

i have to say that i like your wrasses, if that is indeed what your default is. :)
 
The dude said that once he had his 200# of live rock established...he only had to do water changes once every 6 months or so. He would test it...and add RO/DI water from his filter (which he just changed the cartridges on) to keep the level/salinity right but the Liverock kept the water clean. Maybe I mis-heard him...but I swear that is what he said. I am sure he had to add chemicals and such on a regular basis...but it didn't sound like it needed regular water changes.

I have every intention to start slow...FOWLR. If...after 6 months to 12 months with fish (not counting cycle time) I am still into it (hope so), I will start thinking about Reef (will keep reef safe fish from the begining).

I will find out what his monthly upkeep costs were and gauge my plans from there...cause like you said...180 gallons is massive. :) Either way...it is worth it for the pieces like you said.
 
Woah.. please do not go by that advice for water changes. I have never heard anyone going that long and have good success. In a Fish only tank, you can get away with probably 10% every 2 weeks, but you are going to need to get some test kits down the road and test your water to gauge how much and how often you will need to do water changes. You will NOT have to do 50% a week like I do though.. I go to the extreme. He may have told you that to try and seal the deal so to speak. There is a reason he is getting out of the hobby, could be any reason, but I know a lot of people leave because they become "Chained to the tank" so to speak. When you have $20,000+ (like me) in a tank you have a hard time even going on a vacation for a week because of the tank. Not that you would have that much money invested in that tank for many many years to come.. but 5+ years down the road if you still enjoy the hobby you can easily put that much into a 180G tank just in corals if you go high end corals. Again though, great deal and I would still jump on it without thinking twice.

In the beginning, if you do use that tank, I would skip on turning on the MH lights for at least the first month while the tank cycles. Use the PC lights, possibly get a couple daylight bulbs for it. The cost of a couple daylight bulbs will be much cheaper than running a 250w MH... nevermind 3 250w MHs. Just stick to your guns so to speak and go with the plan you have set.. it is a very good plan to start slow.. get familiar with things, them move to some softies like mushrooms/xenia to get a feel for corals.. it is a slow progression as you move up to harder corals. Don't feel rushed at all to move to reef until you have a firm grasp on the fish part. You can have piece of mind in knowing you have all the right equipment to go reef though... heck.. there are items there I still don't have but wish I did (Calcium Reactor). I would pay $250 just for that myself.
 
Yeah. MH would not be used until I decided to do corals (or if I decide). 4x96w should be plenty for FOWLR I would think. He seemed like a nice guy, and intellegent...I am sure I missunderstood what he said about the water changes. Why would he need a nice RO/DI filter, and a nice 180 gallon storage tank if he never did water changes? I am sure I was too busy staring at the stuff to pay attention to what he was saying. :)

Either way...I will bring that stuff back to my place this weekend...and see where I stand once I have it laid out...and make a plan of attack from there. :) 180 is excessive...but everything I have heard is that bigger is better...and more stable. :)
 
Yup, 4x96 is more than enough for Fish only. No question there. Running the MHs is what cost the most $ in electricity obviously, and is only needed for corals.. 750w running 8 hours a day.. that is like running a hair dryer for 8 hours.. you can imagine the cost when you think of it that way. You could get away with it costing less than $100/mo total to run that tank as a Fish only.

Edit: I still can't stop thinking about that amazing deal.. I swear I am going to have dreams about that tonight. Just thinking about the MH bulbs, a 250w bulb cost around $80.. so just by that math, 3 250w bulbs.. just the bulbs, not the ballast/reflectors/sockets, cost $240! I am trying to add up everything listed.. I got up to over $5000 for it if you were to buy it new before I stopped adding.. If that setup were for sale around here in a local reef club, bare minimum asking price would be $2000.
 
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Ace25 said:
Yup, 4x96 is more than enough for Fish only. No question there. Running the MHs is what cost the most $ in electricity obviously, and is only needed for corals.. 750w running 8 hours a day.. that is like running a hair dryer for 8 hours.. you can imagine the cost when you think of it that way. You could get away with it costing less than $100/mo total to run that tank as a Fish only.

Edit: I still can't stop thinking about that amazing deal.. I swear I am going to have dreams about that tonight. Just thinking about the MH bulbs, a 250w bulb cost around $80.. so just by that math, 3 250w bulbs.. just the bulbs, not the ballast/reflectors/sockets, cost $240! I am trying to add up everything listed.. I got up to over $5000 for it if you were to buy it new before I stopped adding.. If that setup were for sale around here in a local reef club, bare minimum asking price would be $2000.
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:D

makes me wish i had money and room for something like that.
 
LOL Ace. He claims that he spent around $10,000 total. Said he had it listed for $1000 a few weeks ago...and a couple people decided to tell him it wasn't worth crap because the tank(s) were scratched...so he decided to drop the price just to get it done with. Based on his house...I don't think he is hurting for the money. I bet the wifey told him it needed to be out ASAP. :)
 
I definately belive he could have spent $10k on it. I don't know what those other people were thinking.. a few scratches doesn't kill the deal at all. If you really wanted you could use a dremel with a polishing wheel and some polishing compound to buff out the scratches pretty easily but if they are not obtrusive.. like dead center in the front of the glass, I wouldn't even worry about it. Scratches are bound to happen no matter how careful you try to be.. so on any used tank scratches are expected if you ask me.
 
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