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Is this a good deal on equipment?

Cephman

Blue Ring
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Dec 29, 2008
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Remember the 300g tank I was talking about? Well it is actually 200g-my bad-I have a shopping cart full of equipment from marine depot:sump w/hoses and media, protein skimmer w/ pump, 3g picotube food tank for the cuttles, 2powerheads,
bottle of zooplankton, bottle of phytoplankton, 40lbs of oolite live sand, 100lbs of live rock from LFS, light fixture, 2 54 watt blue bulbs, 2 54 watt white bulbs, 200g mix of salt, 8oz of epoxy, unwanted parameters remover, Bio filter media, dark blue moonlight, hydometer, with the 200g tank. LiveAquaria:2salmon colored solomon coral, 5 pack polyps, 2 heteroxenias, 1 silver branch pulsing xenia, electric colored crocea clam, digitate acropora. Plus the $100 for the two 1.5 month old cuttles. Overall this will cost $3000 for EVERYTHING. Is it a good deal?
 
Ok,

First you are going to need more than 200 gallons of salt mix because you are going to need to do water changes. You should also have about 1-1.5 pounds of live rock for every gallon of your tank. That means about 200-300 pounds of live rock. You should set up your tank with water and sand, then live rock and then let it sit for awhile before you put anything else in it. You should wait on the coral because they are going to die unless your tank is stable. Is there an LFS in your area that you could visit and talk to some knowledgeable staff?

Who is helping you to set up this tank? Can your aunt help you?

Also, you need to figure in the cost of live food for the cuttles, it can be $50-$80 per week. They may eat frozen food some day, but you should budget for live food.
 
cuttlegirl;130754 said:
Ok,

First you are going to need more than 200 gallons of salt mix because you are going to need to do water changes. You should also have about 1-1.5 pounds of live rock for every gallon of your tank. That means about 200-300 pounds of live rock. You should set up your tank with water and sand, then live rock and then let it sit for awhile before you put anything else in it. You should wait on the coral because they are going to die unless your tank is stable. Is there an LFS in your area that you could visit and talk to some knowledgeable staff?

Who is helping you to set up this tank? Can your aunt help you?

Also, you need to figure in the cost of live food for the cuttles, it can be $50-$80 per week. They may eat frozen food some day, but you should budget for live food.

My dad and my friend who grows anemones are going to set it up with me. And with 200lbs of live rock the total will be about $3100 so is it a good deal and if not tell me how much you spent on your setup?
 
If you're hell bent on going new and have $3100 to dump on a new hobby that you aren't sure you'll enjoy, yeah that's good.

Otherwise you could just be patient and check Craigslist every day for "fish tank" and see if someone pops up. I got my whole 92 gallon corner set up, the same exact thing the LFS wanted to sell me for $2200 for $600, plus another $300 in incidentals.

Just make sure the tank you get is already set up for saltwater, hasn't had copper used, and examine it VERY closely for cracks and you'll be fine. You can even talk the guy down in price or offer full price for delivery/set up help.
 
there's a thread around (maybe in tank talk) asking people how much they've spent on their setups, if you can find it, it'd be the best place to look for comparisons.
 
The thread Monty mentions is called "What do you have..." and is a sticky at the top of the Tank Tank forum. However, I see you've already been there and looked at the posts.

From reading your post on that forum, I take it your dad is involved in saltwater and will help you with not only the set up, but taking care of the tank. Is this right? Who will be doing the testing and even more important, who will be mixing the salt water and doing the water changes. Even a 10% water change is 30 gallons. It's time consuming and a lot of work.

Before you trade in your trading cards, please read the ceph care forums and articles. You might do well to buy the book that Colin and I wrote - there's a link on the Tonmo home page with Amazon.

What are you planning to keep in this tank? Cuttles, S. bandensis? What age will they be? Will you need to provide live food? Food is a major expense when keeping cephs. Getting and temporarily keeping live food may require a lot of effort.

And finally, if you have a local fish store nearby, you should consider buying your tank from them. Used tanks are not so good for cephs because you cannot tell whether copper has been used as a treatment. Also, there could be a problem with the equipment. I had this recently, when I purchased a new 29 gallon Biocube which I made into a modified coral tank (added canister filter, protein skimmer, and used live rock rubble in the filter). After a few weeks, the 10,000K lamp would not work. Testing proved it was not the bulb. My local fish store owner came out and replaced the entire top of the unit. Of course, it was under warranty, but getting a replacement would have been more difficult and time consuming if I had order the tank online.

Honestly, I think you'd do better triying to set up a smaller reef tank, and after a year or two experience with saltwater, before trying a cuttle.

Nancy
 
Cuttlegirl mentioned it but perhaps a bit too casually:

You cannot put any of those corals in the tank at the time of set up

The tank has to cycle before the first live creature arrives. You can start adding clean-up crew after you plateau at your first cycle (anywhere from 1 month to 3 months depending on your live rock) then slowly add a hardy coral or two roughly every month. You will loose your animals, your money and make it even harder to properly establish a marine environment trying to set up a tank and adding live stock immediately. It does not matter if you are setting up a ceph tank, a reef tank or a fish tank. There is even a name for what you propose, New Tank Syndrome.
 

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dwhatley;130772 said:
Cuttlegirl mentioned it but perhaps a bit too casually:

You cannot put any of those corals in the tank at the time of set up

The tank has to cycle before the first live creature arrives. You can start adding clean-up crew after you plateau at your first cycle (anywhere from 1 month to 3 months depending on your live rock) then slowly add a hardy coral or two roughly every month. You will loose your animals, your money and make it even harder to properly establish a marine environment trying to set up a tank and adding live stock immediately. It does not matter if you are setting up a ceph tank, a reef tank or a fish tank. There is even a name for what you propose, New Tank Syndrome.

Yeah, I know what cycling is and was planning on starting to add corals every month or so starting after 3 months after setup along with everything else. My friend AJ recommends I start of with a Bio-cube-he has one in his living room. I was going to add red silk coral after a year because they are VERY delicate!
 
One of the things you might want to consider, now that you understand more about the amount of time needed, is to buy a first tank that can later be converted to be used as a sump for a larger one. Unfortunately, this pretty much excludes any of the nice looking bio-cubes or anything with an attached hood. As unexciting as it sounds, a 30-40 gallon rectangular aquarium is a nice size for a future sump and large enough for a small reef.
 

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