was offered a 90 gallon reef.....but....

[Emg2]

Ok.....

I'm not exactly new to keeping reefs. I have a 29 and a 15 gallon. I have only been into sw since last Oct. I've been keeping FW tanks since the end of 2003...community/planted/species only/etc etc.... (it all started with a stupid betta!)

Anyway....I have recently been offered a 90gallon reef which has been setup and established for at least 12 years. The owner has to move and wants someone who will appreciate it and take good care of it ..to have it...(that would be me)....she's willing to take whatever I can offer....(which wouldn't be MUCH....I'm poor!)

I have had great success with these two reefs that I have now...even though I am using tap water. I think the reason being is that I change out about 1/3 of the water on each once weekly. I don't use a skimmer on either one...just have macro and HOBs for water movement and a couple of powerheads. My tap water is very soft and the PH in my sw tanks hits about 8.2-8.4 without anyintervention from me. I add no buffers or anything else to these tanks....though my calcium runs abit on the low end (320-360) I think the regular water changes help there.

I do have easy to keep corals...mushrooms, softies, star polyps, clavularia......that sort and easy keeper fish.....perculas, six line wrasse, a watchmen and a wheelers goby.....in other words,nothing that's difficult or sensitive.

This 90gallon tank would come with EVERYTHING ! Rocks, fish, lights, skimmer, stand, filtration system (wet/dry), python system that her plumber husband put together himself......there's room to add more fish since she has lost some recently to old age (she's had them since first setting up the tank)......in other words, this is a poorman reefer's dream of an offer !! How could I possibly walk away from this ?????

OK....here's my question..............If I do monthly or bimonthly 50gallon change outs on this tank.....could I get away with using tap if the inhabitants aren't of the seriously sensitive kind ? I know I can't afford, nor do I want...to have to run to the lfs for RO water everytime I need to top off......and the amount of water I would have to run through an RO/DI system would probably run our water bill to the point where hubby would have an issue with this...hehe....

here's a pic of my 15gallon.....I set this one up the beginning of this year when I moved my reef from a 20long to a 29 after receiving about 40lbs of LR from another generous reefkeeping friend. Perhaps it hasn't been setup long enough to show stress from tap water....I don't know....I'm no expert at this....but it looks pretty healthy to me....*shrug*

I know the rule is RO for SW reefs....but most of the SW reefs kept by the experts have all those beautifully colored and oh so sensitive calcium sucking sps and other easy to kill species of coral.........I'm wondering if I kept to the less sensitive more hardy varieties.....I might just be able to get away with tap "IF" I'm faithful to do the frequent water changeouts. It's been working with my smaller two tanks thus far.....

Please be kind.........I'm just a poor know nothing hobbiest down on her luck who's just been offered a dream......


...

 

[stuccodude]

i would think the livestock in the 90 are gonna want whatever the previous owner did to maintain her system, is the python some kind of filtration unit and if so, that dont come with the system, good luck and from what i have read and my own experince a bigger tank is easier to maintain then a smaller tank.

 

[cdbias2]

Tapwater problems usually apear in the form of an algea outbreak. I dont see any in your tank.
Where in the northeast do you live?
It'd be interesting(and cheap) to see what your TDS is.
You're probably going to want to step it up with the 90g.

 

[Emg2]

I live in Northeastern CT.........my KH measures about 40ish if that's any indication

I do have a bit of algae in the 29....which stays mostly to the back wall and the turbo snail makes quick work of that.

a pic of that one

If it's just a matter of algae........would keeping a few of the algae eating tangs or blenny be enough ?

 

[James77]

I live in RI- between water changes, RO/DI waste, and top offs, I use about 1250 gallons of water a month. It costs me less than $4.00- although sewer probably adds another 5 bucks on top of it. I'd get a reasonable RO/DI from buckeyefieldsupply.com or the fillterguys, both RC sponsors- they can be had for just over $100, and well worth it.

 

[cdbias2]

I got a 6 stage off of ebay for $65 and with an extra set of filters for $100. It works just fine.
I think with all the algea, your phosphate levels will show to be high.

 

[dsn112]

If it were me I'd take it! That tank is probably worth over 2 grand. You can make it work, and if you pass on it, you will regret it!

 

[Emg2]

Yeah, I'm beginning to think the same thing Dsn.....I most certainly would be sorry if I don't take her up on this offer.

Now I just have to figure out where I'm going to put it......


As far as phosphates being high.....most likely since I don't have a skimmer. All I can do to get rid of the solids is to blow off the rock with a motor from one of my useless intank whisper filters...which I do at each weekly water change.

Can't figure why the 15 is doing so much better though as it gets the same treatment as the 29 each week. However, the HOB I have on that tank does NOT have 4 inches of sand in it. It's just an empty HOB I tossed on there for water movement.

The 2 HOBs I have on the 29 are AquaClear 70's that are setup as refugiums. I'm thinking that the 4 inches of sand I have in one of them is probably not doing what it's supposed to be doing. Just an UNeducated guess though...

 

[sruiz]

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/119718new_avatar.JPG [/IMG]

 

[Ritten]

Your tanks look very healthy to me. Take it and run! Maybe you can combine the three and have less work.

 

[cloob]

Don't forget that you may need to reinforce the floor where you plan on placing that tank.

 

[RumLad]

Take a water sample down to the nearest "water store" or LFS (if a good salty one is nearby) and have them take a TDS reading for you. You may find out you are one of the lucky few that have very good tap water.
I think you would be okay to run this new system as you have done your current tanks. Just watch them carefully and be willing to change methods if needed. Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[cdbias2]

Do you feed the one with more algea more often for some reason?

 

[Emg2]

Thanks everyone.......I do have concerns about the floor....however, we do currently have a piano in the place where I would be putting this tank.......anyone know how much your average studio type piano weighs ??


As far as how much I feed.......both tanks get similar treatment. I have 2 gobies in the 15 and a pair of perculas and a six line wrasse in the 29, I have no idea why one has more algae than the other. The only thing I can think of is that with the deep sand bed in the HOB on the 29, perhaps gunk is accumulating in there and the sand bed isn't doing what it's suppose to do.

Contemplating this 90....I'm not much in the interest of taking the HOB off and getting rid of the sand at this point....since I may well be hauling it all into a 90 pretty soon...