brendon2020
Premium Member
I'm just telling my story hoping that someone can just inform me where i went wrong.
I started a 90 gallon reef tank about 2 years ago. Bought the tank, stand, canopy all brand new from a local pet shop called Pet World. After that i went online and started buying used equipment thru ebay and fs forums here at reefcentral. My first deal i got screwed, i got a 75 gallon wet/dry that arrived cracked, a RO+DI REVERSE OSMOSIS unit that also had a few cracks, and all was insured thru UPS but the guy took the money and never heard from again.
My father repaired the RO+DI unit, one of the fittings need to be replaced, and he used some clear adhesive to hold the wet/dry together.
Next thing i did was bought sand(2 50lb bags) from home depot, i'm not exactly sure what sand i got. But you can see pics here, the white sand on the top was the live sand bought from a local pet shop at $20 for 20lb bag. Here are some pics,
http://silent1.shackspace.com/Fish Tank/DSCF0040.JPG
http://silent1.shackspace.com/Fish Tank/DSCF0041.JPG
http://silent1.shackspace.com/Fish Tank/DSCF0042.JPG
Next was filling the tank with water thru the RO+DI unit, again this was bought used so i'm not sure what state the unit was in. It took about a day and a half to fill the tank, which after i added salt (i'm not sure which brand i got, could've been the one with the clown fish on it).
After that i turned the pumps on and let it run for about a week. I'm not sure how long after that that i went out and bought LR, i think my first fish was a clown fish which actually survived for a very long time. The rock i got from my local store was bought for around $8/pound. You can see in the pics above, it wasn't the most lively rock.
After a while, at least 2 months, i went and got some angels and some soft corals. I believe this was my first major purchase,
http://silent1.shackspace.com/Fish Tank/DSCF0046.JPG
It lasted till i sold the tank, about 8 months ago.
Also got this, not sure if it lasted till the end and if i ended up actually selling it.
http://silent1.shackspace.com/Fish Tank/DSCF0044.JPG
After awhile it actually got larger and larger, the pic above was it in its prime but in the end looked like this,
http://silent1.shackspace.com/Fish Tank/Picture 022.jpg
http://silent1.shackspace.com/Fish Tank/Picture 023.jpg
I probably went thru about 3 or 4 anemones, this was the last one i got.
http://silent1.shackspace.com/Fish Tank/Picture 015.jpg
For about a week it looked like that and then overnight i went to turn the lights on and it look like this,
http://silent1.shackspace.com/Fish Tank/Picture 018.jpg
I actually made a post about it here and that night it went back to normal. But it wasn't even 3-4 days later it died.
The only fish that lasted in my tank was my panther grouper. He was the only fish that would actually eat any of the food i gave them.
Once a week i would feed live brine shrimp, the rest of the week would be rotating different kinds of frozen foods. But like I said before, only the grouper would actually eat. If by any chance some food went right in front of the other fish they might grab it. They would make no effort to actaully go and get food when i put it in the tank.
I went thru angel fish like crazy, but none of them would eat and probably died thru starvation. I tried romain, even this algee stuff the store guy told me to try. No luck.
You can go thru this directory of all the pics i have of my old 90 gallon tank,
http://silent1.shackspace.com/Fish Tank/
I ended up selling my tank for maybe a 10th of what i originally paid in total if that. I'm not really sad about that but i'm more curious as to why things went so wrong. The tank just became this death machine and i could not stand it, when i bought a fish and no more than 2 weeks and he got the royal flush.
Looking back now the sand i bought, the adhesive on the wet/dry, and the possibility of the RO+DI unit being bad probably was the cause of everything. But like i said some things would survive and some would not. The mushrooms, the grouper, and a few other things survived from the day i got them till the day i decided to start selling off things but all of my angels, clowns, anenomies did not last long. I had my water tested by the same store and they never found anything wrong with it and i had my own test kits and never had any problems.
I forgot to mention the lighting i had, i was able to get some mh (2 250 watt 10K bulbs) that did all the lighting for the tank. Also my electric bill went up $150 a month by having the lights on from about 10am to 10pm. This normal?
Also any LR, soft corals, and fish were all bought from the same store. Other reef central members didn't have a lot nice things to say about the store, but at the time wasn't really aware of other places to get stuff. A few months after about 15 minutes from where i live another store opened up, gotta go and check it out.
The reason for coming back to reefcentral and pondering a reeftank again is i just passed the same store i went to and saw a 200+ gallon reef tank and now just have that urge to do it all again. Probably won't be anytime soon that i will get another tank but would like to know as to what i did wrong. Thanks for reading, any advice/comment on the matter would be appreciated.
I started a 90 gallon reef tank about 2 years ago. Bought the tank, stand, canopy all brand new from a local pet shop called Pet World. After that i went online and started buying used equipment thru ebay and fs forums here at reefcentral. My first deal i got screwed, i got a 75 gallon wet/dry that arrived cracked, a RO+DI REVERSE OSMOSIS unit that also had a few cracks, and all was insured thru UPS but the guy took the money and never heard from again.
My father repaired the RO+DI unit, one of the fittings need to be replaced, and he used some clear adhesive to hold the wet/dry together.
Next thing i did was bought sand(2 50lb bags) from home depot, i'm not exactly sure what sand i got. But you can see pics here, the white sand on the top was the live sand bought from a local pet shop at $20 for 20lb bag. Here are some pics,
http://silent1.shackspace.com/Fish Tank/DSCF0040.JPG
http://silent1.shackspace.com/Fish Tank/DSCF0041.JPG
http://silent1.shackspace.com/Fish Tank/DSCF0042.JPG
Next was filling the tank with water thru the RO+DI unit, again this was bought used so i'm not sure what state the unit was in. It took about a day and a half to fill the tank, which after i added salt (i'm not sure which brand i got, could've been the one with the clown fish on it).
After that i turned the pumps on and let it run for about a week. I'm not sure how long after that that i went out and bought LR, i think my first fish was a clown fish which actually survived for a very long time. The rock i got from my local store was bought for around $8/pound. You can see in the pics above, it wasn't the most lively rock.
After a while, at least 2 months, i went and got some angels and some soft corals. I believe this was my first major purchase,
http://silent1.shackspace.com/Fish Tank/DSCF0046.JPG
It lasted till i sold the tank, about 8 months ago.
Also got this, not sure if it lasted till the end and if i ended up actually selling it.
http://silent1.shackspace.com/Fish Tank/DSCF0044.JPG
After awhile it actually got larger and larger, the pic above was it in its prime but in the end looked like this,
http://silent1.shackspace.com/Fish Tank/Picture 022.jpg
http://silent1.shackspace.com/Fish Tank/Picture 023.jpg
I probably went thru about 3 or 4 anemones, this was the last one i got.
http://silent1.shackspace.com/Fish Tank/Picture 015.jpg
For about a week it looked like that and then overnight i went to turn the lights on and it look like this,
http://silent1.shackspace.com/Fish Tank/Picture 018.jpg
I actually made a post about it here and that night it went back to normal. But it wasn't even 3-4 days later it died.
The only fish that lasted in my tank was my panther grouper. He was the only fish that would actually eat any of the food i gave them.
Once a week i would feed live brine shrimp, the rest of the week would be rotating different kinds of frozen foods. But like I said before, only the grouper would actually eat. If by any chance some food went right in front of the other fish they might grab it. They would make no effort to actaully go and get food when i put it in the tank.
I went thru angel fish like crazy, but none of them would eat and probably died thru starvation. I tried romain, even this algee stuff the store guy told me to try. No luck.
You can go thru this directory of all the pics i have of my old 90 gallon tank,
http://silent1.shackspace.com/Fish Tank/
I ended up selling my tank for maybe a 10th of what i originally paid in total if that. I'm not really sad about that but i'm more curious as to why things went so wrong. The tank just became this death machine and i could not stand it, when i bought a fish and no more than 2 weeks and he got the royal flush.
Looking back now the sand i bought, the adhesive on the wet/dry, and the possibility of the RO+DI unit being bad probably was the cause of everything. But like i said some things would survive and some would not. The mushrooms, the grouper, and a few other things survived from the day i got them till the day i decided to start selling off things but all of my angels, clowns, anenomies did not last long. I had my water tested by the same store and they never found anything wrong with it and i had my own test kits and never had any problems.
I forgot to mention the lighting i had, i was able to get some mh (2 250 watt 10K bulbs) that did all the lighting for the tank. Also my electric bill went up $150 a month by having the lights on from about 10am to 10pm. This normal?
Also any LR, soft corals, and fish were all bought from the same store. Other reef central members didn't have a lot nice things to say about the store, but at the time wasn't really aware of other places to get stuff. A few months after about 15 minutes from where i live another store opened up, gotta go and check it out.
The reason for coming back to reefcentral and pondering a reeftank again is i just passed the same store i went to and saw a 200+ gallon reef tank and now just have that urge to do it all again. Probably won't be anytime soon that i will get another tank but would like to know as to what i did wrong. Thanks for reading, any advice/comment on the matter would be appreciated.
