Buying a cycled aquarium?

[cirrus]

Hello everyone,

I thought I'd start by introducing myself since this is my first post. I'm a student from UC Santa Cruz in California and I kept freshwater tanks up to 40gal off and on for years while I was growing up. One of my housemates now is a student in the Marine Bio program, and a while back the idea of setting up a reef aquarium came up. She's also had experience with freshwater tanks.

Long story short, we've done our research and we're ready to start buying the equipment to set it up. Today though we found an offer online from an aquarist here in town who is looking to sell his 55 gal 'tropical' aquarium' that's 'already cycled with all of the equipment' as a package. It caught my eye because the price is decent ($80), so I emailed him for details, and these were the specs he sent back:

- 55 gallon TruVu tank with hood and light
- Marineland Filter for up to 90gals (he didn't mention the model)
- Heater
- Nets
- Chemicals & Water conditioner

He offered to leave some water in it so I wouldn't have to cycle it again, so it's got to already have live sand and rock. No mention of fish.

So I guess my question is, is buying a already set-up tank even a good idea in the first place? And if I were to pursue this tank, what kinds of questions should I be asking to make sure it will run well?

Thanks!

 

[x19]

Welcome Cirrus, one of the experts will chime in soon but I think its a decent price. There is nothing wrong with buying used stuff, just make sure you give it a good look over before buying it.

One thing to keep in mind though, your likely going to have som die off from the transport, especially if there is sand to get sloshed around.

 

[Sammydog]

I did the same thing last Christmas with a 24gallon tank.

Overall its worked out well, but a few issues we had,
- chiller was really undersized for the tank, so it needed to be replaced.
- the tank move stirred up the tank and we did set off a small cycle and a hair algae bloom that we have just about gotten rid of 12 months later.

We took all the water in small garbage bins (with the live rock arranged in it) and kept just enough water in the tank to cover the sand.

Fish and corals in separate containers. We didn't loose anything in the move (about 40km's in a trailer) and still have the original coral. We lost one of the original fish after 12 months.

 

[BL1]

Welcome to the site!

You should ask him, how many pounds of live rock and sand there is. If he's ever used any type of chemicals in the tank (like copper). Does he use tap water. Ask if it's coming with any salt, refractometer, or powerheads. And if any livestock is included (fish, corals, or inverts).

To transport you'll need enough rubbermaid containers or 5 gal. buckets to transport the sand, rock, and any livestock he has. Make sure before you put the sand back in the tank you rinse it out really really well so it doesn't release any bad stuff back into the tank. If it were me I'd just buy all new sand to avoid the headache. Make sure you also have some batches of salt water mixed at home because you're only going to want to use some of the old water.

 

[Bifferwine]

Hello and welcome! It looks like a good deal, but you will probably have to upgrade lights in order to keep corals and have a reef tank.

 

[Rufio808]

Did you want to concentrate on corals, fish or both? Either way, make sure there is adequate live rock and some type of water movement. Don't be shy to ask the forum. There's lots of help here!

Welcome to the addiction!

 

[Jmck]

Few things I notied. Is the Marineland filter a skimmer? or is it just a plain filter that are used for freshwater tanks?

the lights sound like they could be stock with the hood. Do you know anything else about them? like said above they may be too weak for things you want to keep in there.

Buying a second hand tank though is not a bad idea, as long as you can check and see if there is any rot in the wood, or scratches on the glass from cleaning.

80 dollars is a good price but it depends if you will be happy to look at this tank for a long time. Because if it has scratches or other things that will cause it to be difficult to look after it may be better to ge a better tank.

When it comes to the cucling you can stop the cycling by using whats already in there, but I personally prefer to recycle with everything being new to avoid the previous owners mistakes. If there is no livestock.

 

[Ogaawd]

I think the Truviews are cellcast acrylic, read up on owning an acrylic tank, they can be challenging for a reef tank.

 

[Jmck]

I dont agree with them being tricky, I have an acryllic tank, the only thing is they scratch incredibly easy.

 

[Smitty]

Hello and welcome to the site...glad to have you. On top of what everyone else has already asked, are you sure this is a salt water tank, because you mention "tropical", and that usually means freshwater.

 

[cirrus]

Hi everyone, thanks for all the advice.

Few things I notied. Is the Marineland filter a skimmer? or is it just a plain filter that are used for freshwater tanks?

Unfortunately Jmck was right, the guy wrote back and it's freshwater. I guess I could clear it and just start from scratch using the tank with the heater and a new lights/filter/protein skimmer. Or would that not be worth it?

Alternatively, I have a 30gal tank with nothing but a screen over the top. Would I better off just sticking with that?

Thanks

 

[yote]

For the price,I'd still buy that 55.Then use your 30 as a display/fuge/sump.Use the 55 for the reef and set the 30 up as a lagoon tank with some seagrasses and such.
And welcome to the reef.

 

[Waddi]

For the price,I'd still buy that 55.Then use your 30 as a display/fuge/sump.Use the 55 for the reef and set the 30 up as a lagoon tank with some seagrasses and such.
And welcome to the reef.

What he said!! :mrgreen:
80 bucks is nice and cheap for a 55!!

 

[cirrus]

Ok, I emailed him back, so hopefully it'll work out. Last question: can someone recommend a filter and protein skimmer? The model we're using requires two wet/dry biofilters, but between all of the brands and models it's hard to know exactly what we're getting.

Thanks again for all the help!

 

[Waddi]

For a nice skimmer, you should go with a reef octopus, they are cheap and very very good! As for filter, you wouldn't really need one if you had a skimmer, but im sure a bog standard 55Gal one should be fine as long as it had carbon packages.
Someone can correct me if im wrong! :D

 

[CurtisL]

ive thought about this as well, but i think part of the satisfaction of reefing is getting your water just right to begin your experiences, JMHO... whatever road you choose good luck!

 

[fishmom]

As someone told me--just a few weeks ago...."Nothing like jumping into a really expensive hobby on the cheap"....

I am soooo new at this the ONLY advice I could give would be--thumbs up to the Reef Octopus HOB skimmer. Just got one 2 weeks ago and while it is still 'breaking in' we have had NO problems (and not NEARLY as expensive as many others) and just today unplugged the canister filter.........so far, so good.

Welcome to LR----the advice is priceless and everyone is soooooo nice and 'gentle' .....

 

[Jmck]

Sounds about right above. Reef Octopus is an excellent skimmer to begin with. A lot of members here though run much bigger tanks and will have higher end ones. One thing to remember though is dont overstock this tank. My tank has recently gone through a bad stage because I had 8 good sized fish in there :P the last one topped it over its limit and im now sitting on 4 because i lost 3 and sold one other.

I btw have a 60g tank, so not far from yours.

By the sounds of it, your tank is not drilled. So you can use your 30g as a sump by creating an overflow box on your tank. Alternatively you can just install a HOB skimmer and that will do just fine as well.

Happy Reefing

 

[markymark]

honestly i would not care about the already cycled tank, because setup is gonna make it cycle again, if you really want to keep everything low, I would just buy 90 gallons of r/o water mix it in the tank, put sand in first and bowl over the sand to pour so the substrate is not blown all over the place keeping detritus to a minimum also your water then would be the purest and can add minerals etc later, not having to worry about nitrate nitrites nor ammonia. I did that with a 100 gallons was kinda exp for all the water and sand and stuff but in the end it was worth it

mark

 

[cirrus]

Hey everyone, thanks again. It's great to find such a welcoming community online.

Ok, so we decided to delay confirming with the seller on the 55gal tank, because we just found another offer that sounds good:

- 40gal tank + stand
- Reflector with PFO 400w ballast + extra bulbs
- Marineland 350 Canister Filter
- Hydrometer
- Aquarium Systems Skimmer
- 2 Hydor Koralia Powerheads
- Powerstrip + Timers
- 2 Buckets of Salt
- Misc. other supplies

The seller's asking $250 for all of it. What do you think?