HELP New to this have no clue what I'm doing!!

[melissaw864]

A friend of a friend is moving back to TX we are in SC. So he gave me his salt water aquarium. This is what I know it is a Seaclear 28g hexagon. It has penguin bio-wheel 100, 12" flforescent reflector 20 watt light, secondnature challenger 200w heater. It has a crab in it and an anemone white. He took out a lot of the water and I saved two gallons of it. I also kept some of the water in the tank. It looks like he has gravel in the bottom of it and it is super nasty. I put water in it and turned everything on. The pump was super loud so I unpluged it and when I pluged it back up....nothing. No noise but I don't think it is working either now. It goes all the way inside the aquarium and sits on top of a tube that is connected to a grid under the gravel. So needless to say I have no clue what I'm doing and I don't want to kill what I have in there now. So HELP what should I do. He didn't tell me nothing other than he was in TX for 2wks and all the fish died so that is all he had left. I know I need a new pump (since the other one stoped)and a skimmer since I don't have one. I'm so :frustrat: and have no clue what I'm doing. Please help and tell me what to do I'm going to take the water and test it at the pet store tomorrow. When I got it home they had already closed.

 

[little_fish]

Hello and Welcome

Oh boy, looks like he gave you a mess, but we can help you get all back together.

First though, i would return the nem tomorrow. A white nem is a sick nem and when they die they can kill everything else because of the toxins they release.

It sounds like the whole thing is really really old school. I personally would recommend taking everything out and starting over.

Here are some great articles to read though:
https://www.livingreefs.com/water-chemistry-t31270.html
https://www.livingreefs.com/basic-equipment-list-t19611.html
https://www.livingreefs.com/why-using-tap-water-bad-idea-t19865.html
https://www.livingreefs.com/ideal-books-reef-keepers-t19535.html


Is there anyway you can put up pictures so we can help you figure out what equipment is good and what isnt.

 

[Smitty]

Hello and welcome to the site...glad to have you. Little fish has you covered, it's probably best to start from scratch, and don't worry, we'll help you along the way. :)

 

[ErinCahir]

Hello and welcome to the site! Little_fish has you covered.
We're glad you found us!

 

[melissaw864]

Ok, I just took everything out and cleaned it with water and a paper towel. I took some pictures of all the stuff the guy game me. Needless to say the crab was dead I think he was already dead. The tank was so nasty and dirty stuff floating all around it. So I'm glad to be starting fresh.

 

[melissaw864]

Also I have no clue how to post pictures up to show you what all I have. Thanks!!

 

[Smitty]

I've found the best way is thru photobucket.com , load your pic to the site and then copy and paste the "img" code in your post.

 

[sen5241b]

A friend of a friend is moving back to TX we are in SC. So he gave me his salt water aquarium. This is what I know it is a Seaclear 28g hexagon. It has penguin bio-wheel 100, 12" flforescent reflector 20 watt light, secondnature challenger 200w heater. It has a crab in it and an anemone white. He took out a lot of the water and I saved two gallons of it. I also kept some of the water in the tank. It looks like he has gravel in the bottom of it and it is super nasty. I put water in it and turned everything on. The pump was super loud so I unpluged it and when I pluged it back up....nothing. No noise but I don't think it is working either now. It goes all the way inside the aquarium and sits on top of a tube that is connected to a grid under the gravel. So needless to say I have no clue what I'm doing and I don't want to kill what I have in there now. So HELP what should I do. He didn't tell me nothing other than he was in TX for 2wks and all the fish died so that is all he had left. I know I need a new pump (since the other one stoped)and a skimmer since I don't have one. I'm so :frustrat: and have no clue what I'm doing. Please help and tell me what to do I'm going to take the water and test it at the pet store tomorrow. When I got it home they had already closed.

Welcome melissa !

You already have had one disaster. I recommend you take 10 minutes to read this article first and avoid another. If you have too much reading, read this one first: https://www.livingreefs.com/marine-aquarium-disasters-and-prevent-them-t20514.html