Taylorhardy1

26 minutes ago, R-3 said:

Inbox is full

Cleared

33 minutes ago, BeardUp said:

Sounds like the bad apple is leaving the bunch. 
I for one have had nothing but positive experiences with everyone I have met on here. The worst experience I have had was from facebook where a guy would not leave me alone trying to get me to send 100s of pics of GSP and drive it to Salem for him for free. Funny enough, he also owned a car business and was super pushy. I have given and received coutless frags for free or super cheap. This group has saved my tank a few times and helped me with all kinds of things as well as allowed me to branch in to higher end stuff. Lowball offers is part of selling stuff. Hell, I saw a person try to haggle at safeway on steaks one time. 

Not everyplace is for everyone and this place certainly does not sound like a good fit for you. Good luck selling in your ebay/amazon store and with your cars. 

Yep I'm totally the bad apple! All I ever did on this forum was offer help and advice (not just in reefing, but many other parts of life.) I never lowballed anyone regardless of my opinion on what their price should be. I have literally given away frags of homewrecker, Walt Disney, cherry bomb, and tons of higher end sticks on the premise they cut me some frags when they get it growing. Only to be told that if he cut me smaller frags than what I literally [language filter] gave him, I'd have to pay more than I paid for the entire frag pack of chunky frags to begin with. Sold corals for lowball deals to people who insisted they loved them so much, only to see that same coral for sale for more than I was originally asking within a few weeks.

5 hours ago, EMeyer said:

I wonder if its possible to address one general point of discussion without getting into the personal. 

(Disclaimer - I wasnt involved in the transactions discussed in the original post)

I think there are two questions about selling used equipment on which people have fundamental disagreements. This extends beyond this community or even this hobby, I see this in general. 

1. What is the appropriate price for used equipment? Retail? 1/2 retail? less? 

2. Is haggling over price rude or a normal, expected part of the sales process?

 

As far as I can tell, there are two schools of thought for each of these questions, making four groups. Me personally, I'm in the "1/2 retail and no haggling" school, but I think its worth recognizing that there are good and reasonable people in all four groups. We're all just starting the transaction with different assumptions. In my view its not useful to get angry with people for having a different position on these things, when there is so much diversity of opinion on these issues. Whichever group one finds themselves in, the other 3 groups... thats a lot of people to be angry at.

 

my 0.02

 

The standard for used, quality equipment in good shape is about 60% retail everywhere else in the country. It seems more like 30-40% of retail are the expected standard. Everything on all of my prices on my most recent post were around 60% retail (basically everything is in brand new conditon as well) and the general offers I have recieved are around 30-35% off my already more than fair asking prices. That's where its problematic. Offering me $300 when I'm asking $330, great. Offering me 30% or less of that asking price is guaranteed to make me view you as a broke person that shouldnt be in this hobby to begin with🤷‍♂️ just blows my mind that I'm able to be active in literally every other reefing community outside of the PNW, and these issues are almost nowhere to be found there. I wouldn't have made this post if it was every group I'm in, but I'm active on probably 15+ facebook pages, and 4 forums including this one. The PNW pages are the only ones I regularly feel these issues. 

I think it's awesome that so many of you havent experienced this dark side of the hobby, however acting like it's not there is beyond ignorance, and allowing it to go unchecked for as long as it has, has turned this community away from anything that is should be. Some of the reasons alot of my other groups are great is because people literally get banned for low balling people or being disrespectful in just about any way, and it's common for people to speak about the issues they're having so the community can work harder to better themselves and progress into something that actually benefits everyone. 

43 minutes ago, Emerald525 said:

Taylorhardy I am not here to debate with you about your feelings and experience. There were times where I had negative experiences too and wanted to leave too so I get your frustration. That’s the nature of a forum where there are lots of people who don’t meet face to face.  I have been lowballed many times too but just realize that’s part of selling and I just decline the offer.  It used to annoy me too but I hobby is expensive and people are trying to get by on a budget. 
 

I’m sorry your experience has been so negative that it has killed your passion for reefing. I remember how excited you were when you first posted here on the forum and that you don’t feel like you were embraced like you were with the Utah reefing community .  
 

Reefing is supposed to be fun and an escape from all the stresses from work and life and certainly this pandemic has added a new level of stress to us all.  I have stepped away from the hobby many times when I just had too many things going on and it felt more like a burden. 
 

It sounds like taking a break for a while may be a good idea for you. Maybe you will want to come back maybe you won’t but just know this place will be here for you if you change your mind and if you just want to see a tank and relax and chat reef I know there are plenty of people who would welcome you including myself. 
 

Again sorry this move has been rough for you and your experiences have been so negative. I have a feeling one day when you are in a better place the passion will be back.  

 

The passion for reefing will be there lingering until the day I inevitably setup another tank. The passion to help and better the reefing hobby is so far gone at this point that I wont be offering anything that I'm not paid for aside from "advice" like, "dose bayer to your display full of healthy fish and inverts to kill your AEFW."

You want to hear my real advice? My rate is currently $110/hour. You want to buy something I have? Asking price is posted. You wanna "negotiate" with a low ball offer? No, you can pay 15% extra instead. 

I appreciate you caring, I just genuinely hope this community can shift away from the current level of greed and selfishness I have seen. Having spent literally over 10 years heavily involved in the reefing community in another state, I can definitively say that it's not like this everywhere. 

I just simply do not see myself rejoining this community anytime in the future, even if I do have a saltwater aquarium in the area. 

I'm not here to debate this. I spent 10 years in another state where the hobby embraced me, and was truly respectful. I never once felt like I was taken advantage of when trying to sell/trade, and I recieved gratitude for my insight and knowledge while others did their best to do the same to benefit the hobby. That's resulted in an incredible community there with very few bad apples. In fact I spend more time in contact, and sell more livestock to my reefer friends who live 750 miles away to this day. This isnt specifically about it being difficult to sell stuff. This is about a blatant lack of respect that I have recieved by this community, and a blatant lack of compassion from those here. People here see a tank teardown and take it as an opportunity to offer 50% or less than asking prices. I sell cars, I run my own business working on cars, I have an ebay, and an amazon store that i resell goods on. I spend a ridiculous amount of time selling things. Somehow the pacific northwest reefers are more painful, and annoying to deal with than all of my business ventures combined, even on the worst days for my businesses and the best days here.

@SuncrestReef I clearly stated In my post, the ones that i respect and believe are good for the community know who they are. However you really accomplished a whole lot just searching my name and tagging literally every person that has recently mentioned me and demand I give them apologies though. Especially since you dont know an ounce of information about my relationship with any of those people listed. The fact is most if not all of those people tagged have had MULTIPLE dealings with me, and should know that they arent grouped into the bad apples this post is guided towards. A little reading comprehension would point you towards the fact that I stated the people who only ever got one dealing or less with me are primarily who this is guided towards.

If you didnt get further than me opening and leaving your PM on read, you're probably one of the people this is guided to. If you came over and bought something once, and I never reached out to you to see how things were doing, or I never responded when you asked me something- probably grouped there too. If you promised me a frag after I gave you a piece or multiple pieces out of the generosity in my heart, then the greed in your wallet makes you feel the need to ask me for money in return months later when I was in a better spot, you are who I'm talking about. I would dig through my PM's and just tag them all directly, but at this point theres so many a broad generalization is much easier.

Im generally not one for announcing a departure on a forum. It's not an airport, yet i feel so strongly about this i feel the need to vent it out. I moved to oregon with such a passion for reefing that I moved my complete 65g system from Utah to Oregon. It was a nightmare, but funny enough it was the most successful move out of all the tank moves over the years. Since I got into reefing I've made it a point to help people out whenever possible. Everytime someone ever came to get frags from me, or a fish, I coped with their ridiculous lowball offer (aside from like maybe 3 of you, you should all be embarrassed with your constant need to lowball everyone despite something being a fantastic deal already) and I've offered free frags, and other items to help sweeten the deal and just help others out. Aside from the treatment I've been given from the guys over at Cuttlefish (note: legitimate business with overhead, yet somehow provides better deals, and showed more interest in bettering the hobby than any person I have come across since moving here) I have generally been nothing less than disappointed with the connections I have made in this hobby. I have literally GIVEN people high end, named stuff with the promise that they return a frag when I'm ready in the future, only to have the favor returned by being told theyll need more money than I paid the original vendor for said frags. I have sold corals on the premise that whoever came to get it, would send additional funds once they got home and see it under lights only to have my number blocked, then months later I see frags of my coral for sale for more than I was asking to begin with. The people I have met through this forum (aside from a select few of you who I've expressed appreciation for) are generally people that I swear up and down I will never deal with again after 1 interaction. This community is full of greedy people, and it depresses me to think about how after a few years here, I have so much disdain for reefing that I will not setup another saltwater aquarium as long as I live in the PNW, and if I so happen to, I absolutely will not be reappearing on this forum, and will go out of my way to make a conscious effort to avoid this local community. In my recent tear down, I agreed to a price for my livestock with someone who then came and picked it up and told me the best he could do was 25% less than the agreed asking price after a few days of negotiating, after I had already bagged everything up and torn the tank down. I was literally forced to accept a lowball offer on my livestock to the point that my "acceptance" was legitimately me saying "what other choice do I have" with a tear in my eye. I hope that the person that pulled that greasy, and dirty sales tactic reads this, and loses sleep at night knowing they took advantage of me in such a way. I still have the rest of my equipment, but at this point I will literally drive this [language filter] across the country and hand deliver it to someone on the east coast before I accept any one of your embarrassingly low offers. I'm not here to debate this with anyone. If you feel the need to ask if you're one of the people that burned me, you probably are, and you should absolutely take a deep look at how you carry yourself through this hobby.

Today only- 
Tank, stand, sump, and light-$600
Tank, light, and return pump-$660
Tank, light, pump, ato, and rock-$750
Take everything I have for reefing, except the magnifier (test kits, various pumps, heaters, another 100lbs of live rock, and some more dry rock, different bins I used for mixing water and holding rock, tons of random additives and stuff.) $1000

11 hours ago, jtichenor said:

The Honda 2000 generator is one of the quietist available. That said, I don't think the HOA will care about the noise during a power outage. Your neighbors will most likely want to tap into that power source!

Second this. After the ice storm knocked my power out and killed my system, I got prepared. I went out on a mission of emergency preparedness and came home with a generator, spare heaters, a chiller, everything that seemed helpful in an emergency really. I thought my neighbors would complain about the noise but I left the generator on my porch and left a note that the spare ports directly on the generator could be used to charge phones or other light energy usage items. The neighbors that came by were all really thankful.

When the heat wave hit and the chiller came out though, I learned the importance of buying quality equipment as well. So, definitely keep that in mind.

Can work on prices a little bit. Throw me some offers!

Last up is this old school external skimmer. Its like 3' tall so probably for a huge system. Got with a large system uses 2 internal pumps for creating skimmate, and a feed pump (one brand new to in the box is included) needs cleaned. $50

Eshopps pf1000 HOB overflow box. It includes 2 u-tubes, and all other factory bits. Never been used. $110

Ecotech Radion XR15 g5 pro. Bought new from cuttlefish last October. Ran at 65% since. Updated to current mobius software and erased past settings for new owner. RMS bracket included. $350

Live rock from e170. Mainly branches and shelves. Some real Tonga branch, some Haitian, and some blue iquatics. Really nice pieces of rock. $150

Cleaned things out, everything is ready to go.

$350 for the e170 with reefer sump kit, and plumbing.

Simplicity dc1600 return pump. Bought new in may from cuttlefish and corals. Only ran at lowest setting, still have the box. $100

Bubble Magus 10" top down coral viewer. One notable scuff, but its 10" so you've got plenty of unobstructed viewing space. $20

Livestock is gone. Tank, rock, and equipment is all ready to go now. 

Well. This heat wave is reminding me I really need to get these corals out. Yesterday when I got home from work the tank had gotten to 85° and the lobo was melting. The zoas closed up again, but the shrooms look okay. Come get all of the remaining corals and the rock flower anemones for $240 today.

Price drop bump.

Almost forgot about these awesome little rock flower nems. I got these from jeff for $60 each, would like to get $80 for both

Individual prices for corals. 

In todays market, we could call this a mini colony of sunkist bounce shrooms. 6 polyps from the size of a dime to the size of a quarter. All covered in bubbles, really nice shrooms. $200

$40 for the jawbreaker

$75 for the indo lobo

$15 per for the no name rhodactis shrooms

$10 for 2 bleached ricordeas and purple sponge

$25 for the all of the zoas as a pack

The xenia is free to anyone who wants it.

Or $375 for all of the corals and RFA's in a pack.

Also have the 40g breeder sump I ran under my 120g. This is an amazing sump. $200

More photos. Located in Lake Oswego. Can meet or even deliver in the Portland area.

As the title says. I'm done. After the 5 days without power I lost pretty much everything, started to rebuild, things were going great until 115° days where my ac couldnt keep up and my chiller I kept on hand turned out to only work when it felt like it. Lost everything once again, this time my motivation to keep going went out with it..

The rock is almost all blue iquatics rock, or actual Tonga branch, with the exception of a few random unique pieces I grew to like. Would like $150 for all of the live rock in the tank. No aiptasia or known pests.

The tank is a Red Sea E170, included is all of the caps to run as an AIO, as well as the plumbing and the reefer170/250 sump. The factory ATO reservoir was converted to an algae scrubber and seems to work okay. This will be ready to go once livestock is sold. Only pump included is the factory circulation pump for the back of the main tank. The stand has some water damage and I would recommend replacing it but it has held up fine. $350

Ecotech radion xr15 G5 pro. Great light, only ran at 65% since I got it from jeff back in October last year. $350

Simplicity dc1600 return pump. Almost new, bought it from jeff a few weeks before the heat wave, ran at lowest setting since. $100

Take it all at once for $800

Eshopps pf1200 HOB overflow, dual u tube, dual drain, rated to 200g tank. Brand new in box. $120.

Man I bet these dimensions would be so much fun to scape in. If this was drilled differently I'd be all over it. Glws.

4 hours ago, cjmdh said:

Takes me a month or so get through 60 gallons of DI, so my RO/DI unit sits awhile before it gets used.

Sheesh. Must have some pretty hard water or something? In my current place I replaced the filters just before I moved in 8 months ago and I'm still seeing great water production, and my DI resin hasn't changed color yet. Now that I think about it I'm probably around 750g or more produced. Might be about time to change everything out again, but I think I'll run with it till I start seeing higher numbers.

1 hour ago, Higher Thinking said:

Flushing for an hour seems wild. I guess whatever works for ya. My top off is hooked directly to the RODI so it turns on countless times throughout the day. I've never actually tested the water as it arrives at the sump. Now I'm curious. 

I got in a habit of it because my original RO buddy would only spit out quality water after about an hour of running. Hadnt thought to see what it would move like till recently. In your case I imagine the water stays consistent since its regularly turning through.

How tall is the stand?

31 minutes ago, cjmdh said:

I always run the DI to a bucket until the TDS meter says it is 0 before directing to the barrel.  It starts off around 4 or 5 and usually drops to 0 after about a quart of DI.

Mine usually spits out 0tds immediately after turning it on, but I've always ran a gallon or more through it just to flush whatever might have become free floating. 

7 minutes ago, obrien.david.j said:

I think I'm lucky.   Out of the tap my TDS is around 15.  Occasionally 25.    And 0 out of DI, even right after turning on the unit.

I do run a booster-buddy on the system, so it auto flushes the membrane.  But that's not what you're asking about.

I've never seen anything other than 0 out of my DI, but the numbers before other stages fluctuate alot in the first gallon or so through it.

So I've always turned my unit on and just let it just run down the drain for about an hour before I start collecting water in order to flush some of the water that's been sitting in the unit for the last week. Prior to a couple weeks ago, I just had my TDS meter reading just before the sediment filter, and then following the DI chamber. Well recently I was having some tank issues so I got a new tds meter to compare. Both read the same and I was able to rule that issue out. But since I have another 2 sensors i decided to move them around and see how the water filters after each chamber. I've noticed that post DI I always have 0tds, but for the first few minutes my unit runs after sitting for a few days, I see as high of TDS out of my sediment filter (newer filter) as I get directly from the tap. It backs down from around 55, to around 20 post sediment filter after about an hour though. Has anyone else noticed this? 

Final question. Is all 0TDS water the same? Am I being wasteful flushing my unit before each use?

As the title says, looking for a hybrid fixture. Preferably 6-8 bulb t5+ halide or led. I miss my powermodule, but I dont have brand new powermodule money for this build. Cash in hand

1 hour ago, albertareef said:

That was a nice tank when you had it set up - someone should come snag 

I definitely miss it, and if the floors in my apartment werent so scary I'd definitely keep it.

This has gotten a ton of interest, but no one has come out to get it. It's in pretty decent shape, cleaned out mostly, and plumbing is included. The plywood in the bottom of the stand is practically worth my asking price right now. Come get it someone.