Silvas

Sump before and after light cleaning. Filled it up in the bathtub with hot water and vinegar, let it soak for a bit, then went and gave it a scrub and a rinse with a brand new scotch brite scouring pad/sponge. Probably didn't help the scuffing/cloudiness on the sump, being acrylic, but there was some seriously caked on grunge in that thing.

Just for grins and giggles... here's the light that came with it

No refractometer, there's a bunch of old chemicals, a couple old plastic hydrometers, 2 huge bags of what appears to be salt but it's just labeled not for resale (I have no intention of using these, as I have no way of knowing what kind of salt it is lol) and a ton of rock. 2 totes of rock. Some really old and deteriorating 'soft' plastic tubing for plumbing, it's all being thrown away. I wouldn't trust it with as yellowed and rough feeling as it is. Several pumps, all AC, most pretty small and with absolutely no markings anywhere so who knows what GPH they are. One Quiet One 3000 pump, which I found was a 700-ish GPH pump, but it's missing the prefilter and housing and flow adjuster, and the housing on the pump where the other would attach is all busted up so that's also a candidate for the trash most likely. An old 100w glass tube heater which isn't going to be nearly enough for this tank. All in all the plumbing and 99% of what came with the tank is looking like it's just garbage can fodder. The protein skimmer, since this is my first tank ever, I don't even know what I'm looking at or if it's all here (other than I know the cup lid isn't) and it has literally no markings anywhere on it so I don't know what brand it is or anything. The RODI looks good though the DI resin might need to be replaced, the tank visually looks ok though it's filthy as all get out and I need to clean it. The plumbing in the overflow looks pretty nasty, I might just start off by removing the bulkheads and getting a new aqueon megaflow accessory kit, since I'm 99.99% certain the tank is the aqueon 90 gal reef ready. Just replace all that overflow plumbing and start fresh. The 20 gal acrylic sump looks like it's been to hell and back... several dozen times over. Half of the plumbing going into it is super old and looking brittle, the clamps that were used look like the old screw style automotive clamps and they're rusted pretty bad. That's probably the first thing getting scrubbed down, today, I'll remove all the plumbing and debris from the sump, then give it a good scrub with some warm water and a new nylon scrub sponge pad, maybe some vinegar in dilution. In fact, I think I'm going to go take a before pic of that sump right now and then get started on it in the bathtub edit: I forgot in all this to mention that this was all being stored in a storage unit for an unknown period of time, then he had to clear out the storage unit in the middle of a sudden move, and he wasn't the first owner of the tank/stand. He also gave me a fluorescent light setup, looks like a diy sheet metal thing with 4 tubes and a crapload of heat shrunk wires going to balasts that all look pretty heavily corroded and all came detached from the metal plate. I want to do LED lighting anyways, so that's going away too.

Thanks for the link! I definitely got a really good deal, assuming the tank is good. I figure as long as the barracuda works, even if everything else ended up being trash, I still broke even or really only lost a few dollars, so as far as I'm concerned it's a good start Definitely will be taking it slow. I only really have a couple hours a day and weekends to work with for free time, so it's probably going to take me a month just to clean this stuff up and sort through it and hook up the sump and pump and leak test it. That'll give me plenty of time for research during breaks and lunch at work, and times when I'm just sitting waiting for one process to finish so I can start another one at work. I've read a lot of horror stories from people using live rock in their tanks, especially live rock they got from an unknown source. I'm a little hesitant on whether I should use these when I do start setting things up, or if I should just skip it and get new rocks (not live). On one hand, it seems wasteful to just toss them, on the other it seems like it could be more headache than it's worth.

Hi there! I've been interested in reef tanks for somewhere around 15 years now, ever since I stumbled across some beautiful pics on the garf website way back when. Never seemed to have the money or time to pursue it though, until recently. I was gifted a 55 gallon tank and stand by a friend moving out of state. After getting it in the house, I decided the stand was too narrow of depth for the height for my comfort (I have 3yo and 5yo grandchildren living in the house right now)... But the bug was set. I own my house and I have a reasonable income and free time now, it's time to pursue this hobby. I spent days researching on youtube, forums, etc. learning about setting up a tank, running it, maintaining it, etc. lots of good videos by BRStv and Aaron's Aquarium... and started putting together a list of equipment I'd want to start out with... lights, filter, RODI filter, wave maker(s), etc etc and also started looking for a more appropriate tank. I mean maybe the 55 with the 14 inch deep stand that sits 58 inches high with the tank would be fine, the weight might be enough that the little ones couldn't tip it over, but I'm paranoid and I'd have a neverending anxiety attack over it. I really didn't want to go much higher than the 55 gallon at first, but I ended up with a 90 gallon. It was a local post on craigslist, the tank, stand, canopy, sump, RODI filter, protein skimmer, and a ton of miscellaneous stuff I'm not sure what all of it is lol. Plus what felt like about 200 pounds of rock that he said was live rock. It looks like there's several pumps. The stand and canopy both need some love, and all of the gear is pretty grungy and needs a good cleaning, but I only paid $160 for it all, and now I've got a ton of work to do. The protein skimmer, I honestly don't know if it's all there or not, he said something about a lid being in one of the totes but I haven't found it. There's no markings anywhere on this thing, so I don't even know where to start on that. The biggest reason I even bought this was because I figured the RODI filter alone was going to run me about $160 anyways, so everything else was just icing on the cake. I worry that 90 gallons may be a bit too much tank for a beginner though. My plan was to start cleaning things (I know not to use chemicals) and identifying all the miscellaneous equipment, get the sump and plumbing and pump hooked up and leak test everything, then slowly start getting the tank aquascaped and running, test the water conditions, add a fish or 2, make sure everything is stable for awhile, then dip my toes into a coral or 2, again make sure everything is staying stable before introducing anything more.