Need New Home For Marine Fish & Rock!

[woody88]

Hi all, new boy here. I have a problem. A friend of mine who has lost the love of fish keeping has decided that he no longer wants his boyu tl550 saltwater tank,and he's told me that if he can't find a home for it and his fish, then he wont have a choice but to get rid of them and believe me I dare not repeat what he said on a fish keeping forum. the tank has been running for about 3 years now, although i'm only going on the info i've been given, i believe it is FOWLR SETUP, not sure what fish or how many, pretty sure he said clown's but can't be exact, anyway as I cant let any animal suffer, i have decided to take it off his hands via a look at it first, but unfortunatley as I have not got a clue on how to look after marine fish or coral and the fact i'm already looking after my 55g cichlid tank, i'm not prepared to look after them but I do want the tank as I now have a plan for it and I dont want the fish or live rock to suffer.
I'm going to view the tank in a couple of days so by then I will have an idea exactly whats in his tank and i'll keep you all updated. God knows how he gonna transport it from his place to mine with 28 gallons of water in it as he said its important we keep as much water as possible to stop it from re-cycling when it re-setup.
Once it is back up and running I will basically be stuck with an established marine tank with not a clue on how to maintain or look after them and I can't bear the thought of letting them suffer, so Is ther anyone on here thats willing to give the fish and the rock/coral a new home. I don't want anything for them, just peace of mind knowing that there no longer my responsibility. please help!

 

[Donya]

God knows how he gonna transport it from his place to mine with 28 gallons of water in it as he said its important we keep as much water as possible to stop it from re-cycling when it re-setup.

No no no! Never transport a full tank. The LR needs to be kept wet (you could do the same for sand too if you want), but please don't try to transport a tank in any condition but emptied. The risk of smashing the thing massively outweighs anything to do with recycling. Rock and any other material should be transported in a tub/cooler/etc that won't risk cracking. Done safely, you're almost certainly going to have to deal with a mini cycle - but it's completely managable with increased water changes.

I don't see any info on your profile about where you're located. If you can't or don't want to take the tank, do a search for reef/fish clubs in your area and someone will almost certainly pop up. There are lots of people who happily snatch up setups like that.

 

[HappyGeorge]

Well I have a 20 gallon nano, which has some live rock and I am currently building up/designing it has fully cured Live rock at the moment that was obtained direct from my LFS marine display tank break down so I am suffering no cycling. In theory I would be able to take those fish and maybe the rock off your hands but obviously that would depend on your location. I am in Kent but would be happy to drive to get them, rock and fish as long as it's not too silly a journey. My LFS sells 25 litre containers that for transport of water, they are plastic Jerry cans with sealing lids I think they sell at about £12 but they will give you your money back if you return them so in effect you could borrow enough to transport the water from the tank. As im sure you are already aware water weighs 1kg a litre so as already said moving a tank with any quantity of water is risky with all that weight sloshing about.

Let us know where you are and I'm sure someone can help out.

 

[woody88]

Hi and thanks for all your info. The tank is gonna be drained and the 3 fish and rock will be separately housed in tank water in sealable containers. Sorry bout my profile I haven't had chance to update it yet. I live in Birmingham but it looks like I have found a new home for them from another member on this site who lives local. Thanks again. Just a query though, once the fish and rock are gone, would be possible or safe to run the tank with just a small piece of established live rock as I might keep it running for now to give me time to swat up on marine fish keeping

 

[ben1987]

You could keep that rock live in the tank on its own. Just leave the water in. Heater on and pumps running

 

[woody88]

Hi, just an update on the marine tank. There are 3 fish. 1 clown and 2 damsils and a few kg of live rock, not sure how much exactly. I'm picking up the tank on thur and hopefully thanks to another member of this forum who's taking the fish and rock off my hands, the fish, once taken out of there home, wont be going back in but straight to there new owner. hopefully this will reduce the stress of the fish..........and me.lol.
I do have 2 questions though:
1-The fish, rock and water will be in transit for about half an hour in seperate containers, is it worth me rigging up a power invertor to run heaters and powerheads for them or will I be ok without in that space of time?

2-Once the fish and rock have gone to their new home, would I be able to keep the tank running with just a small piece of established rock left in it as I would like to keep it running for a while until I can decide If I want to convert to Marine fish keeping and also to give me time to swat up on it all as I'm only used to freshwater keeping and I'm still learning new things everyday on that?

Sorry for the dumbass questions, but were not all experts lol

 

[ben1987]

I wouldnt bother for an hour. Maybe put the fish in a poly box. The rock will be a ok though.

Theres nothing wrong with running the tank on rock alone. You will need to through bits of food in sometimes. The basics of marines isnt difficult tbh

 

[woody88]

Cheers mate. I might as well keep it running then and see how I get on and hopefully once I've researched a bit more I'll put some more rock in and then maybe some fish

 

[Donya]

Ditto what Ben said. I'm about 45min to an hour out from my preferred LFS, and have been farther out from stores in the past. A couple hours transport in a bag is no hardship for the animals (they get shipped in bags over much longer periods of time). No need for powerheads until everything is stationary and in a tub/tank.

2-Once the fish and rock have gone to their new home, would I be able to keep the tank running with just a small piece of established rock left in it as I would like to keep it running for a while until I can decide If I want to convert to Marine fish keeping and also to give me time to swat up on it all as I'm only used to freshwater keeping and I'm still learning new things everyday on that?

In addition to what Ben said on this question, keep in mind that the LR is the biological filter, aided by flow from powerheads. So, if you give away most of the rock, what you get rid of will eventually need to be replaced with either some suitable dry rock (cheap, but you have to wait for it to colonize) or new LR before you can put fish or inverts in the tank again. I'm assuing the tank will be free of any deliberately-added janitor animals. If any snails/crabs/hermits/etc. will be staying in the tank, then it would be better to keep most of the existing rock or all of it. As Ben mentioned, you can maintain any LR you keep by throwing the occasional small piece of raw seafood or some other sinking fish food into the tank. Probably best not to use flakes unless you deliberately make them sink, since anything that floats in an empty tank may initially gum up the surface and inhibit gas exchange.

 

[woody88]

Thanks for the advice, I'll bear it in mind. Unfortunatley if I do decide to keep it, it looks like either the marine tank or my tropical tank will be demoted to my shed as the wife won't want 2 tanks in the house. I guess i'll have to work my magic on her.......my claw hammer!

 

[HappyGeorge]

Thanks for the advice, I'll bear it in mind. Unfortunatley if I do decide to keep it, it looks like either the marine tank or my tropical tank will be demoted to my shed as the wife won't want 2 tanks in the house. I guess i'll have to work my magic on her.......my claw hammer!

My Mrs didn't want a 2nd tank in the house but when she saw how neat the little Boyu 20G was on its curvy stand she relented a bit. Now the Live Rock is in there its a hive of activity, tube worms, snails, stars, clams all sorts of hitch-hikers. She spends as many hours as I do critter spotting. There isn't anything in the tank yet and she already loves it.

 

[Pearsondesign]

im looking for new rock etc for my 5x2x2 so will happily take all of what you have!


where are you located?

 

[woody88]

I live in brum mate but ive got another member off this site coming on thur to grab it all. If there is a change, then I'll let u know. Cheers.

 

[woody88]

I've decided I'm not gonna keep the marine tank running as I don't want to demote one of the tanks to my shed. So once the fish and LR are out I'm stripping the tank down, give it one hell of a good clean and transfer my cichlids to it along with the water as its now finished it's cycle. I plan to use the filter that came with the marine tank but I will put in my fluval u2 filter in for now as it home to good bacteria and as I will be replacing my substrate from gravel to sand. Is this wise?
At least I'll have the tank,skimmer and other stuff ready to possibly go saltwater in the future which I plan to.................eventually!