ReefRescue
New Member
Last February I drove up to Northridge in CA after responding to a craigslist add to get a tank. After a couple of interesting exchanges my girlfriend and I decided to make the drive.
Once we got there and I purchased the tank the owner asked me a couple of questions about his newly built setup and since it was dark I looked at it briefly to realize that someone had assembled a supposedly high end setup like a kinder-garden kid with his first Lego set, accept the kid would probably be more creative due to his curiosity and interest.
So after a few minutes of looking He asked me what I think? The original question was "If You could look at my chiller and tell me why it’s not working?"
I had to bluntly reply that "he is probably not interested in what I have to say." Considering I could see that he had spent thousands to get an absolutely dysfunctional system.
After he insisted, I told him that whoever worked on his tank wasn’t qualified to even touch it and doesn’t have the knowledge and experience necessary to set up and service a reef thank.
I showed and explained to him a few things that were just mind boggling. Then he asked me if I would be able to fix the problems and to get things functional.
Knowing that I live about an hour away without traffic and that I am absolutely stumped with work and short of time I told him that I won’t be able to. Instead I offered to come and look at the system more carefully during the day to give him a better Idea of what the problems were.
On my next trip there I realized how bad everything was, oceans motions set up 15' away from the tank with flex barb lines, 90 degree elbows, and metal fasteners that leaked on every joint.
A 1850 gallon return pump going through a chiller, not primed, blasting in the middle of the tank from the overflow, facing the front, it started spilling and splashing water off the top after being primed.
I felt really bad for him, and I also got excited by the challenge of building his system properly. Since he had already paid a lot of money for service on his previous tank, and when I saw that his corals were all brown, unhealthy and full of hair algae I decided to make him a deal.
I told to him that I will find the time to take care of the built of his tank under one condition:
Only if he committed to become a more active hobbyist, start learning and understanding how a reef tank functions, as well as the equipment needed.
He agreed, seemed enthusiastic, we shook hands, I already had ideas and knew this was going to be a big project.
I started to do a lot of research and gave him his first homework, Randy’s Reef chemistry. The “How To†Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners Part 1: The Salt Water Itself by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
This is how began the saga of the 225gal rebuild. After a year it has become a 500+ gallons system with the 225gal mixed reef display tank, 50gal seahorse tank, 80gal refugium tank, 80gal live rock filtration tank, 45gal frag tank, and an 85gal sump.
Once we got there and I purchased the tank the owner asked me a couple of questions about his newly built setup and since it was dark I looked at it briefly to realize that someone had assembled a supposedly high end setup like a kinder-garden kid with his first Lego set, accept the kid would probably be more creative due to his curiosity and interest.
So after a few minutes of looking He asked me what I think? The original question was "If You could look at my chiller and tell me why it’s not working?"
I had to bluntly reply that "he is probably not interested in what I have to say." Considering I could see that he had spent thousands to get an absolutely dysfunctional system.
After he insisted, I told him that whoever worked on his tank wasn’t qualified to even touch it and doesn’t have the knowledge and experience necessary to set up and service a reef thank.
I showed and explained to him a few things that were just mind boggling. Then he asked me if I would be able to fix the problems and to get things functional.
Knowing that I live about an hour away without traffic and that I am absolutely stumped with work and short of time I told him that I won’t be able to. Instead I offered to come and look at the system more carefully during the day to give him a better Idea of what the problems were.
On my next trip there I realized how bad everything was, oceans motions set up 15' away from the tank with flex barb lines, 90 degree elbows, and metal fasteners that leaked on every joint.
A 1850 gallon return pump going through a chiller, not primed, blasting in the middle of the tank from the overflow, facing the front, it started spilling and splashing water off the top after being primed.
I felt really bad for him, and I also got excited by the challenge of building his system properly. Since he had already paid a lot of money for service on his previous tank, and when I saw that his corals were all brown, unhealthy and full of hair algae I decided to make him a deal.
I told to him that I will find the time to take care of the built of his tank under one condition:
Only if he committed to become a more active hobbyist, start learning and understanding how a reef tank functions, as well as the equipment needed.
He agreed, seemed enthusiastic, we shook hands, I already had ideas and knew this was going to be a big project.
I started to do a lot of research and gave him his first homework, Randy’s Reef chemistry. The “How To†Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners Part 1: The Salt Water Itself by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
This is how began the saga of the 225gal rebuild. After a year it has become a 500+ gallons system with the 225gal mixed reef display tank, 50gal seahorse tank, 80gal refugium tank, 80gal live rock filtration tank, 45gal frag tank, and an 85gal sump.
