You know when a deal is too good to pass up?
Well that happened twice this weekend.
First, I saw a post about someone selling their entire reef tank and wanting to get out of the hobby. Was I looking for a large tank? No. Was that deal too good to pass up? Absolutely.
The guy wanted it gone asap but I was headed out of town and didn’t feel good about moving animals and then leaving so I asked if he would wait a week, and ensured him that I’m a professional and his animals would receive the utmost care. He agreed to sell to me and yesterday I was able to pick it all up. The only catch: there’s a rampant hair algae problem. Luckily, I think I can tackle that easily enough.
It included:
125 gallon glass tank, stand, canister filter, heater, lights, 2 gyre powerheads, protein skimmer and all the other extra stuff that comes with having a reef tank like test kids, food, spare heaters, algae scrapers, nets, thermometers, refractometers, power strips, cooling fans, and buckets. And a whole RODI water filtration system for mixing saltwater.
It also came with all the livestock!
The star of the tank is a Desjardini salifin tang, and his roommates include a coral beauty angelfish, percula clownfish, lawn mower blenny, blue green chromis damselfish, royal gramma (currently the only fish that’s still hiding) a long spine urchin and a coral banded shrimp. There were a few corals, a huge green hammer euphillia, a nice acanthastrea, and over a dozen bubble top anemones. And about 150 lbs of live rock.
I set up a spare tank I had as a holding tank in the shop (a challenge in itself because that space is bursting with stuff) and used some spare filters and heaters I had lying around. Then yesterday we went and picked up everything and moved it over.
This morning, everything is looking good.
There’s still a ton of work to be done but even with all the labor, it feels absolutely worth the $100 I spent for everything.
For perspective, the desjardini tang alone cost more than $150
I’ve already sold some anemones that came lose during the move and a snapped three heads of the hammer. So I’ve made back $95 of my $100 already.

Well that happened twice this weekend.
First, I saw a post about someone selling their entire reef tank and wanting to get out of the hobby. Was I looking for a large tank? No. Was that deal too good to pass up? Absolutely.
The guy wanted it gone asap but I was headed out of town and didn’t feel good about moving animals and then leaving so I asked if he would wait a week, and ensured him that I’m a professional and his animals would receive the utmost care. He agreed to sell to me and yesterday I was able to pick it all up. The only catch: there’s a rampant hair algae problem. Luckily, I think I can tackle that easily enough.
It included:
125 gallon glass tank, stand, canister filter, heater, lights, 2 gyre powerheads, protein skimmer and all the other extra stuff that comes with having a reef tank like test kids, food, spare heaters, algae scrapers, nets, thermometers, refractometers, power strips, cooling fans, and buckets. And a whole RODI water filtration system for mixing saltwater.
It also came with all the livestock!
The star of the tank is a Desjardini salifin tang, and his roommates include a coral beauty angelfish, percula clownfish, lawn mower blenny, blue green chromis damselfish, royal gramma (currently the only fish that’s still hiding) a long spine urchin and a coral banded shrimp. There were a few corals, a huge green hammer euphillia, a nice acanthastrea, and over a dozen bubble top anemones. And about 150 lbs of live rock.
I set up a spare tank I had as a holding tank in the shop (a challenge in itself because that space is bursting with stuff) and used some spare filters and heaters I had lying around. Then yesterday we went and picked up everything and moved it over.
This morning, everything is looking good.
There’s still a ton of work to be done but even with all the labor, it feels absolutely worth the $100 I spent for everything.
For perspective, the desjardini tang alone cost more than $150
I’ve already sold some anemones that came lose during the move and a snapped three heads of the hammer. So I’ve made back $95 of my $100 already.

