Gauging Interest in selling complete 150

F

FishBrawler

Goby
#1
#1
So after saving for the last 2 years for this 150, I am finally ready to set it up only to realize that I am headed off to college in just a few months. My dad still thinks that I should set it up and he will take care of it, but I'm just trying to be honest with myself if proper care would ensue. So I wanted to see if there would atleast be any interest in someone buy it. I will give a quick equipment list. Any comments or suggests would be greatly appreciated if you still think that it would be possible to maintain.


150 gallon tall MarineLand Reef Ready glass aquarium (48"x 24"x 30")
Custom stand and cannopy built by myself










(there is two halides but only one is in in this picture)





50 gallon Livestock tank for sump
2x 250w Metal halides
Maxspect gyre 150
Ecotech Vectra L1
Nyos 160 protein skimmer
"custom" rock structure (I have drilled the rock and used acrylic rods to make arms and also used reef safe mortar for more safety and ledges)
Plumbing parts (lots of cpex valves and unions with a needle valve for the drain to fine tune the siphon) more valves and fittings not in the pictures.





I would love to know if you guys think this is sellable or if you think I should try running it while I'm not really there.
 
F

Fitz19d

Bat Fish
M.A.S.C Club Member
#2
#2
A fish only might be easy for the parents. Maybe some softies. I agree trusting sps or anything delicate to non reefers a big gamble. Your first tank? For a diy looks super clean and nice.

Something like small puffers could be fun for parents to help keep their interest due to quirky personality. Course going fowlr to reef when you get back might be best to restart which makes the argument for just storing it. Vs a loss on selling
 
F

FinsUp

According to my watch, the time is now.
M.A.S.C Club Member
#3
#3
How far are you going/how often will you be home to visit the tank? How much do your folks know about saltwater tanks? How open are they to learning about them and putting in that much time/effort? What did you plan on putting in it/how hard will it be for them to maintain it?

The answers to the above questions will kinda tell you which way to go with this. The maintenance companies are experts at setting up great tanks that require minimum effort to maintain. You might talk to some of them to get advice on how to do this, if you move forward with it. Or maybe your folks would be interested in hiring the maintenance company to handle the tank for them. I agree with Fitz that storing it to start it later (either when you move out of the dorms and into your own place, or after college completely) is better than taking a loss on selling it. Or do a hybrid situation, where you sell the gear that's likely to be outdated when you come back to the hobby, and keep the basics.
 
TheRealChrisBrown

TheRealChrisBrown

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
ex-officio
#4
#4
My mom is 80 and takes care of a 65 gallon FOWLR. I can attest that all she does is top off the water, wipe the glass a few times a week, and feed. She doesn't do water changes, but the only fish she loses are jumpers.

You have a very nice setup going there, if you think your parents can handle basic maintenance then I say set it up and go FOWLR and see how it goes. If it is too much work sell it as a fully functioning setup.
 
Miah2bzy

Miah2bzy

Nurse Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#5
#5
Looks like you've already invested a lot in it - id keep it and setup as a fish only or something you know your rents can manage. If not, sell it as a complete setup and buy a small aio to keep with you in college - I kept a 2x10 gallon system for nearly 5 years doing my bachelors/masters and still have some of the corals and fish.
 
F

FishBrawler

Goby
#7
#7
Fitz19d;n644354 said:
A fish only might be easy for the parents. Maybe some softies. I agree trusting sps or anything delicate to non reefers a big gamble. Your first tank? For a diy looks super clean and nice.

Something like small puffers could be fun for parents to help keep their interest due to quirky personality. Course going fowlr to reef when you get back might be best to restart which makes the argument for just storing it. Vs a loss on selling
Click to expand...
Not my first rodeo. Been in the hobby for almost 8 years. I feel like I know what I'm doing. I've kept just about everything except some of the larger fish... Which is what this tank was for haha! And I can't seeing having a tank for just the fish. My heart lies with the coral.
 
F

FishBrawler

Goby
#8
#8
FinsUp!;n644358 said:
How far are you going/how often will you be home to visit the tank? How much do your folks know about saltwater tanks? How open are they to learning about them and putting in that much time/effort? What did you plan on putting in it/how hard will it be for them to maintain it?

The answers to the above questions will kinda tell you which way to go with this. The maintenance companies are experts at setting up great tanks that require minimum effort to maintain. You might talk to some of them to get advice on how to do this, if you move forward with it. Or maybe your folks would be interested in hiring the maintenance company to handle the tank for them. I agree with Fitz that storing it to start it later (either when you move out of the dorms and into your own place, or after college completely) is better than taking a loss on selling it. Or do a hybrid situation, where you sell the gear that's likely to be outdated when you come back to the hobby, and keep the basics.
Click to expand...
My dad is actually a hydrologist, so he knows a decent about about water chemistry, but it's the fact that he doesn't know what to look for when something is going wrong or how to solve it or what to turn of or on if equipment is going haywire.

I'm only going to be 45 minutes away, but knowing if something is going wrong can be hard for he to know to let me know. And once things start going down hill, it can be hard to correct without shocking the system since you have to do it slowly. Which I don't know if I could do slowly with being away.
 
F

FishBrawler

Goby
#9
#9
Miah2bzy;n644377 said:
Looks like you've already invested a lot in it - id keep it and setup as a fish only or something you know your rents can manage. If not, sell it as a complete setup and buy a small aio to keep with you in college - I kept a 2x10 gallon system for nearly 5 years doing my bachelors/masters and still have some of the corals and fish.
Click to expand...
I was thinking that if I was able to sell it, I could make a pretty bad ass nano for a few thousand haha!
 
MuralReef

MuralReef

Administrator
Staff member
M.A.S.C Club Member
M.A.S.C. B.O.D.
MASC Vice-President
#10
#10
FishBrawler;644394 said:
I was thinking that if I was able to sell it, I could make a pretty bad ass nano for a few thousand haha!
Click to expand...
Problem is if you watch the forums a nice setup like this is going to bring in what you hope for.
I agree that your best bet might be to go as low maintenance as possible. You could also consider setting up a web cam so you could check in on it.
If you want to run with coral doing an LPS or softy tank can be cool.
 
just_tim

just_tim

Blenny
#11
#11
What a great build. I kinda wish there were more pics. If it were me I'd do like MuralReef suggested and set up a Web cam at least. Maybe some wifi monitor of some sort. It would be a waste to not fill this bad boy.
 
F

FinsUp

According to my watch, the time is now.
M.A.S.C Club Member
#13
#13
FishBrawler;n644393 said:
My dad is actually a hydrologist, so he knows a decent about about water chemistry, but it's the fact that he doesn't know what to look for when something is going wrong or how to solve it or what to turn of or on if equipment is going haywire.

I'm only going to be 45 minutes away, but knowing if something is going wrong can be hard for he to know to let me know. And once things start going down hill, it can be hard to correct without shocking the system since you have to do it slowly. Which I don't know if I could do slowly with being away.
Click to expand...
I'm with Elmo. Get a controller for the tank that you can access on your phone. Short of a fire, glass breakage, or other catastrophic issue, that should let you know that there's an issue in plenty of time to correct it.
 
F

FishBrawler

Goby
#14
#14
Thanks everyone for the encouragement to set it up! I really want to! I'm just still on that boat that if I do, I won't even get to really see it while if I sell maybe I could invest more into a college nano. Still not sure yet.
 
F

FinsUp

According to my watch, the time is now.
M.A.S.C Club Member
#16
#16
The danger of a college nano is that people will try to get your fish drunk and/or high.
 
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