grabbitt
Active Member
So I stopped by my buddy's place today because he said he had a saltwater tank in his room (which belonged to his roommate), and he asked if I was interested in purchasing it.
Well, what I saw SHOCKED me...
It's either a 20 or 24 gallon tank, and first thing I see when I look at it is green.
Come to think of it, all I saw for the next ten looks was green, too.
I've never seen so much algae in my entire life. Huuuge strands of it all over about 6-8 inches long..
The substrate was not sand, but blue pebbles (like the kind you would see in a goldfish bowl), which would help explain why there was so much algae.
The aquascape was laughable, at best...
No LR, just a giant skull (also like what you would see in a freshwater tank)..
I took my net over to push around the other pieces of rock to check out what they looked like..
As it turned out, they were just giant clumps of algae covering some plastic plants (which, surprise, one would also expect to find in a freshwater tank).
In the midst of it all, I found a grouper (yeah, in a 20 or 24 gallon tank) hiding in the algae (as if the poor guy could escape it if it wanted to).. It's black with white spots, like an inverted panther grouper but with shorter dorsal fins.. Anyone have an idea as to what kind of grouper it may be?
As I was fishing the grouper out, my buddy adds in "by they way.. you might want to watch out.. I think there's an eel in there..."
My response: ".....WHAT!??"
He replies: "Yeah, but don't worry, I haven't seen it for like two months.. I think it's dead, but I never saw it float to the top of the water. Is that odd?"
My response: <blank stare>
After some searching, I found the poor little guy... It was a snowflake eel, no more than 4-5 inches. I bagged these guys and dumped everything out of the tank immediately.
It might also be a good time to mention that after discovering they had a hydrometer (which was a shocker), the water read out at 1.014... These two guys are indestructible.
Hours later, after a trip to the LFS, scraping off all the algae (I used more blades than Sasquatch would for a full-body shave), and the routine steps, I've got this tank filled up with 25 lbs of live sand and a nice chunk of LR (16 lbs. going at 4 bucks per pound
) and some lighting that will suffice for the time being. The grouper and the eel are in QT while their home gets 're-modeled' (I've got the salinity at about .017 right now to gradually bring them to a normal environment).
Basically, the point of this is to ask, to no one in particular, why some people who just shouldn't have tanks go ahead and do it anyway?
On the other hand, though, I got a grouper, SFE, automatic feeder, two cans of flake (that's all they fed them), hydrometer, thermometer, and fluval 104 canister, and tank all for 30 bucks (after madd haggling
).
I wish I took a better picture of the tank pre-saved, but I will put up what I have as it progresses over the next couple of weeks...
If you're still actually reading this, then high five!
Well, what I saw SHOCKED me...
It's either a 20 or 24 gallon tank, and first thing I see when I look at it is green.
Come to think of it, all I saw for the next ten looks was green, too.
I've never seen so much algae in my entire life. Huuuge strands of it all over about 6-8 inches long..
The substrate was not sand, but blue pebbles (like the kind you would see in a goldfish bowl), which would help explain why there was so much algae.
The aquascape was laughable, at best...
No LR, just a giant skull (also like what you would see in a freshwater tank)..
I took my net over to push around the other pieces of rock to check out what they looked like..
As it turned out, they were just giant clumps of algae covering some plastic plants (which, surprise, one would also expect to find in a freshwater tank).
In the midst of it all, I found a grouper (yeah, in a 20 or 24 gallon tank) hiding in the algae (as if the poor guy could escape it if it wanted to).. It's black with white spots, like an inverted panther grouper but with shorter dorsal fins.. Anyone have an idea as to what kind of grouper it may be?
As I was fishing the grouper out, my buddy adds in "by they way.. you might want to watch out.. I think there's an eel in there..."
My response: ".....WHAT!??"
He replies: "Yeah, but don't worry, I haven't seen it for like two months.. I think it's dead, but I never saw it float to the top of the water. Is that odd?"
My response: <blank stare>
After some searching, I found the poor little guy... It was a snowflake eel, no more than 4-5 inches. I bagged these guys and dumped everything out of the tank immediately.
It might also be a good time to mention that after discovering they had a hydrometer (which was a shocker), the water read out at 1.014... These two guys are indestructible.
Hours later, after a trip to the LFS, scraping off all the algae (I used more blades than Sasquatch would for a full-body shave), and the routine steps, I've got this tank filled up with 25 lbs of live sand and a nice chunk of LR (16 lbs. going at 4 bucks per pound
Basically, the point of this is to ask, to no one in particular, why some people who just shouldn't have tanks go ahead and do it anyway?
On the other hand, though, I got a grouper, SFE, automatic feeder, two cans of flake (that's all they fed them), hydrometer, thermometer, and fluval 104 canister, and tank all for 30 bucks (after madd haggling
I wish I took a better picture of the tank pre-saved, but I will put up what I have as it progresses over the next couple of weeks...
If you're still actually reading this, then high five!
