Purchasing a Reef Tank

[Topcop]

I am new to this and need some direction from you experts. I am considering the purchase of the following set-up from a private seller who is asking $1200. Are there any landmines I should be aware of?

AD
Beautiful 180 Gal 6 ft. reef tank with soft and hard corals, over 100 lbs of Live Rock, and Fish. Includes 3 250 Watt Halide Lights with Hanging Pendants and ballast. 3 Ft. ETSS Downdraft Skimmer, with Iwaki motor, the best skimmer combination available. Lots of accessories and equipment. Cost new over $4,000.
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[mrauppius]

personally i think some of the fun is buying a tank without anything in it, and selecting your own live stock. I suppose you could always do this if you wanted the instant satisfaction? Or if you wanted to buy it then make some money back and sell off the corals and keep some of the rock. That's just my opinion

[crvz]

if it's in good shape, it's probably worth the asking price, but you may have a lot of work to get it setup the way you'd like. The tank and stand would have to be pretty clean in my opinion.

[prickles]

compared to buying new, you will definitely save money on the startup. I would expect to upgrade some stuff immediately upon purchase. If you really like the idea of starting from "scratch" we bought a full on used tank and sold the fish and corals out of it as we moved it. That way we basically had an empty tank that needed to cycle (it will cycle at least some after a move) and had no livestock to worry about except CUC. We made approx 1/2 of the cost of the tank back in our sales and had a tank with a reduced cycling time over a brand new tank.

Definitely look for scratches on the front of the glass!! They will annoy you to death if you have them.

[atrox]

Great price when you consider the lights alone probably come close to the asking price.

[Dyraxe]

sounds like a good price

[sassafrass]

There is a fairly steep learning curve to reefkeeping with a already stocked tank , kind of like trying to race a car you have never driven before it's easy to find yourself in trouble.I would first read ALOT!!! then buy the equipment as you understand your specific needs. Best advice I can give is go slow for best results.
Lee

[Topcop]

I appreciate everyone's input. Thank you, Thank you!

[fender4string]

i'm looking into setting up a tank also and $1200 is about the cost of a 180g with stand ONLY. Then add the prices in for lighting, filtration, LR, LS, RO/DI, salt mix, and other odds and ends...$1200 is a really really good deal. But you should also take into consideration sassafrass' advice-read and research a lot before buying a tank-that's all I've been doing for like a month :)

[sonapl]

Is the person you are getting it from willing to help you when you have questions? Or do you have a local club you can use as a resource? It is true about the learning curve, but it is doable. It sounds like a good price.
Keep us posted, read a lot and ask lots of questions.

[fender4string]

nice avatar sonapl :D

[sonapl]

I just changed it as a lot of folks had the same one. I like the diver (the one you have) better, but wanted different.