Help is Pivotal!!

[pulse32382]

Ok, I have a moderate amount of experience with tropical tanks, and zero with marine. My mother in-law bought a restaurant and I am the executive chef (let me just start with that).

I have a background in construction and while working at a recent divorcees home, I asked her about a tank she had stored in her garage (covered in dust and other do-dads). She gave me the spiel..."It was the ex husbands...blah, blah, blah, it was $1200 when it was purchased, you want it? Take it," and so I did.

I offered to donate the tank to the restaurant, (where I am executive chef,) yet I know nothing about setting up a marine tank. I need to know if its a better idea to set up either a marine or tropical tank.

I was given a $200 dollar budget to completely set up the tank. That includes substrate, mechanics/filtration, and fish/coral.

The tank is a 75 gallon "Reef-ready," it has a built-in overflow and an approx. 15gal sump., obviously this whole system came as one unit from the manufacturer, and I have no idea how to set it up because sadly, I cant locate any information of the manufacturer from the tank, stand or sump.

The decision to set up either marine or tropical is, firstly governed by the budget, then secondly, decided upon by me because I am the one who has to maintain it. I really would like to do marine, but I don't know if its possible with a $200 budget. I need heaters, pumps, filters, media, fish, deco.... and surely more than that.

What is your professional opinion, based on budget? Tropical or Marine? And where would I begin? I really have no clue how to set up a low maintenance marine tank, I don't even know how to put the pieces together for the sump, (there are many plexiglass pieces, but I did my best). If I can pull this off It would be a nice show-piece in the restaurant.

Thank you in advance.
I look forward to all of your advice and comments.

[twilmot]

First off, Any pictures of what you do have? That will help out a lot with the answers if $200 is enough. Secondly if you do choose to do saltwater are you thinking fish and coral or just fish? $200 is a very small budget for a 75 gallon tank, but depending on what you already have it could be done.

[nlgill13]

+1 pic is necessary

You will be doing a lot of craigslist shopping at $200....Also have you thought about putting some of you own money in? This way it is your tank and not the restaurants, even though it resides at the restaurants.

[ReeferKimberly]

I'd just go with tropical FW. Honestly the most fun I ever had with tropical FW was fancy guppies. I guarantee visitors will love the new babies in every color imaginable and every stage of life. Marine is my favorite, but I would be hard-pressed to do it with $200 especially without the years of knowledge to avoid costly mistakes, and there are a lot of those at first.

[IansAquatics]

I don't see how doing a reef tank on a 200 dollar budget is feasible at all. I mean mediocre lights and a skimmer would cost you 300 used. On my 125 I had probably close to 1200 invested in it before the first fish or coral went in. If it was me i would just do a cichlid tank. Your 200 dollars would go a lot further that way, and to people in your restaurant. There not going to know the difference anyways and they would probably be impressed with just goldfish. Plus coming from someone who works
In the food industry I highly doubt you'll want to do the necessary maintence after working on the line all day. Just my two cents

[faithenfire]

It's a nice thought but I don't know if it can be done with 200 either. even with craigslist shopping.
as was suggested, maybe tropical FW. it's a little easier and at the end of a long day, do you want to have to do all the maintenance

if you do want to continue down the saltwater path, i would expect with craigslist and local help, you might be able to get a good start with 400 dollars...might

[RA]

As others have said $200 isn't enough for saltwater. The other concern I would have is with the tank sitting for a while are the silicone seams still good. The last thing you would want is to have the tank explode onto someone’s lap.

[Speed]

Get yourself some neons and painted glass fish and call it a day
$200 is not going to get you very far in saltwater.

Your most likely going to have your hands full with the new restaurant.
Since you already have experience with freshwater stick with what you know at this point. Once the business settles down and you get in a groove then go back and revisit the tank. You may be able to add a needed zero to you $200 budget at that point as well.

To put it in perspective... Let's say you got everything you possible need from the divorcee. Just buying new RO/DI filters, membranes and salt is going to put a large dent in that budget. Even if you purchase SW from your LFS its going to eat about 1/2 your budget. $200 is simply not realistic.

[sniceley]

I have set up a lot of tanks at restaurants and other businesses. Customers want lots of fish and movement. Live reefs tend to be boring to them for some time because it takes a while for the corals to fill out and all livestock is pretty expensive.

My professional suggestion is go to a landscaping supply and get a bunch of rock to decorate the tank. For your tank probably around 75-100 lbs. Clean it with a hose and brush to get all the debris off. Pile and stack it with lots of caves and find some local African cichlid breeders via Craig's list or some other avenue. You can pick up babbies for a steal if they are common types. A mixture of yellow labs, cobalt zebras, ob zebras, snow white socolofi, red zebras, and pretty much any other mbuna would work. For your tank add about 40 small fish at one time (after the tank is cycled and ready of course). Large population helps disperse aggression and adding all at once helps them to all find a spot to defend, at least the males that is. They will grow quickly if well maintained. Over filtering and regular large water changes (50% weekly) will keep tank looking great and is relatively low work load for you. In no time you will have babies in the cracks and crevices as well, customers love that.

My professional suggestion.

[fishgate]

$200? Ha! Make it a Lobster tank!

[Pokahpolice]

A bucket of salt to fill the tank is about 1/4 of that budget. I'd say you're going to set it up as a fresh water tank you'll be hard pressed to stay within $200.

Sell the tank, it's just one more thing you'll have to clean in the restaurant.

[ravenstone]

Everyone is right, $200 is way to small amount for a saltwater tank. You might be able to score some enough stuff on craigslist or your local classified to get it going, but the downside to that is you don't know how good the stuff your getting is. It could brake down quickly and then your in trouble. You also have to look into the cost of maintaining it. If you can't get a higher budget, you are better off going with cichlids. They are hardy and very colorful, just not as colorful as saltwater.

[Spyderturbo007]

I think it costs me $200 just to walk by my tank. :D

I would go freshwater.

[danil]

hah! It costs me $400 without even looking on it! Usually I open my utility bills at work... :)
I would say keep doing what you do the best at work - cooking! Leave that tank to someone else to care about.
You can always set new tank up at your place.

[Sk8r]

I tried to think of the cheapest way to do it, and I still come up with about 500.00-600.00, with a cannister only and dry sand and rock, and three months of no fish in that tank and people asking why. Just salt for the water is going to run you 50.00, and another 150 for a ro/di filter for the water, plus 300.oo for a big enough cannister with pump, 260 for the sand, and you haven't gotten fish yet, which are the cheapest part of the proposition...or lights and tank cover. Plus keeping drunken customers from feeding the fish or emptying drinks in there is a nightmare. I used to patronize a bar that had a tank, and defended as it was by patrons, there were still times somebody dropped a spare shrimp in the tank or poured a drink in.

[garyinco]

I agree w/ the others. Set up a lot of salt and reef tanks, and a few tropicals. I don't think gaining enough knowledge/experience would be the problem. It'll be the budget. Does the restaurant have a bar? If so, maybe a local fish store would give you a couple outdated reef magazines and a bartender would agree to see if any patrons showed an interest. If you found somebody with some experience they might agree to help for kicks or maybe a little bartering. Barter is such a great thing. Most reefers have lots of excess equipment laying around and I'd trade with one of my favorite haunts.

It certainly wouldn't cost anything to explore interest/knowledge with some regulars...

Don't forget someone would have to maintain the thing whichever way you go. In my experience I'd say the minimum is 10-15 minutes/day, plus an hour or two once a week or so.

Good luck with the project.

[pulse32382]

I want to thank everyone for their advice. I decided to do fw tropical. Haven't decided which cichlids I'm gonna be using. I'd like to do African. I pretty much ate through my budget and there is still a few pieces of equipment I need as well as substrate and of course, fish.