Total newbie... is this a good buy?

[carnationcrab]

Hi all,

I am totally new to saltwater, and I found a tank in my area that costs 250 dollars. It is a JBJ 24 nano cube, and it is currently running. It looks pretty from the pictures, but can you help me decide? It says it has zoas, which kinda scares me, as I have absolutely no desire to have palytoxins in my first tank.

It comes with:

"- Replaced both bulbs with Coralife bulbs 1 month ago. 1 x 36W Actinic and 1 x 36W 50/50 spectrum
- The ballast for the lights was replaced last year with a new unit
- Tunze Nanostream 6015 pump (this is additional water flow and the original pump is still in operation along with this Tunze)
- Unsure of how many pounds of liverock. I recently sold a few pieces but there is still a lot left.
- A few inches of sandbed

- Tiger Pistol Shrimp (this guy is huge and beautiful, have had him for a couple years now but his Goby partner has passed away)
- 2 Oscellaris Clowns (one of them is a cool Mocha coloration and the other has a nice, bright orange)
- Various snails - zombie snails, nerite, cerith
- A couple small Zoa colonies of unknown type
- A very healthy Green Trumpet Coral (this thing has exploded in size from the frag that I initially had

- 2 ATI Saltwater test kits
- Hydrometer
- 2x Coral Feeding Tubes
- Frozen Hikari Mysis Cubes
- Various flake foods
- Fluval Sea Calcium
- Other various additives and medicines (these are older and came with the tank but since I do not like adding a lot of chems that I do not test for I have not used them)
- Algae sponge
- Sand sifter
- Fluval pincers
- 3 x 5 Gallon Jugs with lids
- 2 x 5 Gallon home depot style buckets with handles
- 1 x Filter Media Bag
- Petco brand Carbon
- Phosgard


This tank does have aiptasia but I do have Aiptasia X to include. I have always had this in my tank and have not been able to completely eliminate it as I was too scared to add a Peppermint Shrimp along with my Pistol. If you plan on doing this I would do some research to make sure the new shrimp will be safe, but I have seen many Peppermint Shrimp that devour aiptasia so this could be a potential long term solution if aiptasia bothers you. I have read some people who keep these shrimp in the same tank but with the small size I was hesitant to try it out.

The hood of this tank is a bit beat up. The back hinges are broken and one of the pegs on the feeding lid is broken. Everything is functional and fits properly but I just have to let you know that the hood is not in pristine condition."

Yes? No? Is there an easy way to remove the zoas?

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members

$250 sound like not a bad deal to me - I have never worried about zoas... I just wash your hands after touching them... a zoa garden can be quite lovely, the aiptasia would scare me more, but you can defeat it.

Best of luck with whatever tank you decide on !

When you get one, start a tank thread & share your tank with us so we can follow along, we love pics

 

[DaveK]

When I evaluate a used system I look at the equipment that is offered, and see if it come up to what I would use on the system. For any area that does not come up to my standards, I rate it 0 because I will replace it. I will abmit that I'm very particular about the gear I use, and what some may think is ok, I consider something that needs to be replaced. Then I figure out the new price of the remaining equipment, add it all up, and figure that a fair price would be about 50% to 60% of the new price.

As I see it the JBK 24 gal nano sells new for about $220 The fact that the bulbs and ballast have been replaced simply means that it's in good condition. If the bulbs were old you'd deduct the price of them from the setup.
The Tunze Nanostream 6015 sells new for about $41
All the other equipment I'd tend to rate as worthless. Although you could figure you'd need the buckets. So figure about $4 each or $20 for those.

Total about $281 new, worth about $140 to $169 used.

For the live stock it's similar only count the items you really want.

Live rock sells for about $4 to $8 a pound. I'd estimate that the tank contains about 15 pounds at best. So splitting the difference about $90 new for the live rock.
Live sand is worth nothing, since you will want to replace that, using only a handful or so to seed the tank.
For the rest of the fish, inverts and corals I'd figure about $150 provided it's all in prime shape.
Looks like a used price would be in the range of about $120 - $145

Overall I'd say the price is very fair.

As for the zoas, that depends on where they are. They can grow all over the tank. If they are just on a few pieces of live rock, you can just trade them in at your LFS for something you want. If they are all over your rather stuck, short of replacing all the live rock.

Only a few zoas are extremely toxic and the cases you read where people got very sick are rare considering how many people keep them. Even so, they should be handled with rubber gloves, just in case. Do not handle then with your bare hands. 99% of the time they are no problem, but if you contact one that does contain a lot of these toxins, it can be very serious.