Annie wrote:
I live in a country town in Western Australia. My goal is to have a reef
tank and I thought I would research the subject as much as possible for a
couple of years before fulfilling my dream. But ...

someone locally is selling a COMPLETE system for A$2000. Included in the
price is live coral, lighting, protein skimmer, filtration system, heater,
wave maker, fish, stand and canopy. The size is (metric) 120 x 60 x 60
which is 48x24x24 inches. Does this sound like a fair and reasonable price?

Considering I am a COMPLETE novice do you recommend I go ahead and purchase
this system and learn as much as I can from the current owner and continue
to learn along the way as I go or to continue on my path of researching and
learning prior to spending any money?

I thought if I went ahead with the purchase that I would only go through
with it if the current owner was willing to set the system up for me in my
own home so I wouldn't do any damage or transport it wrongly.

Thanks in advance for any/all suggestions.

A


Why is the owner selling? I'm in a country town in Qld and I've been
told that obtaining food is difficult here although I've only just got
my live rock so am a little while off getting my first fish. When I get
my first fish I will find out exactly what they have been fed and buy it
from the pet shop then try to get it online after that. Not many places
online like to sell to a credit card with a PO Box though and we don't
have a mail service which gets awkward.

Does the setup contain the fish you want? My friend who bought a second
hand setup has a few fish that really shouldn't be together. Some also
eat coral and he wanted coral so he's had to miss out on that.

I would have appreciated a "mentor" as George said so if I were you I
would be very tempted to go with this setup and the price seems
reasonable. Is this the size setup you would like to have and if not,
could you, years down the track, start a new setup exactly how you want it?

The learning curve for this hobby is steep and confusing but the best
advice I read (here I think) was to stick with one setup that you know
works, dont' try to use parts of different setups unless you know they
work together in someone else's tank.

Cheers
miskairal