ugh...Already burnt out. :(
 

Well It seems to me that comming to the salt side was the bad choice. I only started my tank 2 months ago and only got my first salt fish 1 month ago. I'm not really sure that starting off with a 175g tank was the best choice. I think I went to big. As in saying that in 1 month from now I will be starting to take down this tank, it will become a freshwater arrowana tank stingray tank, because of it's wide footprint. The cost of running the tank is passing and taking up my fish budget, I'd rather spend $800 on a nice stingray then salt, and stuff to keep the tank going. BUT I will not be getting out of salt completley. I will keep some live sand and rock and set-up my 29g tank as a saltwater tank. YES I know some people say small tanks are harder to maintain good water condtions but atleast it will be easy to clean and toy around with. I feel that this will be a much better idea with busy school work taking up most of my time. So if anyone wants my lookdown:sad:, miniatus grouper or live rock, skimmer etc...just let me know, but at the end of the month there will be a FS thread. Everything will be really cheap too, I'm going to sell the live rock at $3LB.

too bad, your tank is the perfect size for a nice reef tank..
if you want we can switch skimmer,you can have the smaller one again??LOl:lol:. Anyway good luck on your journey..

thanks,
teddy

Sometimes downsizing is not a bad idea, My last few tanks were all down sizes, It's all about the planning and execution of the system, you can make a really nice reef with a small footprint and as an added bonus save on some costs.. All the best.

ya, the 29g will be a sumpless tank. It will be a good size. Anyways I want to grow out some more arrowana's. My current guy is having a hard time turning in his 135g. So the 175g with it's 31" width will be ideal until another upgrade.

Hey! Sorry to hear you're having to down size. I know what you mean though; even with a 40 gallon I can feel wiped at times.

I would be interested in your live rock... oh, probably 20 to 30 lbs if you have it. I'm looking for both display and sump rock. When you are starting to tear down, please shoot me a PM and we'll get in touch so I can make a trip out your way.

Cheers,

Kevin

ya, I'll let you know when the time comes.

I've been keeping a 25g for over 2 years now and it is very little maintenance. I have a HOB skimmer and an Aquaclear 70 that I run my sponge filter, carbon and Chemipur Elite in. Everything grows well and no pest algae in the tank. I have a 2.5 gallon pail that I do weekly water changes with and within 15 minutes all the work is done with the exception of feeding the fish. I've been slowly transferring my livestock into a new 90 gallon and will be converting the 25 to a frag tank after I sell off my soft corals but I've really enjoyed the small tank and never had any issues with it. If you can commit to doing a small water change every week without exception then I don't think you will have any problems with a small tank. Take some of your live rock and sand out of your 175 and you won't even have much of a cycle if any at all. Good Luck!

Personally, it sounds like you've already bought almost everything you need to keep it running and there's not a lot of spending left if you want to keep it a simple fowlr tank. Fowlrs don't require frequent water changes (considerably less than a full blown reef tank). If time is an issue, the switch over from sw to fw at this time will be quite a big chore. FW sting rays are far more sensitive and expensive than the fish you already have. Even a tiny bit of ammonia is enough to damage or kill a ray. If time & money is that big an issue, I would stay away from rays. You'll end up killing it through lack of maintenance time. Any high maintenance, expensive species is a bad idea at this time, it sounds like.

Just my $.02.

Anthony

+1

It really only gets easier and cheaper as you move along in this hobby.
I run 4 SW tanks total, a 95, 14, 12 and 30 gallon.

You are so close to being in the best part of the hobby where you can actually sit back and enjoy after the big start up cost and sometimes expensive learning curve...

just my 2 cents...

I'm sure you wil enjoy yout 29 all the same...it just seems like you migh tbe cheating yourself a little bit by not givng it another couple months..

i started with my first tank 6 months ago and its a 65gal, its pretty low maintainence but i have a **** load of live rock which basically filters everything on its own, gotta be close to 90lbs. I have had no issues and wish i would of gone bigger, it also helps that i let it cycle for 3 months before i added any fish. main thing to think about before you decide to pack this tank in is what fish and corals you really want to have in the tank. 29gal limits you from alot of nice fish. 175gal is a great size tank.