Preacha's Paradise (225 Gallon Tank Lots of Pics)

[lhoy]

Finally decided it was time to start my tank thread. I have been in the hobby for 17 years off and on. Up until a couple of months ago I was running four (4) tanks. A 75 Gallon mixed, a 45 gallon Scorpion/Leaffish, a 30 gallon predator, and a 20 Gallon long Goby tank were keeping me plenty busy. I had a horrible battle with bryopsis in the 75 and 45 gallon tanks (be careful moving frags from one tank to another!!) and lost a lot of corals. I was bummed and considering taking a break.

One night while searching Ebay for a pic of a dwarf eel the site had several “similar” listings and one was a 225 Gallon tank for only $499. Needless to say, my interest was peaked and for kicks I clicked on the link. I was stoked as it turned out to be an Oceanic Brick 225 (I think it is really 215) with Dual Overflows and a custom stand and canopy!! The listing was actually in the wrong category and the description was only a couple of sentences. Key words were lacking in the description and I figured very few people would see the listing.

I showed the listing to my wife and we came to an accord. I had to sell all the tanks that were setup and those that were not (I had a total of 6 setups). I quickly agreed, took pictures and began selling my stuff. I moved all my livestock that I could and live rock to a couple of tanks and got rid of the rest. Here is a picture of the listing as I saw it.





The stand and canopy were in need of refinishing and I am not exactly the best handyman. I had refinished a stand once before and that was all.

So, the auction was scheduled to end around midnight and I had two laptops ready. No one had even placed a bid for the opening of $499 until around 5 minutes left in the auction. I had previously agreed with my wife to only spend around $600 on the setup even though a bit more would still have been a great deal. With 15 seconds left I submitted a bid of $617.83 and won with a bid of $610. I was stoked. I woke the wife and told her and she was very excited for me.