So my wife and i just bought a new house that is a bit of a fixer upper. we'll be doing lots of upgrades over the next few years (and may move out temporary during some of them, like a new roof) so i made the hard decision of selling my main aquarium (90 gallon) and just kept my little 20 gallon. in the long run when the house is done i plan on getting my dream tank, a ~300 gallon saltwater with a shark and stingray.
Anyhow, off to the sale.
My tank i was running a standard wet / dry sump. water overflow into filter sock, from there to a chamber with bio media, then return pump back to the aquarium. in addition i had a sponge filter in the tank. very standard and basic. The guy i sold the tank to on craigslist was a completely non-educated aquarist in every single issue that we discussed. he was purchasing it to move his overgrown fish from their 30 gallon tank (he has 10" turtle and 12" pleco and a few other fish in a 30 gallon.....). i mentioned moving the tank i cleaned a lot of the stuff so the bacteria will die off so he should cycle the tank again....blank stares. i mentioned its a standard wet / dry sump so he should use his current cycled filter during the transition if he wants to move the fish over...he didn't know what kind of filter it was. i asked what kind of turtle and pleco (technically i said what kind of "wall sucker" since that is what he called it), no clue.
The next few days
he calls me the next day and asks me why he can't get the sump to work and no water is going in it even though the pump is on. i ask him a few "stupid" questions until i realize he has the water level about 8" below the top of the tank so the turtle doesn't climb out. it took me a solid 10 minutes to explain why when you have an overflow the water level is set by the level of the overflow intake
the next day he calls me about how to set up stuff in the sump, how to hang the filter socks and what are these blue wiffle balls. another 30 minutes down the drain.
today he just called me again, i decided not to answer my phone.
Has anyone been in this situation before? between the night of the sale and the two following nights i've put in close to 2 hours explaining how it works and how its set up and just basic aquarium knowledge (again, nothing weird or complicated, a basic aquarium 101 and wet / dry sump article should tell you all you need to know). i hate to just ignore the guy or tell him "sorry the sale did not come with a service contract", but i give it decent odds if he ever puts it together right a few days later he's going to have massive ammonia spikes (which he wont know because he wont be measuring water quality for sure) and sick / dieing fish, so he'll be calling me more - likely telling me i sold him a defective aquarium.
o, and im in Minnesota. The term "Minnesota Nice" is sort of true, though more correctly it would be "Minnesota passive aggressive we almost always are nice to your face but rant about how stupid you are on the forums", but i dont want to be mean to the guy....
Anyhow, off to the sale.
My tank i was running a standard wet / dry sump. water overflow into filter sock, from there to a chamber with bio media, then return pump back to the aquarium. in addition i had a sponge filter in the tank. very standard and basic. The guy i sold the tank to on craigslist was a completely non-educated aquarist in every single issue that we discussed. he was purchasing it to move his overgrown fish from their 30 gallon tank (he has 10" turtle and 12" pleco and a few other fish in a 30 gallon.....). i mentioned moving the tank i cleaned a lot of the stuff so the bacteria will die off so he should cycle the tank again....blank stares. i mentioned its a standard wet / dry sump so he should use his current cycled filter during the transition if he wants to move the fish over...he didn't know what kind of filter it was. i asked what kind of turtle and pleco (technically i said what kind of "wall sucker" since that is what he called it), no clue.
The next few days
he calls me the next day and asks me why he can't get the sump to work and no water is going in it even though the pump is on. i ask him a few "stupid" questions until i realize he has the water level about 8" below the top of the tank so the turtle doesn't climb out. it took me a solid 10 minutes to explain why when you have an overflow the water level is set by the level of the overflow intake
the next day he calls me about how to set up stuff in the sump, how to hang the filter socks and what are these blue wiffle balls. another 30 minutes down the drain.
today he just called me again, i decided not to answer my phone.
Has anyone been in this situation before? between the night of the sale and the two following nights i've put in close to 2 hours explaining how it works and how its set up and just basic aquarium knowledge (again, nothing weird or complicated, a basic aquarium 101 and wet / dry sump article should tell you all you need to know). i hate to just ignore the guy or tell him "sorry the sale did not come with a service contract", but i give it decent odds if he ever puts it together right a few days later he's going to have massive ammonia spikes (which he wont know because he wont be measuring water quality for sure) and sick / dieing fish, so he'll be calling me more - likely telling me i sold him a defective aquarium.
o, and im in Minnesota. The term "Minnesota Nice" is sort of true, though more correctly it would be "Minnesota passive aggressive we almost always are nice to your face but rant about how stupid you are on the forums", but i dont want to be mean to the guy....
