How to Buy Used Fish Tanks for Sale

Image Source:Ebay

Most people find out a little too late – that it can be an expensive hobby to keep fish. Not that any pet is cheap to keep; it's just that with fish, you have to completely create a whole new ecosystem for them. These are not even air breathing creatures. They are not even warm-blooded. When you buy fish, you are undertaking to create a whole environment from scratch. As such, aquarium owners always find that there is something or the other that they need to buy to keep things going. Which is not to be taken as an argument against aquarium-keeping at all. It's just that if you are on a budget, you need to look for good, sensible ways which to save money. Looking for used fish tanks for sale would be one such way.

How much money exactly do you get to save this way? Well, for the most part, they can be staggeringly cheap. The going rate these days it is about 75 cents a gallon, and you get plenty of accessories thrown in as well. Get all the decorations, the gravel, the rocks – everything you need. If you're only starting out in the aquarium hobby, there's no better way to go.

Of course, not everything that they offer is a good deal. You do need to know what to look for.

Some people will put up used fish tanks for sale where they only offer the tank and not the accessories. No one ever does this if they kept fish in their tank. If they did keep fish in the tank, what are they going to do just selling tank? They'll have no use for all the accessories, will they? There's no reason for them to do that. When someone does this, it's your clue that they never kept fish in that tank. They may have kept snakes or hamsters or something. In general, this isn't a good idea. That tank could have bacteria that are not good for fish. And anyway, why should you give up a bunch of free stuff that you could get if you looked elsewhere?

Even if you are anxious to get a lot of freebies thrown in though, make sure that the actual tank is in good condition. Not only should you never buy a tank that has cracks in the glass, you should never buy a tank that has chipped glass either. When broken glass is exposed on a chip, it begins to shed microscopic particles of glass powder. You can't put your fish in an environment like that where they can breathe in glass particles. Whatever savings you may be getting are not worth it.

When you finally do find a good tank and you get it home, be sure to spend a good long 15 min. inspecting the joints. You want to make sure that the silicone is in good shape – no yellowing, turning brittle or anything. If it isn't in great shape, you'll have to re-caulk everything. Yo need to scrape all the old silicone out, and replace it with new stuff. It's very important that you scrape all of the old stuff out. If you find that the silicone is not in good shape in any one spot, it's likely that it's all just about ready to give it up.