I've got several fish tanks already, but I'm looking to upgrade one of my smaller tanks to a larger one. But fish tanks can be super expensive! Usually I get them from a small local supplier that tends to be fairly well priced and has good quality fish as well at reasonable prices, many of which the owner breeds himself, but I wondered if I could be missing out on deals elsewhere on tanks. Does anyone have any suggestions of places to look?
I buy my fish tanks used either at garage sales or from craigslist. People even give the big fish tanks away sometimes because they need the room. Finding a good used fish tank seems to be seasonal. Almost no one wants to deal with fish tanks during the colder months but are often wanting to get rid of them during the warm months. I think that's because fish tanks are usually stored in garages or basements and then sold during spring cleaning as that is when I see a whole bunch of them offered cheap or for free. I don't think it matters if you buy a fish tank used as long as you clean it out well and do not use chemicals. The one thing I did not like about the last fish tank I purchased used was that the previous owner painted the back black. My black fancy goldfish blends right in and is hard to see.
I also buy mine online through Craigslist. I then clean them really thoroughly without chemicals. I managed to find a 60 gallon coffee table aquarium for $100. new they are almost $900. I have never had any issues with cracks or disease. I would caution you against tanks with a lot of hard water stains. They are hard to clean. I have found that it is just not worth the time to clean them.
I've always purchased my aquariums new, so I didn't have to deal with the worry about whether or not they leaked, or had other problems. Tanks aren't all that expensive usually, particularly in the smaller sizes. Once you get up into the larger sizes or other than typical shapes, the prices do increase dramatically, but for standard size smaller tanks, I have purchased them at Petsmart, Petco, and Walmart.
When we had fish, we had purchased it new from a pet shop, but I can see some aquariums being given for free in some classified sites that I go to. When my bro decided to stop taking care of fish, he just gave away his old aquarium.
