Where to find a cheap new tank...

[Felidae]

Yea it has to be new just for the liability. We have enough flooding in our parking lot on high tides, dont need it inside the clubhouse. This place is more of a slugging down beers, talking about fishing kinda club lol
I contemplated putting in freshwater flounder, but I guarantee they woud get liquored up and macgyver a hook out of a staple or something and go to town

 

[ezziecat]

You guys get Dollar Per Gallon sales? I've never heard of this, I'm so jealous! I doubt anything similar happens in the UK, does anyone know? I'm hoping to get a 35gal or bigger to upgrade to in the future and if it was at those prices I might be able to afford it nowish!

 

[oo7genie]

It's just Petco and a handful of random other places that host the $1 per gallon sales. One thing to keep in mind, is that those sales are for glass only, not kits. So you will still need to purchase hood, lights, heater, filter, etc. if you don't already have them. Considering you usually end up with better equipment this way, it's not necessarily a down side.

As for the yacht club, if they want a new tank on the cheap, it may be best to wait for a $1 per gallon sale. Even shopping around, you aren't going to beat that price for a new tank. If they want a tank sooner than that, it's really just a matter of shopping around in your area, and settling for a higher price. I imagine shipping costs would bring any online "deal" to near, if not more than what you could find a new tank for locally.

 

[ezziecat]

Yeah but that's still awesome price for a tank, at least here in Britain it would be. I've been looking for 35gal+ second hand and it's hard to find one below £50 ($78) even though they're pre-owned. As I have a heater and filters a $ per gallon sale would be amazing lol.

 

[dougall]

I would say try looking at the big picture, unless you have a whole bunch of other used equipment you'll be using.

firstly, think about a stand also, getting a tank for $50 less won't help if you're paying full price for a stand, you might be able to do better elsewhere as a package deal.

also think about what will be in the tank, I assume freshwater, but planted? you have to add lighting to the budget too.


it you are going to be buying all the stock and equipment, then see if any local LFS/LPS will offer you a package deal,

finally, from a planning perspective, if you're going to be fishless cycling, and not seeding, maybe buying the filter first would be a good investment, in the 6ish weeks that will take, there might be another $/gallon sale, I know there are a number of pet stores within driving distance of here that will have that sale every so often.


HTH

 

[TL1000RSquid]

The $1 per sales usually cut off at 55g though some smaller shops I've seen upto 75g. Do you guys have any type of big box pet stores in Britain?

 

[ezziecat]

Thanks Dougall As far as my situation rather than OP's goes, I was jealous as I want to upgrade my current coldwater tank to a bigger, better, planted one. You're right about the light and filter being an extra cost, but it's the same with a lot of the second hand $78 tanks around at the mo in the UK too, so it would still be cheaper over where you lot are! The stand I'm not sure about as my current one is on my sturdy chest of drawers. I don't know where the bigger one will go as we'll probably move house before getting it (hopefully anyway!). I assume LFS/LPS = Local Fish Store/Local Pet Store? Most of them are extortionate over here and will sell you anything regardless of if it truly is a good product, so I doubt I'd get a good deal unless they were getting rid of a display tank or something.

I was planning on planting the tank, letting it grow up and cycling it by adding a netting bag of the dirty gravel from the old tank (where the fish would still be) so it would be semi-fishless cycling.

Anyway for me this is wishful thinking as I need a job to be able to do all this! Wish me luck guys

 

[dougall]

yes, LFS/LPS is local fish/pet store.

and the reason they might be cheaper would be if they don't normally carry tanks + stands, they would need to special order. IME you can sometimes get a decent deal if you can be there when it's delivered to them. that way they don't have to store it, make a profit anyway and create good will for a customer.

larger/chain pet stores will be less likely to do something like that.


but my point to the OP was ultimately that saving $50 on a tank might not be the best place to save money in the big scheme of things.

if it were just a tank and filter to go on a dresser, then yeah, I would say that getting the cheap tank is the way to go. IF looking at higher wattage lighting, or a solid wood stand, then more money could be saved there... also note the cost of transportation; driving for a couple of hours to save $30 is seldom a good idea.


and good luck with the job thing.!

 

[ezziecat]

Gotcha! And thanks, I hope I get some money to give my little guys a better tank soon!