so... it's summertime here in arizona...
the temperature outside is about 105-110 during the day...
i hide out in the house all day long and let my dogs in to cool off on the tile floor.

i'm bored out of my mind since there's no work during summer vacation...
and although my trips to california are SUPER fun, i can't very well invite myself over for the remainder of the summer.

so what's left to do but sit at home and browse the internet? right?
haha, well i planning out my shopping lists at bigals and DrsF&S...
browsing aquabid, goldfishconnection, and all sorts of other goodie places..

when i realize hmm two of the bulbs in my coralife aqua lunar light has gone out...
so after adding everything into my shopping cart and realizing it'll cost me a few hundred bucks,
i think... "hmm maybe i should check craigslist!"

sooo.... upon checking craigslist, i see a 150gal tank for only $135! i'm thinking HOLY SMOKES!
that's a freakin' good deal!!! and i call the dude up, but he's already sold it.
he says though that he has a coralife turbotwist 18x UVsterilizer, and i'm thinking "oOoOoo"
new in box... hasn't been used... for $75.

so i think okie... what the heck... i've been wanting one for sometime... let's give this one a try.
with more browsing, i see a very nice 125 gal with a handmade custom stand, lids, lights, and filter for $550.
i'm thinking... "ooh that's a bit pricey... but there's no harm in seeing if it's available, right?"
low and behold it's still available! and the girl asks me if i wanna come out and see it!
haha it's just down the street from mr. UV guy, so i'm thinking ok!

WELL! this girl has got 2 125 gal tanks both up for sale with stands, lids and lights. she's got another (what looks to be) 110 gal set up with tropicals... two twenties also set up with tropicals, 2 300gal rubbermaid tubs out back with koi and subunkin, a 100 gal rubbermaid with subbies, a 50 with commons or comets.. along with a 30 or 40 gal tank with two small red eared sliders.

she has just had a baby, so she's "downsizing" and doesn't want the baby crawling into the fish tank stuffs...
so as we are talking... i tell her that i am fish obsessed and that every time i buy a tank, it keeps getting bigger and bigger.
well... anyway... i tell her about my setups, and she's like OH! do you want lids for your 55? aquarium decorations? gravel? fish food? water conditioner? plastic plants? aquarium salt? driftwood?

i mean HOLY SMOKES she's got it ALL!!! she was like lemme know what you want, and i'll gladly throw it in for free! haha and i'm thinking "CHA CHING!!!" she's got a bookshelf CRAMMED full of fish stuff all that she wants to get rid of and i tell her... throw in anything you think i might want, need or use. i'll take it from you and find something to do with it!

so... originally i was to have a friend help me pick it up, but he's a bit iffy on helping me pick up the tank, so before i could let her know about my situation, i got an email from the girl today saying if i couldn't find anyone to help me pick it up her boyfriend would deliver it on saturday.

*sigh* so... now i just have to explain to my parents... that i bought yet another, bigger tank.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

i've only got the picture that was posted on the craigslist listing...
but here it is!



the bottom bowfront tank is not included, but i can definitely get a tank to put down there if i'd like.
the stand is very well built and in my opinion very nice looking with a simple yet nice design.

the stand is about 40" tall, putting the aquarium at eye level.
*sigh* crazy me... i'll have to rearrange the "fish room" as everyone in my family calls it to make space.

gee... i just hope i don't get lectured!

Yay! You got another fish tank!!!!

OMG that stand and tank are gorgeous! And with all the free stuff thrown in, I think you WIN the tank fairy contest.

What are you going to put in there? When are you coming to Dallas to see your sister? I saw more than a few beauties at Tommy's yesterday that would love to live in that set up at your house!

Congratulations on your awesome find.

not sure what i'll put in yet. i'll have to think about whether or not i want to order goldies offline.
i'll be visiting my sisters from july 1-8. i dunno how likely it is for me to get a fish from Tommy though since i'll be flying back and won't have access to a tank until july 16.

no harm in looking though.

That is really nice! Can't wait to see it all set up.
Kathy

The tank fairy strikes again!! This one was a bit more expensive... but it's larger and comes with all those goodies!

I like the homemade stand.

oohh, that is a pretty tank and stand! I guess you can go fish shopping soon LOL


A couple of days ago, I found a 90 gal tank with stand for $60 on my craigslist. I had enough money for to buy it on my own, but I don't know, i just didn't feel a NEED for another tank ya' know , I think I have enough tanks for now LOL. Even if I could afford the tank, the filters for it would make me broke! My dad even agreed to it, but we didn't get it. Yeah, that was dumb of me, it was a good deal. But I hope the tank had a good home The ad stayed on for a couple of days, but it was removed this morning. Now I see someone selling a 75 gal for $500 LOL

yeah there are definitely some that are much cheaper. lots of the ones around here are 55's or larger ones that only come with the tank or something of the sort.

this girl was really nice though, she even offered me some of her subunkin... i think it's mostly because she can't take care of that many tanks, fish, and her baby all at the same time. overall though, i really like the tank and stand... they're in really good condition, and i can't wait to get it set up!

What an awesome find! I really like that stand too, it's simple and can hold another tank, what more could you want! I can't wait to see the monster goldies you can grow out in that thing!

wow great deal!

YES!! Haha! Thank you Tank Fairy!! I love to hear of all these great Craiglist-- oops I mean Tank Fairy-- tanks!!

Make sure you release her when you're done-- there are other forum members who need new tanks, y'know.

haha joy you are silly!

ok, so kristy (the girl who sold me the tanks), emailed today and asked if i wanted to stop by to pick up the stuff she was throwing in with the tank, so after lunch i stopped by.

my friend who i went to go eat lunch with drives an old honda station wagon, and he was like hmm... i think that tank will fit in my car.
SOOO...

with a bit of struggling, seat adjusting, and all that greatness...
we brought back THE TANK.

i rinsed it down in the driveway,
scrubbed it too...
it was in pretty clean condition with just some mineral deposits here and there,
but those are easy to fix.

(of course i took pictures.)

you can see atlas (the labrador mix) and duchess (the mini american eskimo/jack russell mix) in the picture along with THE TANK.


here's THE TANK again, with duchess' back side... she was sniffing at the other goodies.


i haven't gone through the box yet, but from what i've seen, there's some water additives, little bags of gravel, those "gemstones" for fishtanks, ornaments, cleaners, aquarium salt, airline tubing, thermometer, plastic plants, airstone, background, thermometer, a nice at least 20" driftwood and magnetic cleaner.

outside the house (which i didn't take a picture of)...
there's glass lids to the tanks,
she gave me 2 55 gal lids, 2 20 gal lids, another HOB filter, a lava rock cave, and for $20 i got 2 strip lights for a 55.

she'll be dropping off the stand on saturday (it wouldn't fit in the station wagon), along with some more stuff she digs out, duckweed, and some plant clippings.
this is SOOOO exciting!

anything that she gives me that i don't need or want, i will be more than willing to give away. i'll post a list of stuff here in case anyone is interested.

You could use it for a dog kennel!!

Soooo much stufff................. congrats!

haha thanks joy.

i think this is the last visit i'll be getting from the tank fairy for a while.
at least until i start to downsize and maybe sell or give away my smaller tanks.

ummm...

hunny!

you can do laps in that.

haha!

You know, the tank looks a bit small in the photos; I think you should upgrade to a 250

haha... didn't see one for sale. ;-)
well at least not at an affordable price.

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/for/719023337.html

haha too expensive... at least for now.

Congratulations on the tank! It looks really impressive.
(I bet it will be even more impressive once it's up-and-running and decorated )

hmm... ok, so i am in need of some ideas as to what i should do with which tanks...

here are the tanks i've got and which fish are in it:

2.5 gal eclipse explorer - male betta
6 gal eclipse - 1 female betta
12 gal aquapod - empty
29 gal planted - 2 rubberlip plecos, 1 extra small clown loach, 7 neon tetras, and 8 mountain cloud minnows, 1 ramshorn snail
55 gal - 2 ryukin and 1 tripod fantail
55 gal - 1 common pleco, 5 adult mollies, and a bunch of molly fry
72 gal bowfront - 3 ryukin, 1 fantail, and 1 oranda
125 gal - empty

so i'm contemplating whether or not i want to use the 125 for all my goldfish, and then use the 72 to set up a reef tank.
use the empty 55 for another tropical planted tank, and then leave the 12 gal aquapod for quarantine.

i kinda need to get an idea of what is going where so i know what filters i will need to buy and what not..

Wow, and my husband tells me I have too many tanks. Although he probably wouldn't object to another if it was a reef tank. Your idea sounds great though. So many pretty fish in a giant beautiful tank!

Good find.

That tank is so awesome. I love how it has a spot for a smaller tank at the bottom. I kinda like your idea as using the 125 for all your goldies and so on. I can't wait to see how it turns out. Wow you have a TON of tanks! I've got a ton of them too, but 5 of them are super small (less than 5 gallons). And it's cute seeing your dog poking around the fish stuff lol Actually better idea. You are in AZ right? It's probably sooo hot there. Maybe you should just keep the 125 for yourself as an indoor pool LOL

that's a great idea! i'll have to keep that in mind... along with whether or not i'd break the tempered glass.

so change of plans... i think i will keep my fish where they are (or at least for the time being) since i've already cut all the eheim tubes to size for the 72 gal and the 55 gal.
the 125 is at least a foot taller than each.

i know tubing isn't too expensive at a hardware store, but i'd also have to buy new filters haha to make up for the turnover rate.
for the moment, i need to spend my summer reviewing pre-calculus and finishing up schoolwork... so maybe the big goldie tank will be a project for the winter time.

so new plan revised:
- keep all fish where they are
- just rearrange where the tanks are
- 125 will be a planted tropical (maybe)
- or it will sit there till i have money to spend again