Always Question A Free Tank

[TaylorD]

Right.. so first off, I know your like... "Cha-mon!!!!"

Free is, well FREE !!!
..riiiiiiiight..

The guy across the street from me, nice old man, as of late noticed I am obsessed with fish. One morning not two months ago came over an sat with me an my morning coffee in the stoop.

"Hey" he says after a fairly awkward silence

"Morning" I come back

"Gotta tank for yah, if you want it" He goes on to say

I think to myself, "self... hmmmm"

"Just come on by after work, its out down besides my shed. Its there is you want it" he continues

"just come by an.... 'take it' as in free..?" I reply

"...yup" chewing his cud like any old man does

"awesome thanks !!!" I shout, as he's already walking back to his house

~

Longest day at work... EVER
I honestly couldn't wait to get home to see my ... MY new tank.

~

A few hours pass, an Im backing my SUV(wannabe) down his driveway close to the shed. A few minutes looking and I stumble across this, I roughly ballpark, 90gal tank. It looked a little rough, but hey.. free is free, .......aint it?

He's son was nice enough to help lift this behemoth of a tank in the back, and shut the door pretty quick... I didn't even get time to give it a good once up.

He followed me across the street and helps unload it onto my old 125 stand thats in the garage.

"Thanks" I polity say as he's running back home.

..Now lets check this out

about ..... two seconds later I notice that the sides of the front and back pane have a few minor chips on in, and one mean son-of-a gouge out of ~ what I was later going to use as the back pane. Whats a scratch, with a lil help from a painted black back ?

That was the best of the tank.......
It seems, that at one point this tank 'may' have spring a leak. To which he, the guy across the street, used about, again with the rough ballpark, three full sized tubes of white silicone.. with a paint brush.

So, imagine this. A tank, 90gallons, with about 4 inches of seal all around the inside of the tanks bottom. About half an inch thick. then on the bottom of the tank, the underside, the very same thing.

"Whatever !!" I laugh. It was free

two days and about three blades blades later, I have the thing cleaned and resealed. Filled with about 5 inches of water to see how my first reseal went.

Still sitting out in my garage, for about 24 hours there wasn't a drop !! Awesome. I go an fill it up close to the top, and again, 24 hours later nothing. Talk to a friend of a friend and have him in the works of building me a stand to match the one he did for my 125.

Bloody impressed I am.
~
One week to the date, I have the tank filled sitting on its new stand down in my new fish-room. Added a few feeder golds, two Fluval 204's from another tank, a nice new Fluval E series heater, and a 48' light.
~
One week to the date, I have some substrate added and my wifes total community chaos in there loving life. Bloody impressed I am.
~
NOT 24 HOURS LATER
I get a call from her (the wife) while I'm at work, screaming "THE TANK IS LEAKING !!!!!" ... "OMGOMGOMMMMGGGGGG What do I doooooo"

..seems I sprung a leak.
~
With a 10 minute drive done in a little under 0.5 I come to realize about 80 gallons spilled out on my basement with all her fish in 6 casserole dishes...
lets leave it at that....
~
48 hours later I have, with the help of a friend the tank down resealed, filled, running, sitting, waiting...

(her fish safely in a 35 hospital)

24 hours after that back in the 90 and.. well I suppose besides a touch stressed ... loving life.
~
sorry to put you through this...
~
Again, less then 24 hours, I have a bawling wife on the other end of the phone trying to tell me it, yet-freaking-again sprung a leak.... between wet sobs..

~
The substrate was too heavy I finally ended up being told
~

So.. here it is, about two weeks later, I have a beautiful 125gallon community tank ~ once filled with not so free - yet ended in free - cichlids, and a 90 gallon tank in the garage....

moral of the story?
Check your seals 'between' the glass
be willing to please your wife with a larger tank if her 'gift' sucked
be willing to give your fish away
....
and ALWAYS question a free tank.






.. a few days ago, buddy across the street came over an asked how the tank was....

 

[Bderick67]

You berate the neighbor because you don't know how to properly seal a tank?

 

[TaylorD]

lol.. noo !!!

He's honestly a great guy. We both help one another out ~ a lot. I redid his electrical in his garage, and rebuilt his computer.. He helped fix the filter on my pool, and has mowed my lawn a few times when I have been out in the field with work.

Just how he came across .. how he said, "so, hows the tank..."
kind'a cocky - smirk - punch the guy in the shoulder as a friend

I just re read that last part..
I wrote it right .. just in the wrong context

 

[cynster]

Wow! That makes me worried about buying tanks on Craig's List... :O

 

[Sab_Fan]

You berate the neighbor because you don't know how to properly seal a tank?

not how I read it at all . . . he just told a funny story . . . he did not "berate" anyone . . .

if anything, you just berated him, for not knowing how to properly seal a tank . . .

 

[Bderick67]

not how I read it at all . . . he just told a funny story . . . he did not "berate" anyone . . .

if anything, you just berated him, for not knowing how to properly seal a tank . . .

Berate is not my word, both posts were edited by the MFK censorship board. In the original post by the OP he did call his neighbor a name and that is what I questioned. It's not the neighbors fault the OP cannot successfully seal the tank.

 

[yogurt_21]

Berate is not my word, both posts were edited by the MFK censorship board. In the original post by the OP he did call his neighbor a name and that is what I questioned. It's not the neighbors fault the OP cannot successfully seal the tank.

which goes back to the old argument of pay for it or build it yourself.

if you don't know how, you might find help but could end up with results like this. In this case buying is your safest option.


if you do know how, well then we're not talking about it now are we?

 

[Sab_Fan]

Berate is not my word, both posts were edited by the MFK censorship board. In the original post by the OP he did call his neighbor a name and that is what I questioned. It's not the neighbors fault the OP cannot successfully seal the tank.

ah! sorry, I must have come in too late . . . thanks for clarifying, I thought that seemed odd . . .

 

[CAcichlid]

lol. this is why when i see a "too good to be true" offer on craigslist i just skip it

 

[Pharaoh]

IMO, just seems as though 48 hours might have been a little quick to fill it with water. I would probably have let it sit for a week at least. Silicone doesn't dry all that fast, especially if it is thick and inside of seams.