Dilemma time

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cvermeulen

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 4, 2007
1,876
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Los Osos, CA
This IS related to DIY, before you mods get too excited, as everything leading up to and away from this particular dilemma involves a lot of DIY work!

Alright. I got a 110gal tank for cheap a few months ago. I cleaned it up, and I thought it looked pretty good all things considered, so I offered it for sale. Well, sure enough a fellow wanted to trade me his leaking 135 with a nice stand for my 110 with a crappy stand. Fine. So, said fellow builds himself a much nicer stand, and we exchange tanks, bob's your uncle.

Well, now he's noticed that the 110 has scratches on the glass. Now, I never noticed them until we had the tank in the back of his truck and he pointed it out, but he took it anyway, and set it up, and now he's unhappy. I could very well tell him to get bent, but he's a nice fellow that I'd like to remain friends with, so I've got a bit of a pickle.

He suggested that he give me my 110 back, and buy his own, and I contribute 200 bucks towards a new tank, in exchange for the 135 I took off of him. Well, I don't think a leaky 135 is worth 200 bucks, but this is one option, because I did fail to notice the scratches, and I did let him get into a situation where he had time and money invested in the tank stand before he had a chance to see the scratches.

Another option is I could cut the 135 down to 110 and reassemble it and we trade back, but that's even less desirable, because I wind up back where I left off. He said he'd pay me labor and parts, but I really don't think this is a worthwhile exercise.

I ***could*** do the first option, and then use the scratchy 110 glass, together with the nice 135 glass to build myself a 5 foot by 6 foot by 2 foot tank. This size would be nice for my TSN and future monster growth, but I don't know where I'd put it and so on. If I was going to undergo this kind of deep rectangle construction I'd rather go 8x4x2 or something.

Beyond that I'm a bit stuck. Can anyone chime in with some ideas? I'm mainly trying to find a DIY silver lining to this mess.
 
hmmm turn the 110 around and decorate in front of the glass :rofl:
have you tried to compromise down to like 150 or something, or whatever you paid for the 110 in the first place, that seems fare to me.
i like the idea of buying it back and making a diy tank with the glass, i've wanted to do that with my 135 for ever.
sorry i wasn't much help
 
seems to me he did not check into his investment. don't give him any money that is ridiculous. he gave u a leaking tank. he's the jerk. i'd let u know how to deal w/ scratches but he dosen't deserve that. tell him he gets what he deserves. if anything give him a 10g and tell him it holds water. much better than a 999,999Gl tank that leaks. screw em
 
oh for sure!!! it is pretty bs, expecially if the scratch was small enough that you didn't notice until way later. i was just thinkng aybe its a good friend or something.
 
Tell him to live with the "scratch"! How big and deep is it anyways? Where is it located on the tank? It doesn't "disappear" when the tank is filled with water? Is it inside or outside of the tank? I agree it was a fair trade to begin with! A scratched tank is better than a leaking tank! Tell him to get real! HE Needs to work it out! Not you!
 
I say you offer to polish out the scratch & call it a done deal. Polishing out scratches isn't more then a little elbow grease. Even easier if you use a random orbital sander.
 
Well I don't think it's a little scratch. The area that I cleaned the tank up in is quite shaded so I never really saw it, but when it was sitting in the sun in the back of his truck it looked like lots of scratches - I didn' tthink they were major at that point, but I guess they are quite apparent now that the tank is set up. I don't think he's being a picky SOB or a jerk or anything, he has kind of a fair point - if he'd seen the tank in person before making the trade, he wouldn't have done it... so normally I'd say the hell with you man, buyer beware, but he's a local guy that I'd like to remain friends with, and he has a point. I knew the tank I was trading for was a leaker - hence the DIY relevance - I'm going to rebuild it. His point is that I can rebuild the 135 and have a nice tank... there's not a lot he can do about the scratches on the 110.
 
Just tell him you can not pay that kind of money for a leaking tank and the only thing you can do is trade back and be doen with it. And then say your are soory for any trouble. ----------remember he does not want his 135 back. And then he will prbably ask you what they 135 is worth to you and you tell him what it is worth to you.--------that is what I would do. And just besure he remembers you traded a slightly scratched tank for his 25 gallon larger leaking tank. His needed work and yours was good as it was. He replaced the stand cause he wanted to not cause he had to. i would also use the phrase, Man this 135 is not in the shape i thought it was in etheir maybe we should just trade back.
 
What about buying a single sheet of glass & replacing the scratched pane on his tank? He could even get low-E glass out of that deal.

Work with him but keep in mind that he did understand he was buying a used tank & that's ALWAYS buyer beware. He should have understood there was a risk in not looking at it in person before agreeing to the deal. That he saw it during transit & didn't make an issue of it right then means he bares even more responsibility. So, help him but don't lose your shirt over it.
 
If this guy was a good friend and a nice gut, he would know that a trade is a trade. He noticed the scratched on the tank before he took it. He had the chance to say..."would you mind if we filled it up real fast. I want to check out these scratches." A nice person would never try to trade junk for non-junk, and then expect you to "warranty" used good. Has anyone ever heard of am "As-is" sale. there are no guarantees with fish tanks.
You could be nice and offer any help to him that doesn't come out of your pocket. Inj reality, it is no longer your problem. People always want something for nothing.
 
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