Well a somewhat disappointing turn of events with this little aqua drama -- that will surely have some of you saying "Lol, I though that sounded too good to be true." -- and justifiably so...
Today I got a call from the lady (daughter of the owner) who showed me the house and made the deal for the tank...
She was very sad to inform me that she made a mistake: her father told her that actually her uncle bought that tank some time ago, for what would be about $4,000.
He said the stand is made from teakwood -- which was unbeknownst to me or his daughter, and which in fact would make it much more valuable than the tank itself (though I personally don't know how realistic that $4,000 figure actually is, I've never bought teak wood).
He offered to sell it to me for about $2,000, which kind as that may be, is still rather a big jump from $200 lol.
I politely declined this offer, saying I could buy the same size tank for about $600 or $700 brand new (granted with metal stand), and didn't really need a $1,300 teak wood stand.
So the implications are that I can still do whatever the heck I want with the tank while I'm renting there (probably 3-5 years), but given that it's not really 'mine', it doesn't make sense for me to spend big bucks upgrading it equipment, accessory and fish-wise -- instead I'll just make it simple but clean and presentable. Not sure yet but maybe just some knife fish or a school of Silver Sharks, nothing too high maintenance and nothing that I wouldn't be overly disappointed if I had to leave behind down the road.
BUT seeing that tank -- plus the influence of my fellow MFKer's
with all your great input -- has for better or worse now caused me to come down with a definite case of 'BigTankitis'....my 88 gallon Flowerhorn tank used to look huge; now it looks like a little kiddy tank....
So I ran out to my LFS today to give them figures to check the cost for making me a new tank (220 gallon or 300 gallon). Will report the prices after I hopefully get them tomorrow.
If I were to get either of these tanks new, I could use the 375 as a quarantine tank lol.
But while at my LFS, the owner's (I think Super Red) Arowana further induced the fever many of you have felt yourselves...
