And what a great feeling it is 
.
Money is tight for me, graduated from college a few years back, so have student loans, renting a house/living alone, utilities, loans, etc. Nothing that everyone else isn't going through as well. So while going through this I had several smaller tanks - 3 55g, a few 20gs and 5gs and such. But had always wanted a larger tank and then to get rid of all the smaller ones and I could never just pull the trigger because of how much larger tanks are in my area.
Well, over on a local saltwater forum (because at that time I had a 29g reef tank) there was a well known member who was selling a 150g w/stand for cheap...but it was very far from a show tank. The person he bought it from drilled it incorrectly and painted over the oak trim with black paint but it was chipping everywhere. Hard water stains all over it and it had an overflow box that was about the size of my hand. He said that he was going to use it for a grow out tank but never got around to doing it, he tested it and it held water so that's what he was selling it as.
I bought it, and it was ugly. But I put a lot of elbow grease into it and cleaned it out and repainted the trim around the tank. Even with the black background the bulkhead/cap on the back stuck out like a sore thumb. So last month for my birthday I bought a 3D background from Designs by Nature and installed it this past week - covers up that HUGE eyesore nicely. Then two or so weeks ago I bought a black plastic canopy for $40 - I know it's plastic but it still gives it a nice clean feel. And my tank is in my PC room so the only light I have going is from the tank so you really can't even tell.
What I wanted to do next was reduce the clutter in my tank as I have 3 filters + heaters. So with the Marineland Stealth recall I took my heaters into Petsmart and got a refund of $80 and then went to my LFS and bought two Hydor In-Line 300w heaters for $84.
So what I have left to do is buy inlets/outlets for my three Rena XP3s as the stock ones are another eyesore - which I'll be shopping around for them this weekend as I already know which ones I'm going to get. And then get a new light as what I have rocking right now is just a regular 24" strip light on the 6' tank - I found a guy on CL who is selling a single tube 72" strip light for $60, just waiting for him to respond with an addy for pickup.
Sorry for the long post, just love the feeling that things are FINALLY all coming together and that this once beat up garbage looking tank is really starting to shine.
And yeah, I put prices on everything as I'm rather proud of how much shopping around and deal finding I've done to stay under budget and not put myself out financially.
.Money is tight for me, graduated from college a few years back, so have student loans, renting a house/living alone, utilities, loans, etc. Nothing that everyone else isn't going through as well. So while going through this I had several smaller tanks - 3 55g, a few 20gs and 5gs and such. But had always wanted a larger tank and then to get rid of all the smaller ones and I could never just pull the trigger because of how much larger tanks are in my area.
Well, over on a local saltwater forum (because at that time I had a 29g reef tank) there was a well known member who was selling a 150g w/stand for cheap...but it was very far from a show tank. The person he bought it from drilled it incorrectly and painted over the oak trim with black paint but it was chipping everywhere. Hard water stains all over it and it had an overflow box that was about the size of my hand. He said that he was going to use it for a grow out tank but never got around to doing it, he tested it and it held water so that's what he was selling it as.
I bought it, and it was ugly. But I put a lot of elbow grease into it and cleaned it out and repainted the trim around the tank. Even with the black background the bulkhead/cap on the back stuck out like a sore thumb. So last month for my birthday I bought a 3D background from Designs by Nature and installed it this past week - covers up that HUGE eyesore nicely. Then two or so weeks ago I bought a black plastic canopy for $40 - I know it's plastic but it still gives it a nice clean feel. And my tank is in my PC room so the only light I have going is from the tank so you really can't even tell.
What I wanted to do next was reduce the clutter in my tank as I have 3 filters + heaters. So with the Marineland Stealth recall I took my heaters into Petsmart and got a refund of $80 and then went to my LFS and bought two Hydor In-Line 300w heaters for $84.
So what I have left to do is buy inlets/outlets for my three Rena XP3s as the stock ones are another eyesore - which I'll be shopping around for them this weekend as I already know which ones I'm going to get. And then get a new light as what I have rocking right now is just a regular 24" strip light on the 6' tank - I found a guy on CL who is selling a single tube 72" strip light for $60, just waiting for him to respond with an addy for pickup.
Sorry for the long post, just love the feeling that things are FINALLY all coming together and that this once beat up garbage looking tank is really starting to shine.
And yeah, I put prices on everything as I'm rather proud of how much shopping around and deal finding I've done to stay under budget and not put myself out financially.
