It's funny how sometimes you do something stupid that turns out to have been a good thing. My stupid something? Well ... I wanted to check how water was circulating in the tank to see how I should position things. So how would you check on the flow? As for me, I thought, why not food coloring? LOL!
Food coloring doesn't hurt anything, so I dropped a few squirts of red in one corner, a few drops of blue in another, same with green and yellow. Interesting watching how things go. Was actually insightful. Then I thought that the filter would remove the food coloring overnight. LOL! Wrong. Woke up to a brown tank.
So I went to wash the tank. Slowly emptying it out ... what a pain in the ass. But it was a learning moment. When I had the tank tipped over, I noticed that the plastic trim around the bottom was coming off. Uh-oh.
So I checked around to see how much it would cost to order a new plastic base. Found that I can get a new plastic frame for $4.00. Then I thought, OK, not bad. But then read further ... minimum order is $20 and shipping is $14.95 min. $35 to replace trim. On the other hand, I can get a brand-spanking new tank from Petco for $55. So I did.
It's a 29 Gallon instead of a 30, wider rather than tall. A little too wide for the space at the end of the counter, but a wider tank will actually be better for showing a planted aquarium ... and I do have to admit that the tall tank made it hard to reach the bottom of the tank for cleaning or maintenance.
Alas. Long and short is an aquarium (especially a big one) shouldn't be something you get off of Craigslist. Thank God it was only $10. Maybe I can make it into a greenhouse to raise rose cuttings so it's not a total waste. But maybe I'll see if I can order a trim through my local fish shop. It would be nice to raise Angelfish again.
So let's see where that leaves us:
$10.00 -- Craigslist tank
$29.95 --AquaClear 50 Filter
$60.08 -- New Fish Tank (54.99 + 5.09 sales tax)
$100.03 -- Total Costs so far
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