[tyhoward08]

I saw a 90g All-Glass Aquarium on CL this morning. The price is right for my market and I am considering using it for my room divider project (see below thread)

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/view ... p?t=225212

My only concern is the tank is 14 years old. The seller states that he has had it running constantly for the 14 years that he has owned it. I view this as a good thing because it was always in his house (a climate controlled environment) and that he had fish in it until less than one month ago (holds water). From these statements I am pretty confident that the tank in in good condition for its age and should not leak, but I have a few additional questions.

1) Has the clarity of glass used in aquariums advanced significantly since this was built (1996)? If I'm going to have a tank that you can look through I want to make sure it is pretty clear (not necessarily starfire, but close to your standard Petsmart tank of 2011). Any clarity issues will be x2 when looking through the tank.

2) I want to run a sump on my setup. Is a tank from 1996 going to make drilling easier or harder in anyway (more or less likely to be tempered on bottom, thickness of glass, etc)?

3) Is there anything else I should be considering that would make this a more or less desireable buy?

There are a decent number of aquariums on the market here, so it wouldn't be the end of the world if this slipped by, but I would certainly say if you take age out of the equation this tank is a great deal compared to most.

Thanks in advance for your comments.

 

[nodima]

Since no one else has replied - I'll give you my .02

1-I don't believe there is any real differences in clarity of the glass itself - but an old tank is likely to have scratches on it, which may impact the clarity.

2 - All tanks have some risk when you drill on your own.

3 - it all comes down to price and condition.

In your case, with what you have asked - I think you are better off with a new, drilled tank. I've not priced a 90 lately, but would guess new is around $250-300, how much is your peace of mind worth? I don't think that the tank is the place to cheap out when building a set up. If you were looking for a tank for a fish room, or as an additional tank, used might be an option, but for a display tank in the living room, I'd think you would want a brand new one, so you have the peace of mind, and know that any scratches are your own fault! LOL

Good luck!

 

[Lestango]

My reply falls into the "it has it's disadvantages, but it is better than not at all"

I don't know how common this knowledge is, but as strange as it might seem, glass is a highly viscous flowing liquid. If you look at some really old glass window panes you will see where images seen through them are warped looking. On closer inspection you will notice the glass is rippled. That is because of irregularties in the glass thickness and the thicker sections, weighing more stretch out the thinner sections. Modern production methods may have minimized thickness irregularities.

Glass is also volatile, meaning that it looses some of its components to evaporation.

This is spliting hairs, but over a long period of time glass will loose transparency(diffusion of light rays), creating distortion, and become more brittle. New glass drills better. Add to this the difficulty of minimizing the loss of transparency due to damage from mineral buildups and scratching and it might make it hard to get a good picture through it.

That being said, I was given a 55g tank that is probably over 20 years old. I spent almost two weeks resealing it (just short of disassembling the glass panels), treating it with a not quite hot diluted acetic acid (1:1 commercial white vinegar to water) to dissolve deposits of salts (chemical definition), and tryiing to smooth out scratches :-? . All this before I could even think of putting water in it. I have now had it in opperation for over a year and am sure glad I have it. :thumb:

 

[dotbomb]

This is spliting hairs, but over a long period of time glass will loose transparency(diffusion of light rays)

I don't think this is splitting hairs. My 60g is a used tank I bought and I can definitely see large areas of light splitting that causes rainbow color effects in the glass. I really notice it when I'm looking at the tank straight on and the room is brightly lit.

 

[sirdavidofdiscus]

The only advantage of a used tank is price. Most of them will take some cleaning to get to where you'd like them.
A new tank gives you the piece of miond that it MOST LIKELY won't leak for several years. But all of my tanks except 2 {I have about 25} were bought used. I've only had to reseal 1 tank and that was one of the ones that was bought new, which is now 12 yrs old. [my other new one is a 55 and is close to 20yrs old now. ]
But I'm not as picky as most when it comes to display tanks. So a slight ripple in the tank is acceptable to me.