Which would you get?

[Clancaster23]

I am looking to do a huge upgrade and project. I plan on upgrading my 40 gallon breeder to something in the six foot range. I put an ad up on Craigslist for a 120+ gallon tank and have gotten a few bites already. The most interesting is from one guy who has two 180 gallon tanks. Both are drilled, one is rimless and the other the regular type. He wants 120 for the rimless which I think is a great deal and other regular one he asks 175 and says it's drilled for an internal loop system. I don't even know what that is to be honest. Which would you pick up?

 

[Newbie Aquarist]

Rimless But make sure he fills it up before you get there.

 

[sfsuphysics]

maybe he meant external closed loop? In which case that means put bulkheads on it and hook it to a pump so that you can use that as a water movement method, not a big fan of those especially since you don't get to choose where the holes are.

Rimless sounds nice, but I don't think I'd trust a 6 foot long tank that's rimless, maybe if it had obnoxiously thick glass, but if it's standard 1/2" glass, no way.

 

[ca1ore]

I'm not a big fan of buying used big tanks. You never know their history, and age can be hard to determine, particularly if the seller is not the original owner.

 

[Clancaster23]

90% chance I'm going with the rimmed one. Yes, I meant external closed loop. He told me it worked well where they are now, there's four return holes all together then two overflows. I figure if I need flow somewhere, I can always add a powerhead somewhere. The tank is going to be big enough that I don't think it'd be a huge eyesore. Before I found this, I planned on having powerheads anyways. One reason I'm not taking the rimless is the risk factor. I don't need to get killed by the wife when it spills 180 gallons of water all over the floor. The rimmed one, he told me it's basically still brand new and he is going to fill it before I get there so I can see myself that it's in good shape. I have bought several used tanks and checked them thoroughly and my record is good so far. I have only bought one new tank, my 40 I have running now.

 

[Reefing4082]

90% chance I'm going with the rimmed one. Yes, I meant external closed loop. He told me it worked well where they are now, there's four return holes all together then two overflows. I figure if I need flow somewhere, I can always add a powerhead somewhere. The tank is going to be big enough that I don't think it'd be a huge eyesore. Before I found this, I planned on having powerheads anyways. One reason I'm not taking the rimless is the risk factor. I don't need to get killed by the wife when it spills 180 gallons of water all over the floor. The rimmed one, he told me it's basically still brand new and he is going to fill it before I get there so I can see myself that it's in good shape. I have bought several used tanks and checked them thoroughly and my record is good so far. I have only bought one new tank, my 40 I have running now.

There is no risk factor if the 180 was actually built to be rimless and not the guy just took a normal 180 gallon and remove rim and call it rimless if its fully rimless with a dimension of 6 x 2 x 2 if it was me I will feel safe if glass is 3/4 inch thick if tank is bad whichever one u get can mean 150 gallons of water on floor