Hypothetically speaking...

[saltn00b]

hi everyone - I need some help here, i am in a confusing and annoying situation.

So lets play a little game called Prebay!
all i am asking for is that you take a moment and read what i currently have in
my 150g tank set up, and make a realistic and fair dollar offer on it , as if you were in the market to buy a fully established and partially stocked (with room to add plenty) system.
its as simple as that! The More accurate "fake" offers the better! This will help me out tremendously
and dont worry i am not selling it
ok ? here we go:
150 gallon custom acryllic tank with one central rear drilled over flow. very minor scratches
1" bulkhead with Durso stand, rated at 600 + GPH
3/4" bulkhead "return" with split jet head.
72" x 18" x 26" H
Stained Wood Cabinet and Canopy
Icecap 660 Electronic ballast powering 2 160W VHO T-12 72" bulbs
Semi-reflective aluminum backing
2 in-facing and 2 out-facing 120V 5" fans for Cooling Air Channel, wired to ballast.
Light Switch and Timer
5 blue and 2 white 1W 'inline' LED Moonlights.
External Return Pump
Wet/Dry about 30g, works currently as sump with about $50 of foam, BioBalls included.
Dual Fluval Canister Filter - never hooked up since i purchased tank.
RO/DI 2-3 stage unit - never hooked up since i purchased tank. (needs new filter)
Extra Large Turbo Twist UV - never hooked up since i purchased tank. (needs new bulb)
Aqua C EV-180 Protein Skimmer powered by Rio 3100
Large Heater, about 12", almost never turns on.
internal powerheads: 4 x Rio 600, 1 Rio 1800
Mag Float Acrylic magnet
Acrylic cleaner brush
BIO:
~ 1" of Mix Aragonite / Black and White Caribsea LS
~ 240 Lbs Beautiful Fiji and Tongan LR
1 MALE (rare) Pink Square Anthias, different coloration
1 Gold Striped Maroon Clown
1 BTA, elongated tentacles, unique appearance
1 purple firefish
1 diamond goby
1 green mandarin dragonet
1 Black Cap Basslet
1 Coral Beauty Angel
1 Adult Coloration BlueFace Angel - 6"
1 sand sifting star
1 blue tip fromia star
1 peppermint shrimp
1 cleaner shrimp
2 blood / fire shrimps
1 Coral Banded shrimp
1 Purple Reef Lobster
1 porcelain crab
1 electric blue leg hermit
7 scarlet leg hermit
~20 micro hermits
1 mexican turbo snail
~100 atlantic turbos, super tongan nassarius, and Cerith snails
1 Brittle Star
1 Serpent Star
1 Finger Leather 5"
1 finger leather frag 1"
1 Bubble Coral ~6"
~ 11 heads of branching metallic green hammer
1 pipe organ 4"
1 open brain flourescent green/red 2"
~ 7 heads of branching green frogspawn 5" diameter
1 Green Star Polyp Colony 4"
1 colony of purple mushrooms (not the common metallics) ~ 8 caps 3.5"
1 colony of Rhodactis Green / Red mushrooms ~ 12 caps 9"
1 spreading colony of Red Metallic shrooms maybe 30 caps total all over
1 Pink Carnation Sun Coral colony, 30 polyps + ~4.5"
1 pair of different Rhodactis shrooms
2 stalks of Swaying Xenia ~ 8" dia when open
1 stalk of pulsing xenia 1"
1 Colony + split off colony of Anchor Hammer, ~ 12"
1 Colony Green Fuzzy mushrooms, ~8 caps 5"
:thinking: :thinking: :thinking: :thinking:
:help: :help: :help: :help:

 

[saltn00b]

here are some pics

 

[isistius]

I'LL GIVE YOU A DOLLAR AS LONG AS YOU DROP IT OFF

:hilarious
:hilarious

SORRY MIKE- I HAD TO DO IT. WOULD U EXPECT ANY LESS?

 

[tizzo]

It's probably "worth" a lot more, but I would say $1200. And that's mostly for the equipment. All the livestock is nice, but it's tailored to what you like, chances are pretty good that nobody else has that exact stocking list, so taking the animals with the tank would be more of a favor to you than a planned purchase.
That being said, you'd do better to sell off the livestock then sell the tank. You'd make a pretty penny doing that, since they are (hopefully) eating, and already qt'ed...

 

[saltn00b]

OK thank you Tizzo for your contribution.
but remember, assuming that you are in a market to buy a fully established and partially stocked (with room to add plenty) system ....

 

[durgeonman]

to be honestly i would pay 2-3 grand for something like that....

 

[cyclops]

with Tank and stand alone I would probably pay $1500 all the live rock$500 then you add equipment thats another maybe $300. All said and done with out live stock i would pay $2500.

 

[saltn00b]

thanks for your replies guys!!! this is helping me tremendously, please everyone pitch in~!

 

[hatessushi]

I would also say 2-3 grand for everything.

 

[nigerbang]

hmm venture a price of around $2700..local pickup only
sounds like a good price

 

[1journeyman]

You're asking the wrong people, lol.
The people here aren't who your buyer needs to be. The folks around here (most anyways) like putting together their own tanks.
There are pet stores that sell "already established reef tanks". Fish, coral, etc. A tank your size could easily go for several thousand. I saw one store in dallas with a 200 stocked reef tank for $14,000.
Anyway. My point is to a hobbyist you're going to get better prices selling it parted out. To get what your tank is "worth" you'd need to find a rich buyer who just wants a tank, or a business, etc.

 

[saltn00b]

point taken journey man, however i am not selling the tank so the whole parting it out thing is a non factor in the lil thread. for clarifcation lets just consider/ pretend that I am selling it out of my house to YOU, and what you would be happy with walking away after a successful exchange.

 

[1journeyman]

Me personally? I wouldn't buy it.. that's what I was trying to say. I enjoy the process of establishing my own tank

Sorry if I added to the confusion of what you're trying to accomplish here, I was just letting you know that your tank si probably technically worth a lot more than what anyone here is going to be willing to pay. If you found some guy off the street, for instance, who didn't know the first thing about aquariums but fell in love wit hthe tank and then started looking at the learning curve involved; he'd probably pay you $5000 or more.

 

[michaeltx]

demographics play a large role as to what someone would pay for a fully setup tank. here there are little to no petstores so you have to travel alot to get what you want to stock a tank. if you live where there is competition then prices will be lower so a fully stocked tank will go for less than in a place with no petstores at all.
just out of couriousity are you looking to cover it under insurance or something since your not selling it. or just looking for a rounded dollar investment???
Mike

 

[kailiek]

how much did you pay for all of it? did you pay retail ? if you did then add 1/2 of what you spent and then add 1/4 for your expertise to help them transition it into their home, if they are willing to pay what it would be in a shop ready to go then they will pay for advice but if they will pay thouuuusands for it (which some would for what you have 3000.00 to 7.000)they also need someone to care for it ....does that factor into your scheme

 

[xoxox]

Originally Posted by 1journeyman
Me personally? I wouldn't buy it.. that's what I was trying to say. I enjoy the process of establishing my own tank

I'd have to agree, building the system and adding the things you need (not to mention making mistakes) is the art of enjoyment for it.

 

[1911_guy]

I also like to build my own but if I were to buy a stocked setup like yours which would basically be an addtional tank in my house, this is what I would pay:
Depending on how long it's been established and if you've QT'd all fish.
Less than 3 years and no=$2000
More than 3 years and yes=$2000+

 

[isistius]

i would venture to guess you have over 5k invested. not counting everything you lost in the process. if you were to sell it to someone off the street you could probably get 5-7k for it. if it was sold (back) to a lfs maybe you would get 40% or around 2k. however, you need to consider that all of the equip is ow used, so a lot of the value has dropped. personally i'd pay between 2500 and 3k. jmho.
(only cause i know what it really looks like. :hilarious )
just kidding.

 

[saltn00b]

thanks for the replies everyone! the reason behind this thread in a nutshell is that this tank was a split investment between my roommate and I, and now in a rough transitional period i am moving out and have to 'buy out' his half. we have kept track of every dollar spent, which was over 7k at this point (but there was a tank upgrade, a second project which he will take, a QT tank etc) However, earlier transactions are just recorded as total amounts and not itemized. SO, long story short, i have to the best of my ability calculated the amount that we have paid for what is still currently involved in this project. This, taking into consideration depreciation of used equipment was going to be contrasted with all of you hobbyist's thoughts of what the going market value of it is. and the outcome thus far is that the numbers are very close.
so far the running tally:
in thousands $ (taking the median of ranges)
2500
2500
2500
2700
5000
5000
2000
2750
is an average of
3118.75

 

[fishgeek01]

I'll play to, I was also thinking that an offer of about $2,500.00 would be sufficient enough to get me what i want and not hurt your feelings. But like everyone else on here has been saying, if i had the money to do it, and fell in love with your tank per say, and wanted it without any of the knowledge i have or experience, I would probably pay around 4 grand for it.