Is there money in flipping tanks?

[Lepisosteus]

I paid for university flipping aquariums....$8000/year was the cost of uni and I would make most of the deals during summer. A 4 month span was enough to pay it off. Yes there’s money to be made.

 

[celebrist]

I imagine like real estate it's all about location
Where I am at there is no way to even rehome fish much less flip tanks for profit

 

[Joshuakahan]

What kind of money do you want to make? Is there money to make a few hundred bucks here and there on craigslist? Maybe. Are you going to be able to quit your job? No. If someone returns a tank you sealed to petco again you will probably get fired. I am not sure if you could get in trouble with the manufacturer either. They pay claims on leaking tanks and if they found out it had been resealed it could cause issues. If the person gets a $2,000 property damage claim denied over your work they may come looking for you. If you are looking at this as a tank maintenance or installation business they will definitely come after you. I never look at a business as sustainable if it has to live off of the inconsistent garbage generated by another business. Eventually people want to get paid for that raw material (trash). This is also something that takes a lot of time at scale and has a niche customer. Whenever I end up with a suspect tank I put it in the yard and keep goldfish, natives, or killis.

If you like building tanks here is a job in a tank manufacturing plant. You will learn more about making tanks than you ever dreamed of, and you can easily claim to be a master tank builder on MFK.

Spectrum Brands

I wouldn’t worry about getting fired for it, petco is a minimum wage disposable job that can be replaced in hours. And you could continue to dumpster dive the tanks. I don’t know about the rest, but I would imagine without any type of sticker on the tank, knowing where it came from would be impossible

 

[esoxlucius]

The success rate of flipping tanks, it would seem, is very much dependant on where you are and more importantly the number of hobbyists in that area.

I'm uk based and I occasionally browse the regional local ads for second hand aquarium related stuff, but it is just that, browsing, i never buy. I wouldn't entertain used equipment on any of my set ups, but that's just me. I'm amazed how many people are letting tanks go for free. And not just small ones. I see 120's and 180's with, "upgrade on its way, i need rid of this tank, free as long as you collect" in the advert.

It's a big hassle moving aquariums about and I suppose much of that hassle is eliminated when you are getting a nice big tank for nothing.

So, with competition like that about, even if I decided to take a bunch of these free tanks and try and sell them, I don't think i'd get much interest.

 

[Kolton13]

Yes! On Monster fish keepers, you can make a post in the selling column. You could make a custom sump with the 55 gallon, and then reseal the 75 gallon. If there is no reason for you to keep them, then sell them as a pair.

I think he means this as kind of, "is it worth it?'' kind of deal. And if can he make a lot of money, and is there demand for the tanks he can get.

 

[twentyleagues]

When I was into salt I'd browse the local reefing threads and see someone "getting out" , I'd ask to see their equipment and stock and offer them what I felt was a good price on their stuff. Some jumped at the chance to be rid of everything in one shot, some didn't. I'd keep what I wanted and sell or trade in the rest at lfs for store credit or a little cash. Usually the store credit was more then I payed for all of it. Some tanks and equipment were worth the time and trouble to clean and/or fix some were just junk. I think alot of the time people would jump in with both feet and then shortly after find out how much work it is and decided it wasn't for them. A little tlc and the corals or fish were back to being in great shape and worth alot more money. I'd sell the stuff on the local forum or at swaps usually for more then I payed in the first place, but I did invest alot of time some times rehabbing the animals. Sometimes I felt bad or "dirty" making money off some people, but all most always there was a story behind the reason for selling in the first place. Sometimes it was just bad luck something happened in their personal lives where they needed a quick out, other times it was a bad idea for them to even think about owning or caring for something when they couldn't do so for themselves. Occasionally I wouldn't buy anything from the person and instead help them with what needed to be done as they were felling defeated because of some fixable situation that they could find an answer for.
To answer the question yes it can be done but like others have said depends on what's going on in your area. For fresh water stuff in my area there is little to no real market or local selling/trading forums that generate any real interest. Large tanks don't sell cheaply and smaller ones don't generate money worth while.

 

[SuperNinja]

I had 4 tanks in college and i paid for it all by flipping tanks. Buying a whole set up cheap and being patient and selling everything off slowly can be worth it. For repairing tanks i’d say do it not to hard and for $8 of silicone and an hours work you can make a little extra money