Aquariums & Aquarium Accessories
Buy and sell aquariums and aquarium accessories in Costa Rica.
A betta tank on a desk and a reef system with a sump under its stand both turn up second-hand, along with the filters and lights that keep them running, and new ones are listed too. Most used tanks come up when an owner moves house or trades a freshwater setup for salt water, and the stand and lid often go with them. In a country where earth tremors are part of life, a tank with a proper lid and a sturdy stand is worth more than one without. Fish looking for a new tank have their own place under aquarium fish.
A planted tank and a reef tank start as the same glass box:
what turns one into the other is the filter underneath, the light above and what goes in the water. A planted tank runs on a strong LED, a nutrient substrate such as aquasoil and, for fast-growing plants, a CO2 cylinder with a regulator and bubble counter. A reef tank needs salt water, a sump in the stand, a protein skimmer to pull out waste, wavemakers and a reef LED that corals can grow under. A plain community tank gets by with a hang-on-back cascade filter, a basic light and a heater. All-in-one tanks hide the filter in a back chamber: tidy on a desk, hard to upgrade. The fish themselves are under aquarium fish, and pond pumps and liners belong with pond fish.
Glass, acrylic and a filter sized to the tank:
glass is heavier and cheaper and shrugs off scratches from a cleaning magnet; acrylic is lighter and clearer but scratches easily, though light marks polish out. Size the filter to the volume, not to the fish you have now. A cascade filter suits small tanks. A canister from Fluval or Eheim suits larger freshwater tanks, planted ones especially, because it leaves the surface calm and holds the CO2 in. Most reef keepers end up with a drilled tank and a sump.
A full tank in a temblor:
the water moves before the glass does. A strong shake slops it over the rim, so a lid keeps most of it in, and a level kept a finger’s width below the rim helps more than you would expect. The splash lands on whatever sits underneath, so power strips and controllers belong above the water line or off to one side, with each cable dipping below its socket so drips fall before they reach it. A low, wide stand rides out a shake better than a tall, narrow one, and on an upper floor of a tower in Escazú or Rohrmoser the building sways more than a house does.
Bare glass tanks, small and very large:
a new bare glass tank of about 20 gallons is around ₡50,000, and one of about 100 gallons is close to ₡190,000; go much beyond that and the glass has to be thicker, and the price more than doubles. Used, the big tanks lose value fastest. Few buyers have the floor space, a stand that fits and three friends to help carry one, and an owner who has to clear a large tank before a move will usually take far less than it cost.
Chipped corners, swollen stands and salt crust on a used setup:
check every corner of the tank. A chip at a bottom corner, usually left by a move or a knock, is where a crack starts once the water’s weight is on it. Run a hand over the top of a particleboard cabinet: years of spills make it swell and go soft, and a tank needs a flat, solid base. Metal stands rust first at the welds. On a former reef tank, white salt crust on the light, pumps or power supplies means salt water has crept where it should not, and corrosion inside a driver may not show yet. Ask to see the LED on with every channel lit, and make sure its power supply and controller come with it.
Listing a tank someone has to carry out:
give the outside length, width and height, the volume in gallons, glass or acrylic, and whether it is drilled for a sump. Say what goes with it: stand, lid, light, filter. Photograph it empty from each corner, and the light switched on. A buyer will ask whether it has ever leaked, which floor it is on and whether it fits in the lift. Drain it completely, and agree the day before the price: a large tank coming down from an upper floor in Escazú leaves only when it is empty, with a pair of hands at every corner, blankets and a pickup waiting at the door.