Where are you based, Syphoniera? I am in the UK and there are several websites where you can get things cheap or free, best way to buy a big tank! www.gumtree.com has things sold cheaply. There is a yahoo group called freecycle, this is worldwide I think, you find the one for your town and people offer all sorts of things for free on there, and you can post to say what you are looking for too. It is also a good way to get rid of stuff you don't want any more, especially if it is something you don't think you could sell on.
www.aquaristsclassified.co.uk is full of classified ads, selling tanks, equipment and fish - there are always some bargains to be had there!
hi, tibby and thanks from Canada
What a brilliant collection of info - might have to move, lol, although the freecycle thing sounds cool, if here as well.
Although, personally, I never get rid of anything - packrat is my middle name.
Most of what I have actually is second-hand and I'm lucky enough to have an LFS handy that also deals in trade-ins/used - wonderful concept but I guess with so few independents remaining not likely to be common.
Otherwise, I'd have maybe half the tanks I do.
Only problem is, it's outright painful when there's a good deal on a tank right there in front of you and you aren't supposed to bring any more in...
Due to an injury and the diagnosis of a progressive condition, I've moved in with my parents, (boxes of books, buckets of fish - less important stuff like clothes in the garage) and I was darned lucky to have them take me in, (although 'drag me home' might be more accurate) so the fish are also both physical and emotional therapy - seriously, not just an excuse, although I doubt you'd get that officially recommended.
So, anyway, I lost my horse, (painful parting, but to a good home) my home (such as it was, but it was mine) and had to move back into the city (hate living in the city
) - not to mention that at my age, the adage 'you can't go home again' rings very true.
But I still have my dog and fish - who needs a life?
Plus this must be an ongoing major disruptive pain for my parents.
I'm getting their priorities straight though, and sneakily addicting my mother - all tanks are in my room except one tiny, recent 'emergency' 3-gal desktop Walstad - but she's made a few noises about a bigger tank somewhere else downstairs if I can find room.
Have to see...
And she's finally quit trying to pack me off to bed when she's tired.
Anyhow, this explains why I have no money or ability to make independent decisions, as I'm in somebody else's home.
But I'm working on redecorating the rest of their house in aquariums...
So much for my evil plotting.
Just went down and found my mother wandering around with Lysol air freshener spray - something I'd already received assurances about - tried to ask her about it and barely got the little downstairs tank covered in time, this time, anyway.
Got to figure out where/how upstairs that little tank's going.
And it's lucky nothing else's been set up down there.
But that explains a lot, from that betta's too-rapid movements sometimes indicating distress between one check and the next, relieved by an emergency water change, (been driving me nuts trying to figure that out) to my dog's worrying sudden, recent nose-breathing problems, and some other issues and now I can hear her coughing.
I miss living alone...
Ok this is what I'm gonna do...
I'm going to divide my hospital tank for the males, extend the sroroity section of my 2ft divided tank and take out the females, rearrange everything and put them all back in together so they don't pick on the new females.
I forgot that I had a tank in 'storage' at my sisters place who lives only a few min away, so I'll ask her if I can set it up and use it as my hospital tank.
I think everything will be ok
Congrats!
I knew you'd do it.
I just wasn't sure how...
Mothers ignore anything that doesn't fit in with their way of doing things, i find! It must be hard moving back with your parents, but if you need their help, then you need their help. They'll eventually learn about the fish - my kid brother has now got fish and I am forever trying to explain do's and don'ts to my mum - they live on the other side of the country - but it is in one ear and out of the other! 
