Advice on breaking down and selling a reef tank?

[i_declare_bankruptcy]

I'm moving way sooner than expected (in a good way) but my tank and saltwater setup cannot come along. I'm selling my house and moving from Denver CO -> Southern CA and will be renting for a while to save up for a new home. Therefore my 525XL and all the extras cannot come with me.

I'm wondering how people sell their setups? I'd love to just sell the entire thing as it's a newly cycled tank that is really starting to come along and see great growth. I'd love for someone to inherit that. However I"m not sure if that's the most efficient way (or even possible) to sell.

Otherwise I guess I have to break the whole thing down and sell it individually.

Any advice or tips? Is the former even worth a try?

 

[BadFish619]

Part out or sell whole. Part out goes quicker but may have trouble getting rid of it all. Sell whole and it all goes but you'll have to find the exact right buyer at the exact right time. Parting out is easier but harder to get rid of everything

 

[Brett S]

It’s definitely possible to sell a whole system, livestock and all, but as stated earlier you need to find someone looking for that. It’s also a *lot* of work to move a fully functioning tank with livestock.

It would be much easier to sell or give away the livestock first, then you can take down the tank and sell the tank and everything as one lot or even part it out and sell it in pieces.

If you have a lot of time what I might do is put up some ads on craigslist and maybe even at your LFS advertising it as one ready to go system with livestock included. If you’re lucky you’ll find a buyer that will take everything.

If you don’t get any interest for the whole system then I’d start selling or giving away the livestock and once everything is gone then advertise the tank and accessories for sale as a functioning system. You may get some interest in that as it’s much easier to move an empty tank without worrying about keeping things alive.

If you still can’t sell it as a complete system, then give in and start selling it off part by part.

If you’re tight on time, then I think you’re going to be able to get rid of things faster by parting it out. Obviously sell or give away the livestock first and once you can take the tank down you can start selling stuff.

There are some advantages to parting it out... you’ll probably make more money than you would selling it as a lot. You’ll also have a bigger set of buyers because a lot of things can be shipped, so you can sell some stuff to someone across the country and finally if you are planning on setting up another tank after you move you might want to hang on to lights or some of your other more expensive equipment to reuse on your new tank.

 

[i_declare_bankruptcy]

Sold the tank 5 hours after listing. All sold for 3k, asked 3.2k. New owners got a crazy deal but I'm just happy I got to sell all the animals to someone who cares. Cheers.