Project "Restore" Jebo

So I have been making it a habit of mine to stop by every second hand store and pawn shop I drive past on my travels, being a cheap skate sometimes pays off if your lucky and it seems I got lucky today. While driving around in Johannesburg (Honeydew) I came across this stunner of a Jebo tank (R338) blue model sitting on a shelf in one of those corner pawn shops you always see. Initially I was pretty skeptic so I asked if we could test everything and sure enough the filter/heater/lights/air pump worked.

What it does need is some good old loving and some elbow grease because it is pretty dirty and neglected, they wanted R400 for it but after mentioning how much effort it is going to take to get it cleaned and back up and running I managed to haggle a further R200 off the price. And walked away with a Jebo R338 for R200, here is the picture of the tank, will update as I work on it.

​

 

I sold my pristine R338 for R500 . . .with silica, driftwood, fish, new filter . . . R200 could be good. . .can you somehow buff out the scratches?

 

I think they kept some sort of turtle in it since the water marks only go halfway up the tank, as for scratches haven't noticed any will see when its cleaned out.

 

Whoever sold the tank sold it in a hurry they left the ceramic rings and dirty filter sponge just like that inside the tank at least I found the source of the smell:

​

 

nice find dude, i'm sure a good soak in a bucket of boiling water will sort the dirt and any nasties out with the filter media. i been thinking of haunting the pawn shops myself for a nice cabinet or table for my latest project

 

That is a nice find there Larch. What sort of lighting is under that hood tho? I have a very similar Boyu... and it came with a standard PL9 globe... gives good light, but I found because the tank is so deep, it's difficult to get low plants to grow. You might need to do some modifications to get some T5's in there.

 

Yeah you would be surprised at what you can find at these stores and the price on the item is always negotiable so never just take it at the price they want for it.

 

I think they have a PL too or T5 but standard are usually 10 000K if I am right.

 

Well it has two 8W/T5's in there, seems the one is blown though tested the other T5 in it and works perfectly which is the only issue I found so far no biggie.

 

Then you got a very good buy @larch. Just to upgrade to T5's will cost you more than you paid!

I'd recommend getting new globes. T8's usually only have an effective lifespan of 6-12 month, I think T5's go up to 18months.

 

Cleaned out the tank was worried that it would have scratches, but I am happy to report it has none.

​

 

No scratches! Dude great find! Just remember im 1st in line when you (if ever) decide to sell

 

LOL, I will let you know when I run into something like this again.

Removed the light fitting and noticed some rust cleaned it and siliconed all the exposed contact points:

​

 

Having some cooked ceramic rings for dinner *crunch* *crunch* *crunch*.

​

 

Sweet find, what you planning on keeping in it?

 

No clue zero ideas, was thinking of stocking it with some surface dwellers mid and then bottom dwellers. Make it nice and varied or maybe something excotic like puffers.

 

Nice find there man. Will be great to see what it looks like in a few months time.

 

It really would make a great tank for dwarf puffers if you planted it heavily. That's what I'd do with it
Any idea what the volume is?

 

It is a 40liter, yeah I was thinking of doing something like that. Maybe with some drift wood for hiding space.

 

All done, cleaned and disinfected everything only issue I found was one T5 that is blown will replace it soon not bad for R200:

​