In this week's local paper I noticed a fish pond for sale with accessories for $50. I spoke to the owner about it this morning and thought I was told the pond was 300-400 gallons with two filters. I was really excited and arranged to see it tonight. Well, the pond is, I think, more like 200-300 gallons, and there is one homemade trickle filter that's dirty and in sore condition (some media baskets broken). There's also a UV filter with all kinds of tubing and I was told he'll throw in a pump (never got to see that). The stuff I did see had obviously been just laying outside unused for I don't know how long. The pond, which is kidney-shaped with two depths, the deepest one being about 18 inches, had been set in the ground without a liner, and is really cruded up, and I was rather surprised over how thin and light it was--I expressed concern about leaking, but he claims it's fine (can these things be repaired if they leak?).
The guy claims he's had "a lot" of calls about it, and that he's just giving it away to get rid of it (one of his kids fell in it and he's concerned about other neighborhood kids falling in as well). I think part of my resistance is that I didn't trust what the guy was telling me (the story seemed to change from my initial conversation with him.
What do you think? He's holding firm at $50, which I know isn't that much money. BTW I can't install this until spring, so I'll have to find a place to put it over the winter...