180 build from scratch!

[jnarowe]

you have to figure about $500/month even with electrical efficiencies to enter the 1000g+ arena...that's USD BTW! You also don't want future electrical cost increases to kill your tank. I use $60 is salt per month, $30 in media, about $300 for electricity +/-, $20 in food, etc. I have never done a full-blown cost analysis, but I have to figure I am near $500/month not including livestock.

Speaking of livestock, anyone see the $3500 gem tang on liveaquaria yesterday???

 

[michika]

Saw it, drooled over it, and for about 5 seconds wished I lived in the US.

We have budgeted approximately $400 in carrying costs for the tank per month. Our goal is not to step over $350 in electricity. I buy all my food in bulk a few times a year, and I think I spent about $250 per year on our 280g.

I'm not super big on running a lot of media, but I always have it on standby just in case. I know we will be running a Ca. reactor for sure 24/7. Kalk. reactor as well. I run cabon on a regular basis but not 24/7. When you say media, what types of media do you mean?

 

[jnarowe]

that is primarily it. I run a gallon+ of carbon 24/7, about 27 lbs. of coral bones, and a couple cups + of kalk.

 

[michika]

Do you buy in bulk from bulk retailers or pharm. companies? I've been sourcing out local or Canadian vendors to buy most of our supplies from.

 

[jnarowe]

depends...no not the friggin' diapers!

I mostly buy Marineland Black Diamond through Drs. Foster & Smith, get the coral bones and kalk powder from Custom Aquatic. I buy the kalk by the 5g bucket.

 

[michika]

We are looking to buy everything by the box or bucket. We just don't have anything like Drs F&S or Marine Depot up here. What you save in online shopping in most places usually catches up to you in shipping.

 

[jnarowe]

start talking to the LFS and find out where they get their salt in large bags. here has got to be a decent bulk source there somewhere.

 

[michika]

I've got something in the works with a local place, but we'll have to see how it goes. I figure buying in bulk is more then worth it.

 

[michika]

I was at home yesterday for a few hours and saw the tank. Everyone is happy and schooling together. We have a damsel and chromis in the overflow, but didn't have time to catch them yesterday.

We visited a store in town that is under new management, and I'm

 

[kar93]

Somebody suggested on Melevs thread that if you take the durso out of the overflow then hold the net under the drain pipe then the fish should go down the return pipe, easy catch providing the fish is small enough to fit down the pipe.

 

[michika]

I was at home yesterday for a few hours and saw the tank. Everyone is happy and schooling together. We have a damsel and chromis in the overflow, but didn't have time to catch them yesterday.

We visited a store in town that is under new management, and I'm excited to see where the new owners will take it in the future. I also resisted the urge to pick up a beautiful powder blue tang they had.

All we have left to do on the lighting aspect of things is to decide which bulbs to use. I am leaning heavily towards using AquaBlue bulbs throughout from Giesmann. Once I'm back in town at our own place I'll go ahead and place the order.

Next week there should be a shipment of SPS, and clams coming in for me to go pick at. This particular store is bringing in Squamosa clams, and like we all know, I have a clam weakness!

 

[kar93]

I would have just had that PBT bagged up but I dont have any self control :lmao:. Do you know how big the clams wil be?

 

[michika]

I haven't heard anything about their size. There are also supposed to be maximas, and croceas showing up too. As soon as I saw the notes about incoming shipment Kevin asked me for my debt card, and my credit cards.

 

[Slakker]

In the livestock buy/sell forum there is a post for a 10" Vlamingi, free to a good home of

at least a 180 or bigger tank.

The thought of that big of a tang in a 180 almost makes me want to cry.

 

[michika]

Wow 10" that is huge!

I fully expect ours to hit 6" in a couple of months. I'm hoping ours will be no more then 7.5" when the time comes to move to a bigger home.

Speaking of a bigger home, we saw a perfect house yesterday evening. It is outside of Calgary but the trade off is more then worth it. The yard is huge, house is massive (big enough that we would have to close off half of it), and the basement is perfect for a super big L shaped tank, even bigger then the original 1K we were hoping for. Price is almost 200K less then what we would pay in the city, so we bid on it. We are supposed to hear back something by Friday, or Saturday at the latest.

 

[Slakker]

That's really exciting! I hope they accept and you find yourself starting on new tank construction in a couple of weeks!!!

 

[melev]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12710015#post12710015 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kar93
Somebody suggested on Melevs thread that if you take the durso out of the overflow then hold the net under the drain pipe then the fish should go down the return pipe, easy catch providing the fish is small enough to fit down the pipe.

Another option that will work is to siphon out the water with 1" tubing into a net. That takes a helper, but that way you can either reduce the water volume in the overflow (the return pump needs to be off) to net out the fish, or maybe you'll get lucky and suck it out via siphon.

Evan 'fished' out a Chromis the other day, and a couple of days later there was another one in there. Or maybe the same one. :lol:

 

[melev]

That sounds like an amazing house. You know you've reached a certain status in your life when you can 'close off the other half of the house' and not feel the crunch.

 

[michika]

I hope our bid gets it. It has absolutely everything we want. It does require some aesthetic updating, but paint in the long run is cheap. First order of business if we get it, will be to tear up the PINK carpet in the basement, and the PINK bathroom, also in the basement.

The lady who lives there now only uses 3 rooms. She also seems to be having a not so secret affair with the pink, its everywhere.

 

[jnarowe]

I looked at a house back in '98 that had an entirely pink kitchen including the stove, sink, fridge, counters, and floor.