90GalFOWLR
New member
Earlier today I was going through my cell phone and found some pictures of when I first got my aquarium, then tonight I was doing a water change. Seeing where I am at now inspired me to do this thread.
I by no means have a lot of money and everyone knows this is an expensive hobby. So I thought I would start in on it doing everything cheap and on a budget. Between the unpredictability of the whole hobby, and how addicting it is.... a budget is im possible and here is why.
Here are the pictures of the tank to start with.
I bought the aquarium at a yard sale for $40. It has ugly caulk lines but it holds water.... and 90 gallons of it! SCORE! It came with the hood and alot of freshwater gear. My mother works in the corporate office of a pet store chain and they get "samples" I scored a Marineland C360 canister off of her and a SeaClone skimmer. I used the heater that came with the tank. I scored about 45lbs of rock (dry) off of craigslist for $15 and bought a big hunk of live rock from my LFS for $45. + Sand & Salt ($25) I was up and running from nothing to operating aquarium for $125.
That worked for a little while.
One day I was adjusting my skimmer and when I came back later I saw drips down the back of the aquarium afterwards. Just a simple o-ring that was leaking. But that scared me because I realized that if something went wrong the tank could leak down about 20 gallons before that maxi-jet powering it came out of the water and stopped. At that point I had a little bit of money and decided as soon as I could afford it I would upgrade to a sump since I had a built in corner overflow.
Once I had the sump I needed the upgraded skimmer to go in it My prices are estimates because I forget and dont want to know what I put into it. I made the mistake a keeping track and that was done after a few months. The return pump was about $90. $150 for the skimmer, $50 for the phosban reactor and media because now that I had room ...of course I needed that to tacle the algea problems I had. $20 for the maxijet powering that. Filter socks were $7.00x4 ($28). The sump itself was somewhere around $300. So now I'm at about $615 and I need another approx $50-100 for ball valves, check valves, unions, pvc, glue, linelock, etc. Total $715 to upgrade to a sump you dont even see.
These are in no particular order but somewhere along the way I upgraded from the cheap flourescent hood to a PC fixture with moon lights. Its a coralife knock off but it was still like $250 I think.
Then I needed more flow, its addicting, so I got the Koralia wavemaker and two koralia 3's. The wavmaker was like $325 the K3's were about $40. Well I already spent $405 and what kind of person would I be blowing my fish around the tank while they slept. The photocell was only $25 more. Oops $430
Not to mention in the pic of the wavemaker we all know the test kits about $30x2, salt was $30, bucket $10, flourescent light for chaeto $15, vegie clip $5, zooplex $20 Ooops $110.
Well if you'll notice in the pics from the begining the cabinet was black veneer over flake board and the pics from now are stained wood.
What happened you ask?
After a long and expensive vacation this summer I came home and my fish care person told me that my tank overflowed some. I have ABSOLUTELY no idea how it happened and do not believe the tank just did it itself, but thats another story.
I no longer trusted over 1,000lbs of water and rock and expensive fish on wet swolen flake board. Even if it was only around the edges of where the verticle peices me the base.
I wanted to be on my budget and had no money after vacation so I went the DIY route.
HA
DIY is still expensive. I got the plans for the stand on here and made the rough stand out of 2x4's and skinned and trimmed it with OAK. But now it looked so nice it needed a matching canopy. Close to $500 later here is what it looks like
The base is getting raised panel doors the same style as the top, they just arent done yet.
Oh yeah, if you have been following the story and looked with a sharp eye you'll see in the canopy those funny looking black things hanging from the top.
I couldnt have a custom canopy on a "reef-tank to be" without halides and my LFS just happened to have 2 used pendants for sale cheap.
Welllllll as the rest of the story has gone, cheap isnt cheap.
Pendants were $50 each. They are nice, but $50x2 + $60 for good slightly used 10k bulbs, and $80 for the 4 supplemental pc actinics that go in them and $30 to replace the PC ballast I found out was shot. I didnt get it yet but I found a place that sells the blueline dual 250w e ballast for $190.
That cheap $50x2 turned into $460.
So that there is why trying to do this on a budget turns from $125 to about $2600 in only 18 months. Not counting electric bills and maintenance stuff, floating magnets, food...
Not to mention the fish themselves
...oh yeah RO Unit for $150
ahh I better stop
I by no means have a lot of money and everyone knows this is an expensive hobby. So I thought I would start in on it doing everything cheap and on a budget. Between the unpredictability of the whole hobby, and how addicting it is.... a budget is im possible and here is why.
Here are the pictures of the tank to start with.
I bought the aquarium at a yard sale for $40. It has ugly caulk lines but it holds water.... and 90 gallons of it! SCORE! It came with the hood and alot of freshwater gear. My mother works in the corporate office of a pet store chain and they get "samples" I scored a Marineland C360 canister off of her and a SeaClone skimmer. I used the heater that came with the tank. I scored about 45lbs of rock (dry) off of craigslist for $15 and bought a big hunk of live rock from my LFS for $45. + Sand & Salt ($25) I was up and running from nothing to operating aquarium for $125.
That worked for a little while.
One day I was adjusting my skimmer and when I came back later I saw drips down the back of the aquarium afterwards. Just a simple o-ring that was leaking. But that scared me because I realized that if something went wrong the tank could leak down about 20 gallons before that maxi-jet powering it came out of the water and stopped. At that point I had a little bit of money and decided as soon as I could afford it I would upgrade to a sump since I had a built in corner overflow.
Once I had the sump I needed the upgraded skimmer to go in it My prices are estimates because I forget and dont want to know what I put into it. I made the mistake a keeping track and that was done after a few months. The return pump was about $90. $150 for the skimmer, $50 for the phosban reactor and media because now that I had room ...of course I needed that to tacle the algea problems I had. $20 for the maxijet powering that. Filter socks were $7.00x4 ($28). The sump itself was somewhere around $300. So now I'm at about $615 and I need another approx $50-100 for ball valves, check valves, unions, pvc, glue, linelock, etc. Total $715 to upgrade to a sump you dont even see.
These are in no particular order but somewhere along the way I upgraded from the cheap flourescent hood to a PC fixture with moon lights. Its a coralife knock off but it was still like $250 I think.
Then I needed more flow, its addicting, so I got the Koralia wavemaker and two koralia 3's. The wavmaker was like $325 the K3's were about $40. Well I already spent $405 and what kind of person would I be blowing my fish around the tank while they slept. The photocell was only $25 more. Oops $430
Not to mention in the pic of the wavemaker we all know the test kits about $30x2, salt was $30, bucket $10, flourescent light for chaeto $15, vegie clip $5, zooplex $20 Ooops $110.
Well if you'll notice in the pics from the begining the cabinet was black veneer over flake board and the pics from now are stained wood.
What happened you ask?
After a long and expensive vacation this summer I came home and my fish care person told me that my tank overflowed some. I have ABSOLUTELY no idea how it happened and do not believe the tank just did it itself, but thats another story.
I no longer trusted over 1,000lbs of water and rock and expensive fish on wet swolen flake board. Even if it was only around the edges of where the verticle peices me the base.
I wanted to be on my budget and had no money after vacation so I went the DIY route.
HA
DIY is still expensive. I got the plans for the stand on here and made the rough stand out of 2x4's and skinned and trimmed it with OAK. But now it looked so nice it needed a matching canopy. Close to $500 later here is what it looks like
The base is getting raised panel doors the same style as the top, they just arent done yet.
Oh yeah, if you have been following the story and looked with a sharp eye you'll see in the canopy those funny looking black things hanging from the top.
I couldnt have a custom canopy on a "reef-tank to be" without halides and my LFS just happened to have 2 used pendants for sale cheap.
Welllllll as the rest of the story has gone, cheap isnt cheap.
Pendants were $50 each. They are nice, but $50x2 + $60 for good slightly used 10k bulbs, and $80 for the 4 supplemental pc actinics that go in them and $30 to replace the PC ballast I found out was shot. I didnt get it yet but I found a place that sells the blueline dual 250w e ballast for $190.
That cheap $50x2 turned into $460.
So that there is why trying to do this on a budget turns from $125 to about $2600 in only 18 months. Not counting electric bills and maintenance stuff, floating magnets, food...
Not to mention the fish themselves
...oh yeah RO Unit for $150
ahh I better stop
