trying to save money... asked to many peoples opinions lol

[LGB76]

My wife, god love her... she is having to put up with all of my crazy ideas constantly, just this one is a little bit bigger and costly and a LOT of time to get it going.

I went to my parents house for thanksgiving, my mom has all 4500 sqft full of furniture. So I found a table that would work great with my tank and sump/fuge and qt tank. i mean THIS is the ONE, had to have it LOL. well she said no... so now instead of trying to save money she is taking me to a custom cabinet maker and they are going to build something that I exactly want (which is freaking awesome!!!) but thats going to cost me big time.

Now my dad (he and I are just alike, all ideas we come up with are awesome, and it must happen... ex. salt water fish tank) just called me and said how big of a tank will fit on that stand. I said it will hold the 55 with ease. He said id wait before u have him build it (im not very patient on this type of stuff). He said you may want to go check out other tanks and get a 100g or something bigger. Go big or Go home. So instead of having a 55g tank and stand that matches perfectly and saved money on that...

Now I am back to getting a massive custom table/cabinet made for this damn thing, PLUS looking into a much much bigger tank. which will then cause me to have to spend more on bigger items and more rock....

HELP IM GOING BACKWARDS LOLOL

[sponger0]

I think you need to learn the word patience or you are in for a world load of trouble.

You need to plan out better. Start looking at all that is need before you buy anything. Remember, you are gonna want to have the cabinet build AFTER you have the sump to make sure it fits or youll have an expensive cabinet that is useless to you.

[LGB76]

The only thing I have bought is my RO/DI system. I am planning all of this out which is why I am having so much stuff done. I measured the cabinet to either fit my 29 gallon tank under for my sump, or if I choose to go bigger I will have him build the cabinet bigger to fit my 55 gallon under as a sump. I gave him the exact mesaurments I need. I am pretty sure 2 and a half feet wide will be plenty of room for everything that needs to go under it.

I was either going to build a sump to fit under my exisiting tank stand which would not be ideal, or have someone build me a stand and convert a tank to a sump/fuge and it would fit perfectly with plenty of room to spare.

I was referring to my patients on having a cabinet built, I dont like waiting on other people.

[Mekanic]

trying to save money

find a new hobby.

I bought my 72 bow as a birthday present for my wife, she had SW tanks before and bad circumstances made her loose it.

I was debating between a set of custom darts for her for about $130, or the tank. I decided on the tank because I knew she would love it.

I found the bow on craigslist with stand, lights, sand, sump, pump, etc, for $300 so I snagged it. Had lots of help from my awesome reef club with cheap and free things to get it started.

that was a year and a half ago and now I'm in probably about 8-10,000.

And note, I do not have 1 new piece of equipment in my tank, every bit I have was bought used. at 50-60% less than new or better......

yeah.

[sponger0]

Just get the tank, sump, and skimmer first. These are all going to dictate the cabinet dimensions.

If you cant wait, then I dont know what to tell you other than this is going to be a painful build for you.

[LGB76]

I understand that this hobby costs a lot of money, I am fully aware of that. But I never inteded on buying a cheap item or a less than efficient item. This post was inteded to have a little humor in it, didnt really mean to get blasted over anything.

[LGB76]

Originally Posted by sponger0

Just get the tank, sump, and skimmer first. These are all going to dictate the cabinet dimensions.

If you cant wait, then I dont know what to tell you other than this is going to be a painful build for you.

All of that has been taken into consideration, and has been fit and measured and would fit in my tank stand I have now, which is considerably smaller than the one I am having built. pretty sure I am good to go with it being built. Trust me I wouldnt have it built if I didnt already know that it would fit.

[sponger0]

Originally Posted by LGB76

I understand that this hobby costs a lot of money, I am fully aware of that. But I never inteded on buying a cheap item or a less than efficient item. This post was inteded to have a little humor in it, didnt really mean to get blasted over anything.

You have to see it from our point of view. First you saying trying to save money...but really didnt incorporate into your post.

Secondly, you are going to have a cabinet built before have any of the equipment. Why? That is poor planning IMO. And planning it out from the beginning is the most important part of building a SW system. If it wasnt then anyone could do it. But you seem to not think of alot of important details just from the post.

[LGB76]

lol. ok....

it was inteded as humor...

[MatthewLaw]

take into consideration that you are working/playing with saltwater which is rather corrosive over time, and it can cause damage/destroy any nice furniture that the tank sits upon and sump below.

[Mekanic]

not to mention the weight of a filled SW tank full of rock and sand.

Not counting my sump, skimmer, pump, refugium, powerheads, reactors, ozone, wavebox, lighting, top off, fans, heater, chiller, or livestock my 90 weighs in just over 1000lb.

That's great you don't want to go cheap, but the inital purchases only hurt once.. $600 for rocks, $500 skimmer, $700 powerheads, $1200 lighting, $300 pumps and reactors

It's the extra $100 a month on the power bill, the $40 a month in RODI filters and resin, the $30 a month in salt, $25 a month in food and supplies, $200 a year in bulbs, testing supplies..

Oh, and you haven't put in 1 fish or coral lol...

NOW, don't think I'm doing this to be a douche, far from it. But getting into this hobby, I can say from experience, I had NO IDEA what it would require of me, and I had no one tell me straight up how it was.

Now, I'm off to find someone who has a black friday sale on some 250w radiums and a couple buckets of salt.

[LGB76]

I am fully aware of the costs. I have a spread sheet of the costs of items I am purchasing. I have a breakdown of monthly and yearly costs. I have an estimated amount for start up which includes a list of the items and their prices. I am pretty decent with numbers and financing. For god sakes I work at a bank lol.

Oh I haven't had him build the stand yet bc if I do choose to purchase a larger tank I will measure all of that out to give me sufficient room. I have on my draft of the tank it needs to be able to hold approximately 1200 pounds with ease.

[sponger0]

Then get the tank sump and skimmer first.

With my next build, Im not building my stand until I have every piece of equipment needed for the build. Itll be easy to overlook something that you dont have yet.

[DavidinGA]

Originally Posted by Mekanic

not to mention the weight of a filled SW tank full of rock and sand.

Not counting my sump, skimmer, pump, refugium, powerheads, reactors, ozone, wavebox, lighting, top off, fans, heater, chiller, or livestock my 90 weighs in just over 1000lb.

That's great you don't want to go cheap, but the inital purchases only hurt once.. $600 for rocks, $500 skimmer, $700 powerheads, $1200 lighting, $300 pumps and reactors

It's the extra $100 a month on the power bill, the $40 a month in RODI filters and resin, the $30 a month in salt, $25 a month in food and supplies, $200 a year in bulbs, testing supplies..

Oh, and you haven't put in 1 fish or coral lol...

NOW, don't think I'm doing this to be a douche, far from it. But getting into this hobby, I can say from experience, I had NO IDEA what it would require of me, and I had no one tell me straight up how it was.

Now, I'm off to find someone who has a black friday sale on some 250w radiums and a couple buckets of salt.

Thankfully their is Craigslist where we don't have to pay full retail.


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[sponger0]

Originally Posted by DavidinGA

Thankfully their is Craigslist where we don't have to pay full retail.


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Which also includes no warranty and no telling what kind of condition the equipment is in, particularly pumps.

And live rock on CL should pretty much be bleached lol. No telling whats growing on it hahaha

[DavidinGA]

Don't forget the 50%+ discount over retail.


Sent by Razr Maxx

[Mekanic]

hell yeah David, bleach is cheap, rock at the LFS is expensive lmao..

I picked up a chiller for $20 because I'm an HVAC contractor... runs awesome.

SWC 160 cone skimmer for 60 because it needed a "pump" .. needed a new mesh wheel.

If you want to come close to saving money in this game, you have to be handy.

[LGB76]

I am pretty handy, but the only money I will be saving is buying base rock over all live rock and dry sand vs live sand and building my own sump/fuge instead of purchasing a pre made one. Thats about the only money I have seen me saving. I wasnt planning to have to purchase a new stand but it is what it is, and it will make me much happier to have a much bigger stand, and I already had a 55 gallon tank and wasnt planning on going bigger, but since I already figured out that I want a stand built, I might as well get a bigger tank since I wont be using my exisitng tank and stand.

[Mekanic]

just out of curiosity, how have you picked your skimmer, lights, pumps, powerheads, ammount of rock, sand, etc when you don't know what size tank you're getting?