cheap marine

[Spitz006]

what is the cheapest, easiest, and smallest salt-water set up i could feasably run and how much would that cost me?

 

[Navarre]

that depends on your budget?

If you give us a figure to work with then some of us here could possibly suggest a package to suit your purse.

Probably the most expensive part will be your liverock. whatever tank you go for means you will need 1lbs of liverock per galon of tank. If you do a search on the net for fiji liverock then you will get an idea of the price

 

[J-Money]

I thought I could end up doing it pretty cheap...nope. lol. From what I hear, the bigger the tank the better your chance for success. Here's a breakdown of what I bought and how much it cost:
1-120 G. Tank $500
90 Lbs Fiji LR and 30lbs of Tonga LR for $450 including shipping
4 20-25lb bags of sand for $25 a piece
2 Cannister filters for $175 a piece (found them online though for a lot less )
1 Red Sea Berlin Turbo HOB skimmer $220
3 powerheads @ $25 a piece or so
$150 or so worth of a cleaning crew
1 electronic thermometer $20
Titanium Heater $20
1 tub of salt for cycling $45 (bought another one since then)
1 R/O system for $100


I thought the tank was going to end up being the most expensive thing really, but I ended up spending 3 times as much on all the other stuff you need as well. If you decide to try a nano-tank they are theoretically cheaper but people have said they spend just as much on the nano's as they would have on a big one. Good luck

 

[smithrc]

Not the best philosophy for starting a marine setup.

We're still planning our 180gal Reef... and with some stock - its upto about £4500.
(so it wont be starting as soon as i'd hoped)

 

[Spitz006]

oh jeez! i didn't think it would be so horribly expensive, im used to freshwater fish i was hoping to spend a couple hundred bucks okay i guess im sticking to freshwater! )

 

[smithrc]

oh jeez! i didn't think it would be so horribly expensive, im used to freshwater fish i was hoping to spend a couple hundred bucks okay i guess im sticking to freshwater! )

we'll be sticking with FW for a while longer yet too

 

[Spitz006]

i wonder if some day they will become cheaper, because didn't neon tetra's used to be really expensive at one time? now that they're so popular they are really cheap. i wonder if the same will happen with s/w fish, probably not though, nothing compares to how awesome those things look.

 

[Fishy411]

oh jeez! i didn't think it would be so horribly expensive, im used to freshwater fish i was hoping to spend a couple hundred bucks okay i guess im sticking to freshwater! )

u could get a 1 gallon for about 35$

 

[Navarre]

The problem with them being so expensive is partly due t othe fact that they are not easily bred. ONly a small portion of marines are captive bred (Clowns and a few gobies/cardinals etc). All other fish are caught in the wild, these are then having to take huge journeys to reach our tanks. These fish are also quite delicate and dont travel well so again, more care needs to be taken with them during transortation. This pushes the costs up Im afraid ) If we can ever crack a captive breeding program for these fish then prices would drop dramatically Im sure

 

[RamJet]

One can also presume that prices will increase due to the out cry to preserve natural reefs. Collection has become a drity word.

 

[Opcn]

Mollies, they are the only fish on your budget, You get sand substrate in a 20 gallon long, fillit with salt water and acclimate some sailfin mollies (Have to be sailfin, others are a different species and can't thrive in such a high salinity) all toll if you scrounge for parts and maybe buy a little live sand (to start yours on the road to comeing to life) your looking at ~50 bucks for just two mollies. And then you have to find homes for all the fry

 

[RamJet]

edited because Opcn talked me into it, read up on salt water and mollies, you can kill them if you dont do it right.