For new tanks always check craigslist could sometimes find some killer deals on there for tank and equipment for plants fellow AC members sell em for good prices sometimes only charge for shipping. Also buy plants that like low light less light less electricity and no need for CO2 and no major need for ferts.
Instead of using liquid chlorine remover buy it in crystalline form and mix up your own solution. I pay about $7 for a pound of sodium thiosulphate which will treat 25,000 gals! It might be even cheaper if you go to a camera store and buy it as it's called hypo and is used in developing film. Mix up 1 tsp. per oz. of water and use 2 drops per gal.
Whenever I need to buy something for the tanks I try to sell something else to get the money. For example, I recently wanted some new plants so first I sold a few live food cultures and ended up breaking even. I keep several wads of moss growing all the time in case I need to sell it off. I don't always get all my money back but it really helps.
Instead of using liquid chlorine remover buy it in crystalline form and mix up your own solution. I pay about $7 for a pound of sodium thiosulphate which will treat 25,000 gals! It might be even cheaper if you go to a camera store and buy it as it's called hypo and is used in developing film. Mix up 1 tsp. per oz. of water and use 2 drops per gal.
Call your water provider and find out what they add to your tap water. Get in ppm how much chlorine or chloramine they add. Treating water in gallons can differ when only 150ppm versus 300ppm are added. They may also add sulphers extra chloriamies and other nasty stuff to the water to clean out the pipes. You need to find out what days they do that and avoid doing water changes that day. I know in the US it's a LAW that they MUST provide you this information, you can even get a printed report of the waters history.
Join an aquarium club. I once bought 6 young Neolamprologous multifasciatus at auction for $1! I took 3 of them into the store I worked at and got $2 a piece for them. Deals on equiptment can be just s good.
Whoooaaaaa awsome respose, fish keepers of the world like to talk about money. Well no surprises there but some good tips, I've been meaning to call my water supplier for some time but forget. Thanks for the reminder, also subrosas tip on dechlorinator soloution was pretty cool. Buying any chemical since 7/7 here in the uk is impossible but ill try. I recently got question severly by the staff of my local chemists when trying to purchase some hydrogen peroxide to clean out some weed. Not a nice experience. I just bought some dechlorinator for under a tenner for 500ml , on ebay. Good deal. I think purchasing my own lfs would be the cheapest and most fun option but I don't think ill like those rather large energy bills lol.
Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical with terroristic potential. The 3% stuff you can gargle with, but at 30% it will burn skin instantly, as it's a powerful oxidizer. For fun on a hazmat job I used to work we put a 10% soolution in a 5 gal bucket and poured in a little hydrazine. Basically liquid rocket fuel! It shot a column of steam the diameter of the bucket 30' into the air! Don't try this at home!
well, sometimes lfs have sales at holiday times when they sell fish tanks at $1 a gallon. i guess you're not in the states, so it would be roughly 1 pound a gallon for you too! those are good times to buy a fish tank.
