how much is too much $$$?

F

freshwater

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Jun 14, 2005
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how much money would be reasonable to spend on a 10 gallon tank setup? I spent about $135 and a few people have told me that i spent way too much on it. The list goes as follows (all estimates):

-free 10g tank
-$25 for aquaclear filter
-$25 for heater
-$6 on gravel
-$37 for the hood/light
-$8 for all the plants
-$10 for nets, food, and conditioner
-$4 for a rock/ornament
-$12 for tiger barbs
-$5 for the background paper
 
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I spent about $112 - $120 for DIY materials for my 10gal betta tank and my new 20g:

- 3 Bettas ($3.50 each)
- 20gal kit ($74.99)
- Silicon ($4)
- Report covers ($4)
- Kool Aid ($.98)
- Three emerald/bronze cory's ($9.36)
- TopFin 10 (Free)
- Sand ($2.50)

I'd say you went over a little, but if you have what you want then it's fine. Generally the aquarium kits are the best deal you're going to get since they come with a hood and lights and filter.
 
That seems about right to me. The hood is a flourescent one, yes? A tank with an incandescent hood is only about $25 or so, but the hood by itself is almost as much. THe flourescent hoods are better though, and are more expensive. This includes the fish and all, so it seems right. A tank by itself is only $10 (no hood or anything) and about $150 or so is what the setup would usually cost (with fish and all... no stand).

Tiger barbs may get too large for a 10g, and you can't really have a big shcool of them in one (which they prefer), but it's certainly doable I suppose. A 20g setup with tiger barbs would probably have been about the same or only $20 or so more though. The larger a tank you go (within reason) the cheaper per gallon it is usually.

Also, there are cheap items you can get for a tank that won't hold out as well as a more expensive equivalent. (filters, heaters etc.). So, while it perhaps could have been done cheaper, it would not have been as good...

EMily
 
firefly said:
That seems about right to me. The hood is a flourescent one, yes? A tank with an incandescent hood is only about $25 or so, but the hood by itself is almost as much. THe flourescent hoods are better though, and are more expensive. This includes the fish and all, so it seems right. A tank by itself is only $10 (no hood or anything) and about $150 or so is what the setup would usually cost (with fish and all... no stand).

Tiger barbs may get too large for a 10g, and you can't really have a big shcool of them in one (which they prefer), but it's certainly doable I suppose. A 20g setup with tiger barbs would probably have been about the same or only $20 or so more though. The larger a tank you go (within reason) the cheaper per gallon it is usually.

Also, there are cheap items you can get for a tank that won't hold out as well as a more expensive equivalent. (filters, heaters etc.). So, while it perhaps could have been done cheaper, it would not have been as good...

EMily
Click to expand...

Yeah, i got half a dozen tiger barbs. They seem to be more active when i turn the lights off though.. and yeah, i got the flourescent ones. i think the tiger barbs are a little too aggressive. they keep nippin on each other's fins.
 
I got my 10G for free...
It came with UGF, gravel, hood light, background paper, and small power filter.

I've added...
$30 Penguin 170 bio-wheel [moved to 60G]
$30 air pump
$30 Penguin 660 power jet + RUGF conversion kit
$10 15W spiral flourescents from Walmart x2
$10 10# of finer gravel from LFS
$35 decorations [some moved to 60G]
$30 anacharis / cabomba bunches
$5 dwarf corkscrew vals (one melted, and the other almost gone :( )
$20 miscellaneous - air line, 5-way valves, air stones, 20" bubble wand
$10 small yellow labs x3 [moved to 60G]
$50 corys - bronze x2, pepper x7, bandit x2, panda x7 (half died :( )
$2 CAE (donated to sister's tank)
$10 otos x6 (2 died :( )
$1.33 WalMart floating thermometer
$20 food - Hikari sinking wafers, algae wafers, freeze dried tubifex worms [used in 60G also]
$50 test kits - pH, NH3, NO2, NO3, kH [used on 60G also]

Yeow!
 
I spent $65 total yesterday on a 10gal kit. $5 for river pebbles from Home Depot, tank kit was $57, came with a bio-wheel filter, hood, light, net, thermometer and some samples of food, conditioner, and water dechlorinator, plus gas running around getting it all. Got mine at a local petco store.
 
20 gallon long and ten gallon tank

stand 30 dollars
tanks 20 dollars for 20 gallon
10 dollars for ten gallon
hoods 35 dollars for flourscant for 20 gallon
20 dollars for incadescent for 10 gallon

gravel for both 35.00

heaters 20 for jeager for 20
15 for visitherm for ten
whisper 20 on ten was 15
biowheel marineland for 20 was 20
then lthere are decor
caves and logs 40 dollars
lock rocks were 15 dollars
ship is free fleamarket find with the 5 gallon setup I have which was 10 dollars

:shark:
 
I've spent around 100-$150 for my 10 gallon and around $90 for my 25 gallon so far (not including the tank which I got for my birthday), And I don't even have a hood for either. For my 10 gallon I just have some panels of plexi glass (there is a gap) and for my 25 gallon, it's on a bookshelf so I just lowered the shelf above it to a few inches above the glass so there's room for my filter and light. For lights I just go to walmart, fluorescent fixtures run $5-10, and bulbs are around $5-7.
 
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Wow someone beat me on how much I spent on my 20 gal, which was around $400-$500 CND. Yikes, but in a way so worth it... ;)
 
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