Oh' it's that new guy with the very long post!

[cgray]

$300

135 gallon glass aquarium with stand, lid, and (2) 3' lights
Penguin 300 Water Filter
???? Water Filter (he thinks Emperor)
Something that makes bubbles (maybe an air pump)
Decor (castles, rocks, and blue background paper)
Live Rock Gravel (That was in FW and it looks like a bunch of minature white/chaulkish shells)

No thermometers or heaters.

Good deal??? I'll make it work for the person asking about budgets. Just figured for $300 it could not be beat.

 

[ChicoRaton]

well if he put live rock or live sand in freshwater, it's just ...rock...now. and it was a few minutes after he put it in the freshwater. I'd get rid of it unless you're keeping african cichlids that like high hardness and ph, as it will make your water have very high hardness and ph.

Ditto on everything else. You'll want two heaters. Tronic heaters don't stick in the on position, but I think the 300watt models were discontinued. Ebo-jagers are pretty reliable.

I don't think you'll need a dedicated breaker. pumps and filters don't draw much current. and probably only one of your heaters will come on at once unless your room is very cold. Don't put anything that draws a lot of power on the same circuit though. You wouldn't want to trip your breaker while you were gone and have power out for a whole weekend or something.

good luck with the new tank.

 

[JSchmidt]

Ditto on everything else. You'll want two heaters. Tronic heaters don't stick in the on position, but I think the 300watt models were discontinued. Ebo-jagers are pretty reliable.

I don't think you'll need a dedicated breaker. pumps and filters don't draw much current. and probably only one of your heaters will come on at once unless your room is very cold. Don't put anything that draws a lot of power on the same circuit though. You wouldn't want to trip your breaker while you were gone and have power out for a whole weekend or something.

good luck with the new tank.

I always wonder why the line gets repeated about Tronics being immune to sticking on; I have one that stuck in the 'on' position and nearly cooked a tank of fish. (It's now relegated to an aging tank.) Any heater can fail, regardless of what the Hagen folks might say.

That being said, I wouldn't hesitate to buy either an Ebo or a Tronic. Both are highly reputed and well made, and if you're going to play the odds, you're less likely to get a lemon with these brands than with many others.

I like the idea of ground fault protected circuits, but I've not had the best of luck with GFCI receptacles. Ground fault protected circuit breakers, on the other hand, tend to be more reliable, IME.

Jim

 

[Semarin]

In my honest opinion, 300 bucks for that is an awfully good deal. Sounds a little too good to be true. Am I the only one who has noticed that? In any case, good luck with it. The folks here are absolutely awesome about answering questions and being helpful, I speak from experience!

 

[NikkO]

I think that is a pretty good deal considering that my 240 gal is only a 105 gal difference from mine and costed over $2500 SO FAR. Ditto on what everyone else said.

 

[ChicoRaton]

I always wonder why the line gets repeated about Tronics being immune to sticking on; I have one that stuck in the 'on' position and nearly cooked a tank of fish.

Well I guess it is possible after all. The reason tha tline gets repeated is because they don't have moving parts. in a traditional heater, the contacts...well, make contact every time the heater turns on, and make a small arc. Sometimes, that arc welds the contacts together and they never come apart, cooking the fish. I guess a malfunctioning sensor in a tronic could make it "stick" on.