i live in texas and i beleive the tanks are pretty cheap for a tank alone. what cost so much is a stand. i recenctly seen a tank in petco not sure what size it was but 3 normal size men could set in it and it was $199. the stand on the other hand was almost $400
If you're willing to go the used route, check out the local classifieds, 'buy/sell' sections of online forums such as this one, and E-bay. With the online options, you could easily find very good deals, but rarely will you find one's that in your area. For some whatever reason, I see lots of large tanks go for insane prices in LA, Michigan, Indiana, Florida, New York, and Hawaii (heh). Just keep tabs on all your options and you may get lucky