A good deal?

[gemini9]

I work with a lady who owns her own business on the side. She says she can get me aquatic supplies at a substantial discount for me, by allowing me to buy from her catalog at wholesale prices. She says she can get anything except for livestock, because she has no livestock license.

The lady told me she gets allot of her merchandise from Aquarium Supplies, Fish Tanks, & Live Tropical Fish - Fish.com and told me anything on there she can get for me at 60%-75% off, some of the stuff looks over priced tho, even with the discount... unless I'm mistaken. But I'm wondering if it would be worth it? For example, a 55 gallon acrylic tank is listed for $599. 75% off would bring it down to 150$. She basically told me to go to the site and take 75% off anything I see. I was actually thinking about getting a tank off of her. $150 a good deal for a 55 gallon acrylic tank? I don't know if I even have anywhere to put it lol I might hold off on the tank for awhile, but would be nice to get a jump on depending on how good a bargain this is. Some octagons and bow fronts there too.

I've got a 30g tank now and I've already got a hob skimmer, hob filter marineland maxijet 400 powerhead and t5 lights. I'm not sure what else in the line of equipment i could use, but having a wholesale discount, is there anything I'm missing that could be beneficial/nice to have? I've got 500gph of flow in the tank so I'm guessing I'm good there, unless you recommend more flow? Better lighting? I duno. What do you think?

 

[mrcoffee2]

Go bigger get the 125g or the 150g

Actually I think the 55 is good, probably should try and get the 65 if you can swing it?

 

[gemini9]

Well... I'm not sure my house it big enough for a 150g lol I was comparing the 55g acrylic to the 55g glass at walmart and walmart is actually a little cheaper. 125 sounds scary... That's gotta be difficult to maintain a tank that large. For now, I'm content with my little 30g but one day I will want to upgrade and if the
$150 is a steal for a 55g or 65g, I was going to go ahead and get it so that when I decide to take the leap, I'll have it. What's the diff between walmarts 55g glass and the 55g acrylic on that site? Walmart may be a little cheaper lol

What about equipment? Am I missing anything I could really use?

 

[RacingTiger03]

if you only want a 55.. wait for the petco sell. Even the LFS stocks up on tanks when they do the $1/gallon sells, LOL. I plan to get a 40B next time they do it

 

[gemini9]

Speaking of Glass and acrylic... What's the difference anyway?

 

[mrcoffee2]

plastic or glass

 

[fishroomlady]

I might access the discount for bulbs for lighting or even to look at lighting options. I think eventually you're going to want a drilled tank gemini - I wouldn't recommend acrylic although they are beautiful - I only had one in my career and it scratched so easily

 

[gemini9]

I have 4 t5s 39watts each so I maybe good on lighting for awhile. I was looking through and saw a couple different wave makers. I was considering getting a wave maker and 2 powerheads, each 265gph. One on each side of the tank maybe? I have a 30g tank with a 500gph powerhead in there now. Was going to remove that one and replace it with the 2 265 gph and connect them to the wave maker. So if I go this route, should I put one 265 powerhead on each side of the tank or both of them on the same side? I don't know much about wave makers or how to set them up. But if I can get this wave maker and these 2 powerheads at 50% off, I'll try it out:

2x CP1 265gph
Hagen Fluval Sea Circulation Pump - Fish.com
and either of these two wave controllers
Sicce Wave Surfer Electronic Wave Control - Fish.com
or
Hydor Koralia Smart Wave Pump Controller - Fish.com

or do I really NEED 2 separate circulation powerheads?

 

[Rob Top1]

if you only want a 55.. wait for the petco sell. Even the LFS stocks up on tanks when they do the $1/gallon sells, LOL. I plan to get a 40B next time they do it

Not sure if all Petcos have but the ones out here (8 I visited) all switched to Tetra tanks. Yeah Tetra makes tanks now. I needed several 40s for my lizard hobby and st $40 how could I pass that up? Well I almost did the quality was the worse I have ever seen. I could do better.
First the panels were miss aligned.
Second they use a bottom trim that has a center brace. The top trim is just that bottom piece with the brace hacked off. By a 6 yr old with the saw blade from his swiss army knife.
Third the silicone was done by a one arm one eye pirate I hope. Anyone else could do better
Finally the cardboard wrap was put on while the silicone was still wet so there was pieces if cardboard stuck to the corner seems.
I find these issues over several tanks at several locations.
I know that Aqueon no longer supplies them with tanks and I believe Marine land stopped as well. A buck a gallon is great but the quality of the tanks are not.
Exceptible for breeding lizards but not much else IMO, maybe a sump

 

[G_Sanab922]

$150 is a little high. I bought my 55 for $100, but it is an acrylic tank. like fishroomlady said though, they scratch easily! If you are looking at a 55 I would jump to the 75. It's only slightly wider and will provide you with enough space for a significantly better options in fish, imo... If you can find a 75 with a 75% off, either way it's a good deal. Especially since it's brand new

 

[gemini9]

Not sure if all Petcos have but the ones out here (8 I visited) all switched to Tetra tanks. Yeah Tetra makes tanks now. I needed several 40s for my lizard hobby and st $40 how could I pass that up? Well I almost did the quality was the worse I have ever seen. I could do better.
First the panels were miss aligned.
Second they use a bottom trim that has a center brace. The top trim is just that bottom piece with the brace hacked off. By a 6 yr old with the saw blade from his swiss army knife.
Third the silicone was done by a one arm one eye pirate I hope. Anyone else could do better
Finally the cardboard wrap was put on while the silicone was still wet so there was pieces if cardboard stuck to the corner seems.
I find these issues over several tanks at several locations.
I know that Aqueon no longer supplies them with tanks and I believe Marine land stopped as well. A buck a gallon is great but the quality of the tanks are not.
Exceptible for breeding lizards but not much else IMO, maybe a sump

6 yr olds? One armed pirates? wow what a crew lol Quality is important to me. Can't have a 55-75 gallon tank spring a leak! What about the two wave makers? Which is the better of the two? I would assume the most expensive... Acrylic scratches easier? I'd have to be careful then. I read that they are lighter and stronger tho so that's a plus. Especially being a larger tank.

 

[RacingTiger03]

wow.. no kidding? The tanks at my local petco that were on the $1/Gal sell last time were marineland, and they were decent quality.. Heck I'm using a 30 Gallon marineland that's near as old as I am!!! It's only been used off and on for about a year here and there, but it's over 20 years old and hasn't sprung a leak... yet. Now if I go home and it's leaking I blame everyone here, LMSO (Laugh my sunglasses off, HAH!).

Just now saw about the PH's.. what are you planning to keep? 500GPH in a 30 is ok for softies, but that's about it. I run an 1150 and an 850gph in mine . I love koralia evolution powerheads, but have been debating the jabeo WP25 since it comes with a controller, and starts at 800GPH up to near 2,000GPH max. Leaves room to grow, and they run about $60 each! The thing to remember about a 30G.. even though it's small, it's rather wide. 36" is a long way to circulate water out of a small single powerhead... I know I wouldn't leave my single 850 to do the job, I tried it for awhile, and kept getting a film on the top of the water. blah

 

[gemini9]

wow.. no kidding? The tanks at my local petco that were on the $1/Gal sell last time were marineland, and they were decent quality.. Heck I'm using a 30 Gallon marineland that's near as old as I am!!! It's only been used off and on for about a year here and there, but it's over 20 years old and hasn't sprung a leak... yet. Now if I go home and it's leaking I blame everyone here, LMSO (Laugh my sunglasses off, HAH!).

Just now saw about the PH's.. what are you planning to keep? 500GPH in a 30 is ok for softies, but that's about it. I run an 1150 and an 850gph in mine . I love koralia evolution powerheads, but have been debating the jabeo WP25 since it comes with a controller, and starts at 800GPH up to near 2,000GPH max. Leaves room to grow, and they run about $60 each! The thing to remember about a 30G.. even though it's small, it's rather wide. 36" is a long way to circulate water out of a small single powerhead... I know I wouldn't leave my single 850 to do the job, I tried it for awhile, and kept getting a film on the top of the water. blah

On the other end of the tank opposite my PH, I have a large Marineland Pengiun 350 HOB filter that adds some circulation back there. To be honest, I was afraid to go anything over 500 for fear of blowing around my sand. So maybe I could add a 2nd smaller PH on the other end of the tank to help push the water back around? So you are recommending.. what... maybe another 500 gph? Right now my PH is pointed upward toward the surface. If I lower it too much, my sand starts to blow around a little (Aragonite Pink Fiji from BRS) I'll go ahead and get another powerhead. So... another 500 gph?

 

[RacingTiger03]

I use the pink fiji arogonite as well, my favorite by far. It depends a little on the flow of the powerhead as well. I have my big 1150 pointed up at the top and towards the live rock for high flow for SPS later. The 650 is straight out about 6" off the sand and I point it pretty much straight out and up a little to keep it from blowing sand. Mind you it still does a little there, so I moved it halfway up the tank, so now it's at 8". No more sand blowing, and I get a great flow all around the tank instead of almost just a circulation. I also have a skimmer with a rio 1200 (360gph IIRC) pump on it, but that doesn't really count towards the overall flow of the tank, as after all the bends you're talking under 80gph output. I dunno that I would count a filter much higher either, but I know those do help prevent the film on top of the water (ran one myself until I found out I needed more flow to take care of that). I would do at LEAST another 500gph, probably an 850-1150 depending on what you plan... in fact, look at that jabeo wp25. I think that'll do a good job for you, and if you decide it's too much you can run it by itself in the 1100 range easily. Or.. well there's always vortech MP40s.. but $$$$$. Take up a lot less space in a 30 gallon though, I've debated it many times over for that fact alone