Like the title says - I am doing this on a budget but not skimping on equipment. So I am looking at secondhand, new and DIY to achieve this.
Sorry to say this will not be a 5min build, I will have to buy stuff on separate credit cards, hidden from the wife and spread the spending so it looks like I am spending FA.
The key is to spend a little often rather than one large sump that makes eye balls rotate! We all know this is a false economy, but hey I do the bills LOL, but once you have a swimming pool there is no point moaning at the cost of water to fill it up. I am using the boil a frog approach, wife will not notice.. until her eftpost card fails LOL
So my approach was all cheap and secondhand... a tank of crap. Once the wife realised there was going to be a tank of crap looking at her, this was not what she wanted to see. BUT not big if your going new and sell some stuff to help. We agreed - or I insisted that a 24 cube would be economical. Next to the log burner was the allocated location LOL. Book cases now live where my old tank was on the opposite wall. Being in NZ, temp really is not an issue and there is little heat from the side of the burner. We have a fire and aircon to keep the house at 21C in winter.
My previous tank was around 250G total water volume, and about 15 years ago. Bankruptcy was an issue with $800 a month power bills, my then young wife went grey over night looking at these bills... because my sump was under the house where the wind blow and temps got down to 32f or 0C in my world. I had this tank about 5 years and had to sell it in the end.
Children where young then and $$$ were and issue. Now the kids are older they cost even more $$$ (when will they leave home) so when I said reef tank wife had a small violent fit.... Equal only to when I tried currency trading on the Forex, no need to say how that ended LOL.
So I spoke with the tank builder, got a price for a 24inch cube, low iron / ultra clear glass and said - good to go.
Well he came back and said he had glass available to do 36 x 24x 24 for the same price, less waste... no need to say how that ended.
Sorry to say this will not be a 5min build, I will have to buy stuff on separate credit cards, hidden from the wife and spread the spending so it looks like I am spending FA.
The key is to spend a little often rather than one large sump that makes eye balls rotate! We all know this is a false economy, but hey I do the bills LOL, but once you have a swimming pool there is no point moaning at the cost of water to fill it up. I am using the boil a frog approach, wife will not notice.. until her eftpost card fails LOL
So my approach was all cheap and secondhand... a tank of crap. Once the wife realised there was going to be a tank of crap looking at her, this was not what she wanted to see. BUT not big if your going new and sell some stuff to help. We agreed - or I insisted that a 24 cube would be economical. Next to the log burner was the allocated location LOL. Book cases now live where my old tank was on the opposite wall. Being in NZ, temp really is not an issue and there is little heat from the side of the burner. We have a fire and aircon to keep the house at 21C in winter.
My previous tank was around 250G total water volume, and about 15 years ago. Bankruptcy was an issue with $800 a month power bills, my then young wife went grey over night looking at these bills... because my sump was under the house where the wind blow and temps got down to 32f or 0C in my world. I had this tank about 5 years and had to sell it in the end.
Children where young then and $$$ were and issue. Now the kids are older they cost even more $$$ (when will they leave home) so when I said reef tank wife had a small violent fit.... Equal only to when I tried currency trading on the Forex, no need to say how that ended LOL.
So I spoke with the tank builder, got a price for a 24inch cube, low iron / ultra clear glass and said - good to go.
Well he came back and said he had glass available to do 36 x 24x 24 for the same price, less waste... no need to say how that ended.
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