How would you go about doing a tank on a limited budget

[BaliReefBox]

use the budget you have and buy tickets and go to the public aquarium weekly/monthly.... this is not a budget hobby imho

 

[williamCreery]

use the budget you have and buy tickets and go to the public aquarium weekly/monthly.... this is not a budget hobby imho

lol!!!!

 

[flashsmith]

Reefing ain't cheap no matter the route you take. To me it's not necessarily the initial investment but the upkeep and associated costs. You can easily spend $100 to $200 a month just keeping a small tank going and that's if nothing breaks that needs to be replaced.Throw in livestock and you can easily double that number. That cost never goes away.

 

[XtraKargo]

Reefing ain't cheap no matter the route you take. To me it's not necessarily the initial investment but the upkeep and associated costs. You can easily spend $100 to $200 a month just keeping a small tank going and that's if nothing breaks that needs to be replaced.Throw in livestock and you can easily double that number. That cost never goes away.

Getting everything used. Let someone else pay the "off the lot" price. Patience will reward you and great deals always come and go. Getting comfortable in fixing stuff to work with your setup.

Thoretically... I think the cheapest you can go is any AIO w/ return pump, a cheap LED light, a heater, rock and sand, and consistent water changes buying water from a LFS.

Next on the list would be ATO, protein skimmer, and wavemakers/pumps.

When you inevitably outgrow the AIO, get a used tank w/ sump and the cycle continues. But now you might be interested in dosing, getting a refugium or ATS setup, calcium reactor, a bigger protein skimmer, bigger lights...

And since you have a bigger tank, you might as well get an RODI unit and salt so you dont gotta lug around gallons of water from the LFS.

Then maybe a make the AIO a quarantine tank and have 2 full tank setups.

Christ this hobby has a way of squeezing you dry.

This happens to me especially, cause as I learn more about the animals I'm keeping I think that I should do something better. Not new necessarily, just better than what I had. Hence the constant tinkering, changes, and eventually look up and see that I have another 3 or 4 hundred gone, and I just want to make sure the corals, fish, and inverts are happy. Plus there's so much space I can fill with more tanks and gear. But hey, I can setup a QT in a matter of hours with about everything in case of an emergency.

 

[AustinBabler]

The 40 breeder in my tank thread is super cheap. I got the tank on a petco tank sale. The power heads and heater are also petco specials. The only thing I really splurged on was the filter. I went with a marineland emperor pro 450. I did that because I’m a huge believer in over powering the filtration simply for water turn over. Im in it for around $600 excluding livestock, and food. I had the lights, salt, various test kits, and RODI unit already. That saved me easily another $600. It’s been a super easy to maintain tank so far. I’m actually fighting a low nutrient situation at the moment. Which is completely fine with me I’d rather dose nutrients then try to play catch up on export. Nitrate hangs out around 5-8ppm and I can’t keep phosphate detected.

 

[fish farmer]

Smaller tank. 29 gallon.

Cheap corals and less of them. Bulletproof softies and a few easy lps and let them grow into the space.

Fewer hardy fish. I have a pair of clowns that are 16 years old and usually one other fish with them.

Cheap controllers (light timers).

DIY sump, DIY overflow. Used equipment.

 

[FishTruck]

Stick with a low budget livestock plan. Just like fish farmer said! Cuts the equipment needs by half or more, electricity too.