Newbee with questions

[firmechicano83]

Hi everyone! Well I'm actually a newbee to starting an aquarium at all. I've always been fasinated by the beautiful fish and colors that come to life in saltwater aquariums. I've started slowly buying some things needed. I've been looking at prices and it looks like I'm going to have to spend a minimum of $5,000 but most likely around $6,000 to finish it off and maybe in about 6 months I will have pictures to share with everyone here. The dimensions that I can work with on a fish tank are 70x24x32. Is this around 230 gallons? I bought a euro-reef protein skimmer RS250. Is this to much for this tank or would it be ok? In terms of a water osmosis r/o d/i would a 100g one not be enough? My last questions is, where did everyone get their canopy and stand because it looks like thats where most of the money has to go on what I've been checking in stores. Last one on something like this how in terms of $ would my energy bill jump every month :notsure: I think I've already spend to much money to turn back now. But just wanna get an idea.
thanks everyone for reading this and helping me out.

 

[dmjordan]

a 190 gal tall is 60x24x31 and the next closest size is going to be a 240 -6 gal tall which is 72x24x31. the skimmer should be fine for either size tank. a 75 gpd ro/di unit is better than the 100gpd unit (in my opinion). the lower gpd units will have lower tds...try to get a nice 5 stage unit. you can save a lot of money building a stand and / or canopy yourself. a stand in canopy from your local fish store can easily be twice as much as the tank itself.

 

[leftyblite]

Weeclome to the boards!!!

As far as the canopy and stand goes, if your like me and don't know much about wood work, try and find an unfinished stand and canopy. I saved a couple of hundred $$$ by doing this, plus my wife was happy because I able to stain and seal it in a color close to the furniture, so it matched. Good luck. :thinking:

 

[jayeden]

leftblite do you have a picture of your tank?...i would like to see a custom built stand..

 

[mandarin w]

As far as electric, don't figure on going to the movies anymore. An no more going out to eat. But that ok, you will really enjoy eating peanut butter sandwiches in front of your tank.

I have been very lucky in that aspect. I m not sure, but I suspect the something must have gone wrong some where. Last summer my landlord put some new outlets in for me so I could run my tank. But those outlets must be wired to heaven. I run 3x250watt Mh bulb. I have 2 fans that run 24/7 , there is a 30 corallife pc over my sump on 24/7, I have an ASM g-4 plus with the sedra 9000 for a skimmer, 2x seio 2600's, 1 seio 1500, two, heaters and a mag 24 return. A rena xp3 running carbon. and 4x4inch computer fans blowing thru my stand 24/7, That is on my 180,Then I have a few other tanks running. I wanted to give you an idea of what I have running, Oh yeah I run my RO at home too.
Now my electric bill is throught the city, and it isn't just elect.
It is elect, water,sewer, trash, and there is some other charge, but I don't really know what it is for. My electric bill for Dec. $152.00, for Nov $150.00, for Oct $138.00. At first I thought they accidently wired me to another apartment, but when I hit my circuit breaker, everything turns off. Iam sure yours won't be like this.

 

[leftyblite]

It wasn't a custom built stand, I bought everything as a package(tank, stand, canopy). I priced tanks at several stores and noticed that for a finshed package the price was always alot morethan an unfisnished package. I spent about $800 on my unfinshed package for a 150G compared to approx $1300-$1400 at other places. My wife was very happy with the savings.

 

[teresaq]

I got my canopy on the big auctions site unfinished for 199.00. It was not put together, but everything was drilled, and all the nails and screws came with it. i just put it together, stained and sealed it.

 

[leftyblite]

$199, WOW now I'm jealous

 

[1knight164]

Originally Posted by TeresaQ
I got my canopy on the big auctions site unfinished for 199.00. It was not put together, but everything was drilled, and all the nails and screws came with it. i just put it together, stained and sealed it.
$199!!! Wow! I enjoy wood working, but for $199, it's a steal. Hope I can find something like that when I upgrade.

 

[firmechicano83]

thanks everyone for all your help. I guess I will start looking and reading once more so I can get everything I need to start my fish aquarium. :joy:

 

[firmechicano83]

One last questions. When choosing reverse Osmosis do brand matter if I'm looking at a 5 stage or all they all the same. I've run into prices from $150-$450 and they look similar. What should I look for? :notsure: