Let’s see some budget tanks
- Thread starter Travv26
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I set this nano up (new and all in) for well under $300 12+ years ago and the only add was DIY lighting for ~$300.
Total cost per year (not including coral/fish) is less than $100.
![1649300-e2c89951eca6610b7728cb0146b386bb[1].jpg](https://test9.reef2reef.com/data/attachments/1747/1747004-6b6947f89cfc7ef0cf5f7ba59c79dcf3.jpg?hash=a2lH-Jz8fv "1649300-e2c89951eca6610b7728cb0146b386bb[1].jpg")
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H3rm1tCr@b
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Tank is STILL going through the Dinos and the hair algaes (and now Cyanos haha help) but everything accept that blasted gorgonian is doing great. I've spent more than I should've so I'm not sure if it counts as a "budget" tank but here it is.
My true budget tank is my mantis shrimp/bad guy tank that was absolutely dirt cheap. It also shows but hey the stomatopod is healthy so I'm not complaining! That white shell is where "Monty Cristo" the Wennerae mantis shrimp's door is. The only things I had to buy for the tank was the tank itself and the air pump. I'm aware that it is exceedingly ugly but Monty has started attacking the cleaning tools so it is a little hard to do maintenance. There are a few welks in there and a massive gorilla crab that will not stop spitting out babies every other week. All the inhabitants came from my TBS rock I got a few months ago. Those crab zooae go really quickly; I feed them to the reef tank and my Chromis loses his mind!
Monty in all his glory:
My true budget tank is my mantis shrimp/bad guy tank that was absolutely dirt cheap. It also shows but hey the stomatopod is healthy so I'm not complaining! That white shell is where "Monty Cristo" the Wennerae mantis shrimp's door is. The only things I had to buy for the tank was the tank itself and the air pump. I'm aware that it is exceedingly ugly but Monty has started attacking the cleaning tools so it is a little hard to do maintenance. There are a few welks in there and a massive gorilla crab that will not stop spitting out babies every other week. All the inhabitants came from my TBS rock I got a few months ago. Those crab zooae go really quickly; I feed them to the reef tank and my Chromis loses his mind!
Monty in all his glory:
I’m not to old but when I was first getting into aquariums I had a under gravel filter on my fresh water tank, actually was going to use it when I thought about getting in to saltwater but a local guy had a wet/dry sump and gave it to me. Tank looks nice and healthy with what’s sounding like a low maintenance and very simple set upI have always felt that many people spend way to much on this stuff.
I have a 125 gallon tank. I had to pay for that. I also have a DIY skimmer that is maybe 30 years old and it cost me less than $20.00 to build. I also built many of my rocks for almost free out of cement. My algae scrubber is a DIY and practically free. I have no sump, controllers, dosers, quarantine or hospital tank, medications and very few test kits.
I run a reverse undergravel filter with dolomite that you may be able to get today in a museum or mausoleum
I built the stand out of redwood which was maybe $100.00
My fish live until they die of old age so they are cheap as are corals.
I did have to buy heaters and powerheads but they are very old so kind of cheap.
Where I live now I can collect NSW so that, for me is free.
Tankkeepers
Valuable Member
I wouldnt call it a buget build for most as iv got 1000 in it but compaired to my old setup 50000 that the kid killed wont go there its cheap to run about 25 dollors a month still battling bryopsis but winning hehe
