Well, this will be a long post. So, I have some great news! I got an awesome deal on Craigslist. I got a ten gallon tank, two Rio Nano Skimmers/Filters, four Rio MiniSun LED lights, six pounds of live rock, live sand, a Reef testing kit, water conditioner, and various supplements for a grand total of $25!
And last weekend we also met up with hubby’s friend from college who gave us additional supplements, 50 pounds of sand, tank heater, another testing kit, a phos reactor and 50 pounds of Instant Ocean. Plus more stuff if we want it. I cannot emphasis enough of the importance of craigslist and keeping an eye out for people leaving the hobby.
I was insanely proud of myself for getting that deal. It’s hard to beat. We went and picked it up and everything was fantastic! Husband and I agreed on allowing $60 this month for my initial set up. So we dropped off the new stuff at home, set it up running in my bath tub to keep the live rock live, and went to Wally World.
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| The filthy tank. Still, it's a great deal just needs some TLC and it'll be a great QT tank. |
Here was the beginning of the end. At Walmart we were looking at the kits and saw that they changed the hood model. So, we started plotting to buy things separately. Petco had a Labor day sale of $1 per gallon on tanks so I could get a ten gallon tank for $10 ($2 cheaper than Walmart). Then we’d look at the hoods and see if there was anything cheaper than the $20 hood at Walmart.
We left Walmart empty handed and cruised across the street to Petco. At Petco we were looking at tanks and Hubby said, “Hey, look at this 20 gallon long. It’d look really good in the alcove.”
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| Alcove of Financial Doom. Ground zero for my budget... right here. Doesn't look evil, but it is! |
“Yeah, it would,” I said. “But that would really shoot up the price of my tank and hoods that length are expensive and hard to find.”
“It’s okay,” he said, “I’ll help with the costs.”
“But my blog is an infant and I was trying to make it about cost-effectiveness.”
“I’m sure they will understand. It will still be about a beginner and a nano reef.”
“True.”
And that was that. So we set off with our 20 gallon long for $20 and went home to research lighting and circulation costs...
Later that day:
“Hey, honey,” I said, “Check out these lights. They are way out of our price range but they’re really cool. Maybe we can get them in the future.”
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| Demo of AI Sol lighting aspects. image from Captivereefs.com |
The lights in question are the AI Sol leds. The crème de la crème of LED aquarium lighting technology, the big cheese, the colossus, the mother load of all lights on the markets, these bad boys are worth every cent of their $629 price. They have it all. Aside from keeping a lunar light cycle that comes on automatically, they have eight different light settings throughout the day, simulate sunrise and sunset, and have a range that would allow me to keep any coral. Additionally, each of the units are modular, meaning we can expand the lights as we get bigger tanks in the future instead of having to upgrade. So when you take into consideration the savings we’ll have on bulb changes for different corals, a separate set up for lunar lights, buying a new fixture if we want larger tanks, and tack on the 10 year bulb life expectancy plus savings on energy bills, not needing a chiller due to low temperature output and not needing ballasts, it’s not too bad. It just hurts a helluva lot right now.
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| Major energy savings. image from Aqua Illumination |
Oh, and it can be used in tank automation systems like Apex’s Neptune controller and potentially be interfaced with our computer for home automation… This was a big selling point for my husband who’s all about the techy stuff.
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| Automation systems that can be used with AI Sol. AI controller in foreground. image from Aqua Illumination |
So the lights are pretty awesome and justify the price. Then husband went even further out of my budget (like it could get any further away) and added on two Maxi-jet Pro powerhead/circulation pumps. I can’t really argue with that since they are necessary as my previous ideas for GPH are null and void in a 20 gallon set up.
Luckily, it was Labor day so a lot of sales were going on. Aquacave.com was selling the AI Sol set up for $610 (including a $34.99 hanging kit) but they had really bad vendor reviews and I was hesitant on spending that much money with poor reviews. So, I went to nano-reef.com to see where people were buying their lights and repeatedly ReefGeek.com was showing up. Another google search revealed they had no bad reviews. I went on over to the site but they were more expensive. Hubby e-mailed the sales manager about Aquacave and explained that we’d really like to buy from them but they weren’t as cheap. We got an e-mail in response saying not only would they match, but they’d beat it. So we got the lights for $600 (yay!). I’m pretty excited for the lights.
Here's a thunderstorm simulation with the lights. Definitely check it out:
After our huge purchases, hubby says he’ll leave my budget alone. Only problem is everything that was necessary to be on a budget, he already bought.
So, after we get the lights and some more rocks, this tank is ready to roll. Hopefully I can start cycling in about two weeks. I’ll make a post later with my price sheet on how the budget was suppose to work out. I think it was perfectly feasible. If it wasn’t for Labor day and that alcove, I’m confident it would’ve worked.
Happy swimming!
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