Good read. Cheap lighting. Good planting.

[Lady Hobbs]

http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/budget.html

I thought this was a great read with great information about a cheap light for your tank. I also rather liked the planting method so you may want to check it out. I do believe I have found lighting I can well afford!

Cheapest place I found on the net for Flourite or Laterite is Pets Warehouse. Prior to finding this site, Drs Foster and Smith had the cheapest Flourite. One sale for 16.09 with regular price of 18.99. Pets Warehouse regular price is 12.25. BIG difference of over $6 per same sized bag! However, everthing else at Pets Warehouse I found expensive. Nearly $70 for Tetra Tech and Aqua Clear power filters......the largest made.

[Chrona]

Cool, thanks!

For the people with smaller tanks (20g or less) though, the assembled fixtures are really the only way to go lol.

[SouthernGal0682]

Problem with buying flourite online...SHIPPING. It worked out for me to be just as cheap (if not cheaper) to buy it in the store because everywhere online advertised good prices per bag on their flourite, but then charged an arm and a leg for shipping because its heavy. I found one site that was like $15.99 a bag but after I added my 3 bags to my shopping cart it gave me a shipping fee of something like $45.00. Also, I found that the sites that advertise "free shipping" don't offer free shipping on items over a certain weight. Anyway, just something to think about...I'm going to read the article now :)

[*Sarah*]

Very nice read, I've bookmarked it. THanks!

[Lady Hobbs]

Sounds about like buying fish on line is the shipping. Some places charge $25 no moatter how many boxes they ship and others charge $25-30 for EACH box of fish. You really gotta watch these guys.

For instance, Big Al's has a tank stand I planned to order for $89. Shipping is $40! Another site has the same stand for $129 but their shipping is $6.95 no matter what! I always check out the shipping costs. But I will probably go to PetSmart and get this stand for $210! LOL Shipping is just a means of jacking up the prices like in Ebay!

Chrona.........I wondered what you thought about this planting method and about using shop lights and just laying on the glass top? You being the resident smarter here I was waiting for a good thought from you. LOL You always have good answers.

[Chrona]

DIY lighting is possible and probably the cheapest route for all tank sizes, but where you see the biggest savings is for the larger tanks. For smaller tanks, (Say 20g in this case), you would need 2-3 of these 24" fixtures for good lighting (60watts or 3 watt/gallon)

http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/diy_main/pg_diy.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0578085049.1172769166@ @@@&BV_EngineID=ccejaddkfkhejfgcgelceffdfgidglo.0&CNTTYPE=PROD_META&CNTKEY=misc/searchResults.jsp&MID=9876&N=2984+4233&pos=n12

And because it doesn't come with the bulbs, which are another few bucks each (assuming you get the full spectrum variety found in home improvement stores and not the overpriced aquarium ones), you are looking at about 40 bucks spend on the lights alone. You would still need to construct some kind of housing as well as a nice reflector, which would run the cost up to about 50 bucks.

On the other hand, a 24" premade compact flourescent fixture with 65 watts costs about 60 bucks online. Cheaper in this case actually

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=9871&N=2004+113345

So with a 20g tank, you save a few bucks, or like 10% of the premade price.


However, if you were looking to make one for a 55 gallon tank (48"), you would get 4-5 of these:
http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/diy_main/pg_diy.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0578085049.1172769166@ @@@&BV_EngineID=ccejaddkfkhejfgcgelceffdfgidglo.0&CNTTYPE=PROD_META&CNTKEY=misc/searchResults.jsp&MID=9876&N=2984+4233&pos=n12
Adding in the cost of the bulbs and housing and reflector, it should total 90-100 dollars for almost 4 watts/gallon

Compare this to a premade 48" compact flourescent fixture with that much power (Ok, so I couldn't find a 48" fixture rated for 200 watts, so I'll take the average price between the 130w and the 260w model) is 150 bucks

You would save about 50 bucks, or 33% off the price of the premade fixture.

Note that the savings scale up further with larger tanks. My point is that with smaller tanks, you are much better off just spending the extra few bucks for a nice, premade fixture that is rated to withstand the moisture from aquariums than to build your own. My comparison isn't exact, of course, since I'm comparing compact fluorescents to regular fluorescents, but the prices for each scales fairly closely with wattage. Furthermore, I've looked around local stores and it's extremely tough (and expensive) to get the kind of compact flourescent bulbs and fixtures used in aquariums. An alternative, of course, is to use those spiral screw in compact flourescents (look like light bulbs) in a DIY fixture with a bunch of light sockets. I'm not sure how well that would work though, since you would need some funky shaped reflectors, and those bulbs generally don't come in full-spectrum varieties.

Whew, that was a long post. All above material is copyrighted to Chrona, 2007.

[Lady Hobbs]

LOL Ask for an answer, get an answer. Thanks for all the time in posting that great response and the research into it.

I was looking into the 48 inch as described in the link in the post that started this thread. His idea didn't sound all that bad to just get a shop light and lay it across the top glass but get decent bulbs for growing.

I wouldn't even bother with special lighting for little tanks. Just not worth it much, do you think? Easy to just use low light plants.

Thanks Chrona, appreciated.

Setting up a tank and cycling is nothing compared to all this planting business. It's a PITA and I haven't even started yet. LOL

[Chrona]

LOL Ask for an answer, get an answer. Thanks for all the time in posting that great response and the research into it.

I was looking into the 48 inch as described in the link in the post that started this thread. His idea didn't sound all that bad to just get a shop light and lay it across the top glass but get decent bulbs for growing.

I wouldn't even bother with special lighting for little tanks. Just not worth it much, do you think? Easy to just use low light plants.

Thanks Chrona, appreciated.

Setting up a tank and cycling is nothing compared to all this planting business. It's a PITA and I haven't even started yet. LOL

But when you finally reach that aquascaping phase, it makes it all worth it :)
I'm one of those anal-retentive people that has to have everything be perfect or it will bug them endlessly, so for me, a 10g planted is as about a big a tank as I can go without spending TOO much time on it. The temptation to overstock is indeed very big though....heh...so many cool looking fish I haven't kept yet.