I would at least have a look at compact fluorescents before you buy more NO fluorescents, because I can almost guarantee you that you will eventually upgrade your lighting. I have spent about $3K on my 55 gal aquarium now, about $500 on stuff I eventually put in the garage. So plan a little, and save a lot... Compact fluorescent retrofits are a reasonable bargain, you can get 2 X 96 W compact fluorescents from
www.hamiltontechnology.com for about $250. I would however recommend 4x55 W, as you will be able to have light accross the entire 48" of the tank rather than 36" . That should be enough to get you started, and you can always add more lighting later if you need it.
The rock is a big expense, but also offers some options for cost-savings. You can put in dry, fish-store bought rock as base rock and then build live rock on top of that and the bacteria will colonize it all, and later, coraline algae and other stuff. You can mix a bit of live sand with ordinary argantie sand and save some money too. Buy the best skimmer you can afford for the aquarium, don't scrimp on it. I have now bought three CPK backpack II skimmers ($129 wth free shipping from
www.marinedepot.com ). You can probably do without additional filtration, but make sure you have A WHOLE LOT of water circulation (3 or 4 pumpheads that can move a sizeable amount of water).
The main expenses are lights, rock and skimmer, in that order probably (although the rock can be more expensive with air shipping etc).
I bought rock from
www.tbsaltwater.com and am generally satisfied, however it is very dense and you need about 2lbs/gal, whereas if you buy some of the best Fiji rock, you can get away with as little as 1lb/gal, which would save you a lot of money in terms of rock and shipping.
Finally, the best way to save money is to spend about $100 on books NOW. May I recommend the following?
Tullock, Natural Reef Aquarium
Fenner, Conscientious Marine Aquariast
These are each about $35. The best price I have seen for these and the following is at
www.marinedepot.com and you get free shipping for orders over $100
Delbeek and Sprung, The Reef Aquarium vols 1 and 2 (this is more advanced and specialized, has nothing about fish) $59/each at marine depot, $85 at Amazon.con + shipping
Wilkerson, Clownfish (if you are thinking of clownfish and/or anemones) This is a great fish book in general, too.
Good luck, and don't stop asking questions!
PS: $3K on my assistant professor's salary with a wife and two kids and a dog was a big chunk of cash that rationally I probably should have saved for lifetime season tickets to the monterey bay aquarium. This hobby is NOT cheap, be forwarned. Someone (Nathan?) had a how much did you spend thread posted a few months ago -- you should find it and read it.
[This message has been edited by flounder (edited 16 February 2000).]
