How much money am I in for ? 180 Gallon

[chrisfont23]

Depending on where you live, you might want to up the $$$ for live rock. I paid $7.99 a lb today and was told that was cheap. I am in NY. Long Island, to be exact. So yes, everything is double or even triple...hell, a damn Yankee ticket is near impossible to buy.

[Original Fin]

Depending on where you live, you might want to up the $$$ for live rock. I paid $7.99 a lb today and was told that was cheap. I am in NY. Long Island, to be exact. So yes, everything is double or even triple...hell, a damn Yankee ticket is near impossible to buy.

It can run the gamut here in the north central valley. Pet extreme in my town sells live cured rock for 7-8$/lb. Some of the mom and pop pet shops will go down as low as $5 for the same quality. There's too much extra stuff in that rock for my liking though.
We don't really have any reef shops in this area, but the Bay area has quite a few. One of them I checked out for the first time today in Milpitas (Neptune Aquatics) sells Marco dry key largo for $2.85/lb. Sure you have to cure it for a while, and it's not all nice and purple, but that will come with a little time too. Besides, I'm going to cover it all up with corals anyway. That's the way to go as far as I'm concerned. I'm done with hitchikers.
But the best deals around here are on craigslist. I snagged 100 lbs for $100 not too long ago, and I've seen similar deals come and go since then.
Also, I don't know how other reef clubs are, but the one I belong to is a great resource for buying and selling. We've got someone selling a grip of live/cured rock for $2.50 right now, but the catch is you have to be a member for that deal.

[Reefing Madness]

Depending on where you live, you might want to up the $$$ for live rock. I paid $7.99 a lb today and was told that was cheap. I am in NY. Long Island, to be exact. So yes, everything is double or even triple...hell, a damn Yankee ticket is near impossible to buy.

WOW. You could have gotten it cheaper online shipped to your home.

[chrisfont23]

But the best deals around here are on craigslist. I snagged 100 lbs for $100 not too long ago, and I've seen similar deals come and go since then.

That is my plan for the 90...which may become a 120. I am still in the researching stage (which is also the wife-convincing stage). I refuse to layout over a grand for rock. No way.

[FoMoCo Master Tech]

That is my plan for the 90...which may become a 120. I am still in the researching stage (which is also the wife-convincing stage). I refuse to layout over a grand for rock. No way.

I vote for the 120 or even bigger. 90's are nice but the footprint is the same as the 75 so the benifit is added height. If I could get away with it, a longer or wider tank than the 90 would be the bee's knees. I went with the RR 75 over the RR 90 (AGA brand) because of the price difference. I didn't think the extra height was really worth a $100-$150 more. I got the 75 for $325 and I think the 90 was $450. Now a 4x2x2, 5x2x2, or 6x2x2 tank would do nice!

[FoMoCo Master Tech]

BTW, I got my LR online in 50lb lot boxes for $95 or $99 each, with free shipping. I ordered 2 boxes and got about 115lbs total. That's around $2.30 a lb. If I could do it all over, I would use base rock or some of the dry rock from BRS. No hitchhikers, no worries. Plus, I would/ could have cut, stack, glue and tie the rock together before getting it wet. It was too scary for me to do with legit LR. I've seen guys draw out the tank's footprint ( including overflow boxes) on cardboard and build/ glue their rockwork before setting it in the tank. The best part was that all the bottom rocks were cut flat so that it could stand on it's own. No worries about tipping over. Now I'm just rambling...

[acanlover]

I didn't read anything at all but I can tell you that everything will be about 10k

[Reefing Madness]

I didn't read anything at all but I can tell you that everything will be about 10k

WOW!! I have a 240g and didn't spend half that on my stuff. Wholly crap.
$300 DIY Lighting 2- 175w MH
$150 CC
$220 CLSS 220 Skimmer
$65 2-3200gph PowerHeads
$70 Heaters
$200 Live Rock
$320 Lace Rock
$300 240g Tank
$170 DIY Tank Stand
$2 Digital Thermometer
$120 Salt
$120 RO/DI
9 fish @ roughly $50 apeice

[Loreanny Medina]

We have a 46 gallon bow front tank. We paid 200 for the tank with the stand. Since then we have spent about 1200 more to get the system up and running. We did everything ourselves and almost everything is used with the exception of our mag5 pump and power heads. We drilled the tank ourselves, built a sump out of a 15 gallon used tank ourselves. Ran all piping etc.
This was a quick estimate as well. The tank still has the basic single T8 bulb light that came with it. We still need to upgrade the lighting. We did not account for any additives, test kits, any type of livestock other than live rock, or even salt in the 1400. We also spent months searching for most of these used pieces to get the best deal.

[twisted]

I'm about 6k in on my 180 and still have room to spend some more.... It's never ending. Buy mostly dry rock and join a reef club. There is always someone selling decent used stuff.

[reefermandan]

150 XH and I am into it $8k+ and still going.