the buildup continues

Well I know a few of you are going to slam me for this, please keep in mind that this is my first saltwater tank and the initial setup is really straining the pocketbook. I know quality costs more, and as I get more into this I'll likely continue to upgrade equipment, but right now I'm looking for something that works at a cost that will allow me to someday get to the point of having creatures in the tank.

I posted on here a week or two ago regarding advice on lights, looks like ideally I would like to buy T5s but the cheapest I could find them was around $250 plus shipping. My tank is a 55 gallon, so if I can get the right spectrums I don't necessarily need great penetration (tank isn't very deep).

So today I was looking on ebay and found someone selling 2007 Odyssea 260W PC units and decided for the price they were selling at I couldn't really go wrong, when I can afford to upgrade I should be able to get most or all of my money back for what this cost me. Yes I checked aquatraders and my price with shipping was still quite a bit lower than I could have bought from them for.

Anyhow hope I didn't screw up too bad, but I'm still looking at a couple hundred dollars for live rock, not sure how much for sand, then the cost of actually stocking the tank, but at least now I have the heater (may decide to replace that), remora skimmer, and light system so it's starting to come together.

Anyhow thanks for providing this forum so I can see everyone's opinions on stuff, even if they are different (actually that's a good thing) and I'll continue to ask questions and eventually get photos up as this comes together.

 

you must mean the 760 watt version i may get one later on, as my power compacts aren't enough for some nice corals.

 

760? Forgive me for being a newbie, I see the wink but not sure if I screwed up worse than I thought I may have. This is 4 - 65 w bulbs (2 reg. and 2 actinic) plus lunars. I realize I won't be able to have any of the real sensitive stuff but for starters I think I need to stick to more "beginner" species anyhow. I'm a biologist so I understand how things work and interact, but I also realize I'm going to learn a LOT as time goes on here. Assuming all goes well I'll be putting nicer lighting on larger tanks in the future.

 

ah, a little searching and I see you may have been referring to the MH/PC combo that runs 760 W? No MH for me, not yet anyhow, back to that whole budget issue. I could go back to eating Ramen noodles, but I had enough of them in college when most of the money went to beer and girls (the rest I wasted).

 

Hey matt, nothing wrong with the odyssea lights, I bought the 692watt MH version a year and half ago and everythings working good, so far(luna's knocking on wood right now;D ) I will admit they are not the best, but like the old saying says, " you get what you pay for ". If I were to buy the same system under a well known brand, it would have cost me at least $1000.00 and instead I paid $329.00( shipping included ) I sorry, but Im not rich, I dont have thousands of dollars under my bed waiting to buy a $1000.00 lighting system. Yes, I had to replace the cooling fans already, but Im ok with that. It was no big deal, Im a handy kind of guy. If your a handy man, so to speak, these light are perfect. The guy who I bought the system from has a 48" mh system for $379.00 shipping included. I believe its 2-250 watt mh and 4-65 watt actinics 760 watts in total. ebay member hombby. I hope this has helped, Luna

 

Thanks Luna, I agree that I'd like to have something better but with all the costs of initial setup I have to find places to save a little, just hoping I didn't ruin the tank by doing so here. For the new setup, lights, stand, and shipping I paid $120 so even if I did get junk I'll at least have some lights to start the setup with and then upgrade when things start to develop and I buy some livestock.