# With a $10,000 US budget...



## gaqua (Apr 11, 2008)

What would you do with $10,000 US Budget for a tank/fish setup only?

No realistic answers like "Pay off my car" or "Pay down my student loan" or "light it on fire to protest the capitalist materialistic symbols of oppression!"

Just fish stuff.

Me, I'd set up a large show tank, probably 6x4x4 or so, plexi in the wall, with decent lighting and a huge rock wall up the back. I'd plumb it and put in a huge near maintenance-free filter, and stock it with Mbuna, Peacocks, and Haps, maybe dump in a few Syno. Multipunctatus if the fry get out of control.

If I had any left over after that, I'd set up a few 180G tanks on each side of the room in the walls, one would be a Tropheus colony & some shellies and the other would be kind of an experimenting tank, either Saltwater or something else that I was hankering to try out.


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## bluepitbullz (May 14, 2007)

I would get a huge cylinder tank that reached to the ceiling... Stack it full of holey limestone and throw whatever malawi cichlid in there i could get my hands on... pureblood specimens of course...


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## mynameisrica (Apr 10, 2009)

i personally would build a concrete tank with two huge windows id build it into the floor of my house and make the windows into my foundation. id stock it with frontosa and some irridecent sharks maybe they seem to get along with my mbuna


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## jschall (Apr 2, 2009)

gaqua said:


> What would you do with $10,000 US Budget for a tank/fish setup only?
> 
> No realistic answers like "Pay off my car" or "Pay down my student loan" or "light it on fire to protest the capitalist materialistic symbols of oppression!"
> 
> ...


I'd put it towards a pool.
A saltwater pool.
With sharks.
Sharks with freakin lasers on their heads.


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## F8LBITEva (Nov 9, 2007)

LOL


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## Jab240 (Jun 24, 2007)

> I'd put it towards a pool.
> A saltwater pool.
> With sharks.
> Sharks with freakin lasers on their heads.


Muahahahaha Muahahaha
Geez, Austin powers quotes fit in anywhere! Almost fell off my chair. =D>

Yay Babeeee!


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

I'd buy 60 75s and 6 180s, and with the money left over, air pump, lights, and filters.


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

huge plexi 10x10x10 and put in alligator gars


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## JWerner2 (Jul 7, 2008)

mynameisrica said:


> i personally would build a concrete tank with two huge windows id build it into the floor of my house and make the windows into my foundation. id stock it with frontosa and some irridecent sharks maybe they seem to get along with my mbuna


I have always thought about something similar. Dig a pond next to my house and put in a huge window in one of my basement walls the width and height of the pond to see whats going on under the surface :thumb: .


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## under_control (Jan 9, 2008)

JWerner2 said:


> mynameisrica said:
> 
> 
> > i personally would build a concrete tank with two huge windows id build it into the floor of my house and make the windows into my foundation. id stock it with frontosa and some irridecent sharks maybe they seem to get along with my mbuna
> ...


Either you have a tiny basement or grossly underestimate the power of 10,000 bucks....

I would expand my firemouth breeding program to a consolidated fish room.


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## exasperatus2002 (Jul 5, 2003)

I had read once years ago of someone down south who convertered his inground pool into a fish tank of sorts. He'd go snorkeling with his fish. Think of it, a chunk of lake malawi in your back yard. You'd be able to keep mbuna and peacocks & Haps together peacefully. A shoal of Synodontis multipunctatus cats swimming around and venustrus or compressceps to keep the population in check. Even cooler would be if it were a Tang tank you could see C.furcifer with full sized nesting bowers and schools of Cyps.[/list]


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## LadyBarbara001 (Sep 8, 2008)

Big tanks. As many as I could get fully set up. And stock would be Malagasy cichlids. I'd also try for a few 55's and 75's for colonies of Victorian cichlids.


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## JWerner2 (Jul 7, 2008)

under_control said:


> JWerner2 said:
> 
> 
> > mynameisrica said:
> ...


How so?


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## under_control (Jan 9, 2008)

JWerner2 said:


> under_control said:
> 
> 
> > JWerner2 said:
> ...


Because 10k would not cover the cost of an in ground fish tank and the excavation and conversion of your wall.

The MFK article about the basement fish tank ended up costing nearly 100k. ANything close to that or even 1/3 scale would cost well over 20k.


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## JWerner2 (Jul 7, 2008)

I can see the wall being a big PITA but its not that much to build your own pond.

You could do the pond on your own. I dont know how much the wall would cost. You cant do that on your own unless your a contractor or something.

An in ground indoor pool turned into a reef would rock but thats going to go way past the 10k mark :lol:


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## BrownBullhead (May 15, 2005)

So wouldn't that be "overestimating" the power of $10,000? As in the original poster overestimating what he could accomplish with $10,000?

The original poster would be "underestimating" the price to complete the job in full, using the $100,000 price to completion of the latter poster.


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## under_control (Jan 9, 2008)

BrownBullhead said:


> So wouldn't that be "overestimating" the power of $10,000? As in the original poster overestimating what he could accomplish with $10,000?
> 
> The original poster would be "underestimating" the price to complete the job in full, using the $100,000 price to completion of the latter poster.


Yes, that is correct. I thought I had said that in my original post and honestly haven't re-read it once...


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## dittobaker (Sep 15, 2008)

I'd use it to help finance my own fish shop. Would love to be able to own one.


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## cindylou (Oct 22, 2008)

I would buy a great big tank and have it set up professionally and then sit back and enjoy... :dancing: :lol:


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## under_control (Jan 9, 2008)

cindylou said:


> I would buy a great big tank and have it set up professionally and then sit back and enjoy... :dancing: :lol:


NONSENSE! Researching and setting up a tank is half of the fun... Why do you think I keep doing it...

Researching, DIY'ing and setting up is the part that gets me excited. That is why I redo tanks all the time...


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## heylady (Oct 14, 2004)

I would build the biggest tank that $10,000 could buy (concrete or plywood with viewing windows)and put all my fish in it. Have it decorated with rocks and driftwood...it'd be awesome. I would also want to have at least halfway around the edge a shallow water part so my dithers would have a safe place away from the bigger fish. Have live plants in the shallower part, maybe block this off with tangles of driftwood too, to keep the big fish from digging up the plants and getting to the danios and barbs....
But I'd have the front viewing windows made of glass not acrylic. I am NOT dealing with scratches!! :wink:


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## RyanR (Apr 29, 2008)

Well, it's a given that a certain percentage needs to go to bribing the wife... :lol:

The remainder would go towards a few really sweet, big but not huge, tanks.... with all the bells and whistles. I'm thinking a few 8'x3'x3'.... CA, SA, and Tanganyikan.

-Ryan


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## exasperatus2002 (Jul 5, 2003)

Id set up 2 tang tanks and 2 peocock/hap tanks.


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## Afishionado (Jun 6, 2006)

At the point I'm at I think that $10K would really help me do a pond I've been thinking about. Not a through the wall thing, just a decent size, well filtered backyard fish pond. Even at that I know I would have to do a lot of the work myself to accomplish it for $10K. People do tend to underestimate the total cost of those kinds of fishkeeping projects...


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## Norse76 (Jul 20, 2008)

I would buy a 2,000 Gallon tank, and load it to the max with monster cichlids. And have the best filtration system money can buy.

The rest of the money would be spent on feeding them. :lol:


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## padlock 08 (Jul 31, 2008)

ok i dont use dollars and probably have absolutly no idea of how far money will go but id love to have a huge in wall tank that is in all the four walls of the room so no matter which way you look it would be the same tank, it'd be amazon with everything from cory cats and exotic plecs on the floor to hatchetfish on top with all amazon cichlids and dithers in between including plants from amazonia. i would have no room for a door so i would have a stairs going up to the room through the floor with a trap door so there are no obstructions like banisters in the way  i know! very unrealsitic and id deffinatly need a few more zero's on the original 10k :lol: but tat would be my dream anyway :drooling: :dancing: :fish: now all i need is to win the lotto :thumb:


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## josmoloco (Aug 23, 2008)

!1 option for myself would be-----
Buy used drysuit and scuba gear---- $2500(Catch wils fish in the puget sound)
Get a Clear For Life Deluxe Rectangular Aquarium---- $4500
5 pails of Oceanic Natural Sea Salt Mix for 200 gallons ---- $350
Tradewind 1 HP 220v Inline Commercial Chiller---- 1500
home build iron stand ---- free
Precision Marine Bullet 3 Protein Skimmer 400 Gallon ---$500
2 Little Giant 4-MDQX-SC pump---- $375

And yes, Im about out of money.........


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