Reducing prices and rainwater

[Joshua Morgan]

Decided to just combine these two questions into one post for convienience…anyhow, I will start with pricing.
Currently, setting up even a 5 gallon licorice gourami tank would require the following expenditures:
50 gms artemia (brine shrimp) cysts – U.S $12.50 (all figures are in U.S dollars)
Desk lamp to heat and brighten artemia container – $ 5 or less
Lid: $23
Heaters: $14.56
Power strip: $7.35
Container for acidic water: ? ($10 maybe?)
The gouramis: $44 (for four P. linkei from wetspot)

Anyhow, does anyone have any ideas hoe I can reduce these prices? At current moment starting a licorice gourami setup looks as if it will cost well over a hundred U.S dollars and I’d like to see if I can reduce this by even a little bit.

Now for my second question…can rainwater be used for licorice gouramis?

[helene schoubye]

😉 Well, a few questions then :

Why do you think you need a desk lamp, a lid (for what ?) – heaters ? and whats a power strip ?

Brine shrimps you need, + salt to use in the hatching water, – but you dont need light for it, and they dont need heating either – I never use light, they hatch anyway. The bottle stands in my bathroom in what the Australians calls an Esky :), thats a kind of thermo bag. So theres a lid on it and it doesnt get any light.
Heater ? … If for the paroes its not nessesary, room temperature is normally just fine, unless you have permanently under 20 degrees.
A container for the water … couldnt you find something cheaper, – any clean plastic container could do really.

Is the power stip for ligtening – then you probably need that. But the lid sounds expensive, and I wonder what its for 🙂

Rainwater can be used for licorice gouramies, its actually quite fine.

[Joshua Morgan]

The lid is intended to prevent escapees via jumping, but if jumping is not a concern I could just replace that with a light. The heaters are needed because I live in Maine, and my room’s temperature often drops enough to put water temps at 15 c or less during the winter. That is also why I need the desklamp, to prevent the brine shrimp from not hatching.
By the way, a power strip is a device which turns one outlet into six. I don’t have enough plugs otherwise.

[helene schoubye]

Given those conditions, – well its hard to see where you could lower the expences then, – if it gets so cold, then you need the heaters etc.
The lid of course is good to have, I would say nessesary, however in my tanks its just a piece pf glass, – not so expensive.
But no matter, – it is sometimes nessesary to make the priority to spend the money, and be happy with the fish and equipment you have, – best to do it as good as you can, – that will probably make you most content in the long run.

[Jennifer Kronenberg]

[quote=”AlmightyJoshaeus” post=2492]Decided to just combine these two questions into one post for convienience…anyhow, I will start with pricing.
Currently, setting up even a 5 gallon licorice gourami tank would require the following expenditures:
50 gms artemia (brine shrimp) cysts – U.S $12.50 (all figures are in U.S dollars)
Desk lamp to heat and brighten artemia container – $ 5 or less
Lid: $23
Heaters: $14.56
Power strip: $7.35
Container for acidic water: ? ($10 maybe?)
The gouramis: $44 (for four P. linkei from wetspot)

Anyhow, does anyone have any ideas hoe I can reduce these prices? At current moment starting a licorice gourami setup looks as if it will cost well over a hundred U.S dollars and I’d like to see if I can reduce this by even a little bit.

Now for my second question…can rainwater be used for licorice gouramis?[/quote]

There are always different ways to do things more cheaply, the results just may not be as attractive. 😉
A semi-translucent plastic bin in a 5 gallon size can be had for around $5. It won’t be clear like aquarium glass, but it would be cheap. You can buy a small piece of screen mesh intended for the repair of window screens and cut it to fit the lid. There are larger spaced hardware mesh as well that would suit the purpose so long as your light wasn’t sitting directly on it. If you wanted to stick with glass aquariums, then the 10 gallon tank is almost always the cheapest along with the accessories for it which is why I have mostly ten gallon tanks. I believe the glass lid for the ten gallon tank is also cheaper than what you expected to pay. You can also check out stores like Lowe’s or Home Depot. They probably sell small thin pieces of glass for less than what you were expecting to pay for a lid.
I use 5 gallon buckets for my water, about $3 each.

I like to find cheaper ways to do things, but, some costs are unavoidable with any new aquarium setup. I ended up spending $170 on a RO/DI unit because rain is unpredictable some times of the year and I didn’t want to be stuck not able to do a needed water change. Most of my lids I either made or found for cheap or free. Check places like craigslist and you may find a whole setup for cheaper than putting one together yourself.

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