Keeping Discus with ever increasing costs

[susantroy1]

Hey Gang,

I have been pondering this delema as I heard on the local radio stations that my electrical service will increase by 25% this year. Just another increase to the ever growing list of expenses that we all face in our day to day lives. I realize that I'm not going to get allot of symphony from our Europian friends, however.... I'm not paying the outragious taxes as you are either(yet). But... the folks that live in Europe would have the cost cutting technics down to a science. Other than simply downsizing, anyone out there have workarounds as to cutting operating expenses in the hobby? My thoughts might lean to doing without my planted tank as this really drives my $$ output. C02/ferts/250watts blah blah blah. I might just go BB for my 140 display. Boy.. though I'll sure miss the natural beauty of a planted well maintained tank. anybody else thinking about going leaner in operating costs?

All The Best

Troy

[dpt8]

Troy, Talk with Al. He has the most beautiful 125 gl. tank with white sand and driftwood... Oh yeah, and TWO DOZEN heckels !!!! Most beautiful sight and that is the natural environment of these fish actually. Maybe a couple floating plants but not needed...

[doc3toes]

i am thinking of wiring a battery bank and adding solar cells in order to run the pumps, air pumps, lights and maybe the heaters. I insulate all my tanks with R20 foam. and collecting rain water.

[thekeem]

i am thinking of wiring a battery bank and adding solar cells in order to run the pumps, air pumps, lights and maybe the heaters. I insulate all my tanks with R20 foam. and collecting rain water.

Karma-improved tank, nice! that's actually not such a bad idea. I'd do it if the weather wasn't so crummy most of the year here.

I can see where you'd come from with costs but you don't have to be spending that much to have a beautiful planted tank. Actually, my small one (40) cost zero dollars to set up. Got the sand, rocks and driftwood all from the great outdoors and even some terrestrial plants for the pieces of driftwood sticking out of the water. I took tiny snippings of aquarium plants from friends or from my big show tank and they grew in in no time!

Of course, its not technically zero dollar if I already had the plants of which I would produce snippings, but basically some Jungle Vals (HUGE, 1.50 a bunch online) and a bunch of ferns, rutola indica (sp?) and Hygro all which i had got on eBay actually (in quite large amounts) for just under 16 dollars from Malaysia, pretty nice stuff.

The 40 itself only cost me 20 dollars on craigslist even though its in show condition (moving sale), and all the plants grow almost entirely on natural light (and how), although recently to show off at night i bought a trio of halogen spots and some wood and built a shelf on top of it (~23 bucks)

So anyway, depending on where you live, local internet resources can prove invaluable - look around ideally, and check kijiji, craigslist and PriceNetwork.

I wouldn't mind the experience of a BB tank somewhere down the line but right now I love aquascaping too much!

[Alfred]

i am thinking of wiring a battery bank and adding solar cells in order to run the pumps, air pumps, lights and maybe the heaters. I insulate all my tanks with R20 foam. and collecting rain water.

I would hope you post your procedures / step by step on how you do this along with sources and cost.
Sounds like a great idea! :)