Hi,I am new here......

[M.Neuer]

Hi,I am new here...I have been keeping freshwater fishes for 5 years before I got married and moved out of my parent's place.During this time,I scrapped my 2 feet fish tank and moved out to stay with my in laws.But my new house is coming end 2013 and I am planning to set up a new fish tank in my own home.

Anyone have any estimate of the cost of a 4 feet fish tank plus a cabinet?I am going to use Eheim fillters because I like their durability and it is German made as well.I am just going to keep a big school of 50 tetras plus some livebearers like platies and lyretail mollies with live plants.Planning to seal off half feet of the tank with a big piece of hard plastic sheet with small holes because I am interested in breeding livebearers and the half feet of space is for the livebearer fry to serve as a refuge cos they would sure be eaten up if they remain in the community tank.The presence of plants is not a guarantee that they will escape predation by other fishes.

So I need the rough estimates of

-a 4 feet tank plus cabinet
-a Eheim filter capable of powering up a 4 feet tank
-Cost of a chiller

[VSGenesis]

Hi there,

4ft with Cabinet
New or Used? 4-2-2? From my personal observation, they are sold between $350 to thousand of dollars. It depends on quite a few things. Like the make of the tank and the type of cabinet. I recommend that you search online. For example fishybusiness and freshnmarine. There are other companies that specialise in making tank and cabinet. I really can't recall the name. Then you can go down to a few lfs to look. Mainland always have tanks and cabinet. You can check them out as well.

Eheim Filters
You'll need a good one. It's a good idea to get it now. I saw from a friend that they have slash prices down quite a bit. Eheim Pro 3 600 selling at about $300. Have to find out the volume of water first. For Pro 3, either the 600 or the 1200xl. If not, you can go back to Classics.

Chiller
Maybe Hailea HC-300A? If not, HC-500A. Not an expert on chiller. Bigger the better? Haha. You can google this online and head down to a few LFS to find your estimates. JBJ Artica? Hailea?

Conclusion: Sorry can't help you much on cost. This is something one must shed some sweat by 1) researching what kind of model that is ideal 2) go online stores to use as reference or buy straight online 3) head down to a few popular lfs to find out and decide. We can probably help you with what model you should go for and I can propbably point you to the right direction. Other than that, you got to join us in a bit of sweating and adventure to lfs.

Have fun.