How do you save money in an expensive hobby?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I agree with Matt about the fish club, I just got a 125gal from one of our members for $75, 18 fish from Matt's and my box swap, for a share of shipping, and most new fish come from members.
I also unplug most heaters in summer, if the tanks have any heaters at all, and don't light tanks unless they are planted, (and then with DIY LEDs), almost all my filters are DIY and work much better than any store bought kind.
My most expensive energy usage is from pumps, it takes 4 (2000+gph each) pumps to run the indoor tanks, on 4 sumps.
And I also feed worms from the garden, mosquito larvae from rain barrels, in my vegetarian fish get dandelions and other weeds from the garden, and duck weed and algae from the pond.
I have about 1500 gallons in tanks in my fishroom, and a 1000+ gallon pond in the back yard.
 
heat whole room, on tanks that dont need canisters or AC110s, use straight up sponge filter with a big air pump. my well helps on my water bill. prime in liter or buy safe. if you must do lights, leds, I run 3 planted tanks so i do have T8s on those, bulk food if you can(unless spoiled on massavore fish. btw I think i got 1075 gallon running
 
Jealous of you guys with local fish clubs. There are zero fish clubs local to me the nearest is a reef club about an hour away and I have no interest in reefs. You people on MFK are the only people I talk to that understand my obsession.
 
Im always buying and selling things to pay for my hobby. I get on Craig's list a lot and if I see a good tank that just has calcium ill buy it cheap clean it up and resale it. Once a year Petco has a dollar a gallon sale and ill buy a few of there tanks hold on to them and resale for a profit.

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There are no shortage of people on Craigslist (or whatever the Norwegian equivalent) who would think nothing of selling someone a ticking time bomb of a tank.

There are fewer within the fish club. And they know that they'll hear about it if they screw someone over.

I also tend to build my own filters, etc. vs. buying them. Better and much cheaper (and fun too).

Matt

sasansaber said:
I'm a little worried about getting large tanks used, I like to have warranty and feel confident that it is going to last me a while.
Same goes with expensive equipment.
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dogofwar said:
There are no shortage of people on Craigslist (or whatever the Norwegian equivalent) who would think nothing of selling someone a ticking time bomb of a tank.

There are fewer within the fish club. And they know that they'll hear about it if they screw someone over.

I also tend to build my own filters, etc. vs. buying them. Better and much cheaper (and fun too).

Matt
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hahaha so true. Folks sell tanks left outside for a period of time, want primo money for.....holds water, just needs a little cleaning !!!
 
Pretty much I buy supplies online and wait for sales and make sure to get free shipping. It is amazing how much markup is on pet products. Even when it comes to fish I get in with friends doing group buys since most of what I like you cant even find in any of the LFS.
 
I hit up local clubs, and these days, there are LOTS of Facebook fish clubs. Funny that every cichlid group I see on Facebook ends up splitting, and then later splitting again, so now I have something like 6 groups for cichlidkeepers, just in the PHX Metro area. Guess some people take after their fish too much, never can get along.
 
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