Tank cleaning $

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airborne82

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 2, 2009
75
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New York


I was thinking of posting an add on Craigslist for tank cleaning fresh water only. I want to know has anyone ever done this before or paid for the service if so what was your experience? What are some pricing Ideas? Should I charge more for traveling a certain distance? Should I supply my own supplies/meds? Shoud advertise tank setup? How about Stocking? I work at a pet store and could get a discount on fish and supplies. Give me some Ideas on prices markups and services I should offer?

I asked this question on yahoo answers and got one decent answer. This is not going to be a major sorce of income just looking to fund my addiction I have a new baby comming in july and money will be tighter than normal. I want to get an Arowana I have an oscar JD GT a silver doller and a pleco. Most of my fish are still small except my oscar I have them in a 75 what size tank do I need to save for to add an arowana to that.:nilly:
 
i'd start by looking for places like dr. office or such that have tanks but not necesarily ppl wanting to clean them. prly charge a time based rate or just one flat rate pending what you work out, but not travel distance based.
but you better make sure you know 100% what you're doing because if your taking care of the other people's pets and screw up you may end up losing money in the long run. (if they're paying for you to take care of it and the system crashes it's only resonable you replace what you screwed up)
as for mark-ups on products don't try to charge more than what the product can be bought for regularly at the store
and to finish up i'd say at least a 6ft long by 2ft wide tank for the arowana
 
Going back years ago I remember my Mom had a guy come in once a week or two to maintain her fish tank.

From what I can remember he used to bring all the stuff with him, but I have no idea how much he charged.

I think it sounds like a great idea. I have a full time job and am somewhat tempted to go work at an LFS once a week just for fun more than anything else.
 
forgot to add a buddy of mine does this for a dr. and negotiates pay each time depending what has to be done. usually around $25 per i believe
 
i recommend looking into the competition as well. see who else is offering the service in your area, what they charge, and what they guarantee if anything
 
Can't offer any advice on the tank cleaning service, but I'm thinking you'll need over a 200g tank to house a silver arowana for life. My guess would be you'd want at least a 6ft long tank, with 30" width at least. I'm not an experienced arowana keeper though.
 
I use to do this during and after college. Actually this can be quite lucrative depending on your location. Your location is NY do you mean NY city or state. The main draw for customers is if you have reef keeping experince. If you want to do that you'll need to get several water cooler bottles and an RO/DI system.

My old boss used to charge a few 100 bucks for a salt/reef water change then any added maintenance was separate. He also marked up fish and equipment. While not a millionaire the money was good and he got all his parts and fish at whole sale prices. Like $5 for cleaner shrimp.
 
I did this as a service for a pet shop years ago. The shop charged about 30 an hour for fresh 50 for salt. You do need to really know your stuff to do this job as fish dying will be direct result of your actions. You will also run into a ton of different filtration and lighting options, so you need to be familiar with them all. You are going into peoples houses so you need to look and act super professinal. Just some thoughts.
 
I have thought about doing it as a part time job.
 
I work at petco in Middletown NY we carry salt water fish. The guy I work with knows his fish I mean realy knows them especially salt water. I like salt and would like to keep one someday but I love fresh water monsters and that is what I am most comfortable with. When I approch with a fresh water system I approch with confidence when I see salt water I hesitate. The guy I work with is good so good that this store wich is a national corporation relies on him to cary the store. People walk in ask for Bob if he is not their they ask when he works next and walk out. I know I can learn alot from him it will just take time. Thanks very much to everyone on this site I have learned alot being here thanks for tolerating a newbe!
 
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