# just pissed about prices



## Homer (Sep 6, 2010)

it just pisses me off that things cost so much and they are really cheap to produce. a simple hood with light for a 40 gallon tank can cost you 50-$100 when it is mostly plastic and in raw materials probably only costs $10 max without a lightbulb. a filter is just beyond ridiculous. its made out of 90% plastic with a tiny motor and it is unbelievable how much they cost. These people make so much money.


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## chronoboy (Jan 17, 2011)

Amen.... I had a hood go out on my 55g so i thought i would replace it, and it was 35$ for just one, so then I thought i just buy a 48" hood since i want more watts per gallon and it was 68$ and both those where your basic plastic hoods, so now i have been doing some homework and am going to make a light out of a shop light and make a new wood housing for it.


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## Homer (Sep 6, 2010)

chronoboy said:


> Amen.... I had a hood go out on my 55g so i thought i would replace it, and it was 35$ for just one, so then I thought i just buy a 48" hood since i want more watts per gallon and it was 68$ and both those where your basic plastic hoods, so now i have been doing some homework and am going to make a light out of a shop light and make a new wood housing for it.


post pictures of it as you go. I want to do something similar when i graduate. I had to improvise on a stand for my 38 gallon. I used a piece of my sisters old desk it was fit together using those little wood pegs. Needless to say i reinforced it and has been holding up for 7 months.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I don't mind paying a bit for something that works. What gets me is $50 hoods for 20 gallon tanks that have 2 little plastic tits for a hinge that break off within the first week. Lights that don't make it 6 months, heaters that cook fish. Stop selling sh*t. Make something that lasts for 20 years and price it accordingly. I give kudos to marineland for having decent warranties, but they have stopped making heaters because they can't keep them from failing. Why can't anyone make decent ones? I thought our tech was better now. The heaters of 20 years ago worked well. Can anyone get the specs for the Supreme and recreate them?


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## blindkiller85 (Jan 8, 2011)

Making stands is pretty easy. 2x4's, proper measuring and cutting, then fitting finish wood on the exterior in any manner. Finish wood applied by either staples, brads, glue, whatever.

The basic principle is making it all even and level which is the hard part. After that applying plywood to the top with a support system underneath and hiding it all with finish wood. Basic way to do it is 4 legs of 2x4, 2x2 or 2x4 on top going around the 4 legs, ply on top of that, finish wood to hide everything. 

Tool requirements - A good 18v drill, table saw, sander, hammer, level appropriate screws/nails/staples etc.


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## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

I found one of stands in the alley.  Solid wood cabinet, about 3 1/2 feet tall. Just needed some paint...


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## Revolution1221 (Apr 20, 2010)

Its almost more cost affective to buy a brand new 55 gallon with a top I've had a few customers do that. At petsmart they have a nice marineland 60 gallon with glass top lights and a very nice quality stand you save over 100 bucks by not buying everything seperately.


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

DIY lol 

Hoods, filters, substrate, fertilizers, tanks, stands. 

Heaters are the only annoying thing to me. I avoid submersibles unless I need to have them. The really cheap glass clip on ones have never failed me. I've accidentally suck mine underwater, but unlike the submersibles these can be taken apart and fixed. 

I can make the cheapest hood and/or filter and I can make high quality hoods too. Depends what one wants. Lights I work most with. All my striplights have been modified or have random parts/holes in them. 

I built and currently use the following amongst other things: 

High powered 4ft hood w/ moonlights









Old retrofitted striplight. 2ft. 28 watts w/ moonlights


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

I'm fine paying specialty companies money so long as the product works and works for a long time. ASM... 

I guess that's my fault though! 

Never mind...


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## Homer (Sep 6, 2010)

emc7 said:


> I don't mind paying a bit for something that works. What gets me is $50 hoods for 20 gallon tanks that have 2 little plastic tits for a hinge that break off within the first week. Lights that don't make it 6 months, heaters that cook fish. Stop selling sh*t. Make something that lasts for 20 years and price it accordingly. I give kudos to marineland for having decent warranties, but they have stopped making heaters because they can't keep them from failing. Why can't anyone make decent ones? I thought our tech was better now. The heaters of 20 years ago worked well. Can anyone get the specs for the Supreme and recreate them?


i still use my grandfathers heaters from 30-40 years ago


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

funlad3 said:


> I'm fine paying specialty companies money so long as the product works and works for a long time. ASM...
> 
> I guess that's my fault though!
> 
> Never mind...


Thats hard to find though. Very hard. What also annoys me is vast majority of our "specialty aquarium products" don't give much for replacement parts. Example would be that silly transformer on T8 striplights(not the starter). Same with a lot of the higher end fixtures. The ballasts are often custom made because this hobby feels the NEED to have these ridiculously thin fixtures with HO T5's crammed into a metal case only 4" tall. Then they give them really bad ventilation so the bulbs and ballast have a shorter life. Then charge you twice what the ballast should cost. 

Light bulbs prices are ridiculous too. Along with the fact you don't need any specialty bulbs for aquariums. Just because it says "aquarium" or some combo of "plant" and "grow" does not have any relations to the fact that it does either any better then a regular bulbs... Those words alone add at least $10 to the price. 

Probably the saddest thing I have learned in this hobby is simply don't buy stuff from LFS. I can't do it. Not as a college student. I normally get my fish from other sources as well. I make 4-6 visits a year to turn in fish for credit and buy essentials like frozen food from the LFS. Otherwise its online or local breeders/auction/craigslist. I run about 90 gallons total ATM. I try my best every year to get my tanks to pay me back for basic upkeep costs of: CO2, food, ferts, and a few other things. Usually there is one surprise cost every year like a heater failing or needing new bulbs.

I do feel it is true you can setup a budget tank that still looks amazing in this hobby. However it does require experience, but more importantly knowledge, a little IDK, and some extra time.


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## Trout (Mar 16, 2011)

Bleh. Speaking of heaters, my Petco doesn't stock submersible heaters with adjustable thermostats! I'm like, "What if I WANT my aquarium to be a higher or Lower temperature?" Such as with fish that do better in 80F+ temperatures. You can't use one of those heaters that are automatically set to 76-78 degrees. I was very disappointed. but my current submersible is doing right by me, because my fish like the "Normal" range. And the temp has been pretty steady during all the time I've had it.


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

"The ballasts are often custom made because this hobby feels the NEED to have these ridiculously thin fixtures with HO T5's crammed into a metal case only 4" tall. Then they give them really bad ventilation so the bulbs and ballast have a shorter life. Then charge you twice what the ballast should cost."

EXACTLY!!! I paid $65 on a stupid PC ballast on a fixture I'll probably replace in a year! WHY??? Oh wait, because people like me still buy them...


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

funlad3 said:


> "The ballasts are often custom made because this hobby feels the NEED to have these ridiculously thin fixtures with HO T5's crammed into a metal case only 4" tall. Then they give them really bad ventilation so the bulbs and ballast have a shorter life. Then charge you twice what the ballast should cost."
> 
> EXACTLY!!! I paid $65 on a stupid PC ballast on a fixture I'll probably replace in a year! WHY??? Oh wait, because people like me still buy them...


Those are the same lights I use lol. All 55 watt bulbs. 2 fixtures with 3 bulbs total. PC may no be as efficient as T5's but the bulbs can be cheaper. IMO when your fixture fails buy the economy version of the ballast. You can retrofit the light to a larger hood or you can mount and wire the ballast to the outside of the current hood. It wouldn't look as pretty but it is cheaper. 

Square pin fixtures/bulbs are a laugh too. They are not very common and therefor the bulbs cost $5 extra. People seem to think they are stuck with using these when it costs $1 to fix the fixture so its not limited to a specific socket. My preferred bulbs are GE Aquarays(9325K) they only come as 55watt PC's or as T8s though.

"moonlights" are the same way. NEVER buy a fixture with built in moonlights. These things cost $20 to retrofit into any 4ft hood. A 2ft hood can be done from $10-$5 depending on skill. The built in ones don't light up anything. My one manufactured PC fixture has a huge AC/DC converter(second plug) that runs to one single 5mm LED, which is a complete waste because one 5mm LED provides pretty much no illumination. 

@chronoboy- Home Depot sells 2 and 3ft NO T5 ceiling fixtures now. Both double and single tube for I think $40 max. They could easily be taken out of their metal case and retrofitted to a wooden hood. Wood though for my 4ft hood ran about $20 in the end. Make sure you use reflectors or you loose a LOT of light. For reflectors it costs $5 for a 6"x 10foot roll of aluminum sheet metal. The width of this stuff is perfect. Its in my 2ft hood above^. Just cut to lenght and put some creases in it and you can get a really clean looking reflector.


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## grogan (Jan 23, 2011)

I bought my moonlights on bay for $14 including shipping to Anchorage. They are 2x 4bulb 4" tubes. I glued them to the top of my t5 light fixture then bought a $4 timer from Home Depot. They work great and were cheap


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

grogan said:


> I bought my moonlights on bay for $14 including shipping to Anchorage. They are 2x 4bulb 4" tubes. I glued them to the top of my t5 light fixture then bought a $4 timer from Home Depot. They work great and were cheap


Sound like cold cathodes? I usually buy the 12" dual cold cathodes. When I do I buy the ones meant for computer cases. I have some on the big fixture above^. I have to attach a ac/dc converter to those, which it sounds like yours came with that already done. I got a really good deal off ebay a universal ac/dc converter so I can change the intensity of those tubes for only a few dollars(really really cheap). It came from china though and looks nothing like the ones we have over here, its only 1/3 the size. It has been working for years though and hasn't started on fire yet so thats a plus. Can't find anymore of the things for sale though. 

LED's if one is willing to learn how to wire them can be really cheap, but are best on shallow tanks. The LEDs above run off a $2 phone charger which you can usually fine laying around. 5mm component LED's cost a few cents for cheap ones. I had some super bright ones laying round from a different project and those cost about 50 cents. All one needs is some small gauge wire and resistors. The only complicated thing with LED's is the wiring, because they are so versatile. Once one figures out the basics there are sites online that calculate the rest for you. If you want to do it the easier way you can buy a premade strand for a bit more. Its not as fun though


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## Hansolo (Sep 10, 2010)

blindkiller85 said:


> Making stands is pretty easy. 2x4's, proper measuring and cutting, then fitting finish wood on the exterior in any manner. Finish wood applied by either staples, brads, glue, whatever.
> 
> The basic principle is making it all even and level which is the hard part. After that applying plywood to the top with a support system underneath and hiding it all with finish wood. Basic way to do it is 4 legs of 2x4, 2x2 or 2x4 on top going around the 4 legs, ply on top of that, finish wood to hide everything.
> 
> Tool requirements - A good 18v drill, table saw, sander, hammer, level appropriate screws/nails/staples etc.


I'm a carpenter of 12 years. Not to be a smart ass but square is going to be a little more important than "level". If all is built square with proper measuring like you said, when finished it will be as "level" as your floor. I just noticed you didn't have a square on your tool list and thought it should be added. I'm with you though, all of my aquariums ate on stands I made from 2x4s and cabnitry grade plywood. Plus I love building custom ones to house my canister filters and other various aquarium supplies.


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

Hansolo said:


> I'm a carpenter of 12 years. Not to be a smart ass but square is going to be a little more important than "level". If all is built square with proper measuring like you said, when finished it will be as "level" as your floor. I just noticed you didn't have a square on your tool list and thought it should be added. I'm with you though, all of my aquariums ate on stands I made from 2x4s and cabnitry grade plywood. Plus I love building custom ones to house my canister filters and other various aquarium supplies.


I loled cuz I forgot about that when I put shelves in a factory made stand. I did remember after the fact... meh they are level enough. Said stand for my 20 gallon isn't even made of 2x4's is some sort of press board and that is all there is lol. My 55 has a much older factory made stand and that has seven 1.5" square supports.


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