Costs

Here are some basic costs involved in setting up this aquarium, which also double up as a list of equipment which one would need or want:

already had	7.00 EUR (GBP 6.16)	100 ml dechlorinator (JBL Biotopol, but I will normally use a generic, unbranded dechlorinator)
already had	5.00 EUR (GBP 4.40)	new bucket for aquarium use
already had	2.00 EUR (GBP 1.76)	150 cm of aquarium tubing/hose for water changes
already had	1.14 EUR (GBP 1.00)	cheapest white towel (I use a Tesco Value bath sheet)
already had	3.00 EUR (GBP 2.64)	aquarium alcohol thermometer
already had	0.99 EUR (GBP 0.79)	spray bottle for keeping plants wet while out of the aquarium, I use VILDBÄR from IKEA
2011-06-15	105.99 EUR (GBP 93.81)	Arc Tank II 60 litre (aquarium set, including filter, lights and heater) from verm_de on eBay
2011-06-17	2.50 EUR (GBP 2.19)	plain black background from Aquarien Meyer
2011-06-21	5.99 EUR (GBP 5.29)	electronic light timer from OBI
2011-06-28	9.85 EUR (GBP 8.59)	9.5% ammonia in water, 1 litre bottle, from aqua-splash-hamburg on eBay (available for GBP 1.79 from Boots)
2011-06-29	21.89 EUR (GBP 20.00)	new API freshwater master test kit from a friend
2011-06-29	6.57 EUR (GBP 6.00)	new API GH and KH test kits from a friend
2011-07-11	7.95 EUR (GBP 7.06)	250 ml Eheim’s Substrat Pro bio media from eBay
2011-07-11	1.79 EUR (GBP 1.59)	15 kg of play sand from OBI
2011-07-11	17.17 EUR (GBP 15.11)	second hand external filter, Eheim 2211 from eBay (I will be explaining how to upgrade a filter about 2-3 months after the aquarium is set up)
2011-07-24	3.00 EUR (GBP 2.64)	Cardamine lyrata and Hydrocotyle species ‘Japan’ from hobbyist found through a forum
2011-07-24	1.00 EUR (GBP 0.88)	Pogostemon erectus from hobbyist found through a forum (added later)
2011-08-03	23.10 EUR (GBP 20.17)	Ecology of the planted aquarium by Diana Walstad
2011-08-10	17.00 EUR (GBP 14.84)	3 pots of Lindernia rotundifolia (I received these from some unknown benefactor, so have not had to pay for them)
2011-08-26	7.09 EUR (GBP 6.25)	30 × 25 × 20 cm aquarium wood from zierfischtreff_de on eBay
2011-08-29	6.92 EUR (GBP 6.13)	JBL external filter inlet, 12/16 mm from zierfischtreff_de on eBay
2011-08-29	2.12 EUR (GBP 1.88)	1 metre of grey aquarium hose for the external filter, 12/16 mm from zierfischtreff_de on eBay
2011-08-30	27.68 EUR (GBP 24.51)	Cryptocoryne wendtii ‘Tropica’, C. wendtii ‘Mi Oya’, C. wendtii ‘green gecko’, C. parva and 2 × Rotala rotundifolia from Wasserpflanzen-Freunde
2011-08-31	1.59 EUR (GBP 1.41)	1 metre of grey aquarium hose for the external filter, 9/12 mm from zierfischtreff_de on eBay
2011-09-01	2.28 EUR (GBP 2.02)	8 cm fine fish net by JBL from zierfischtreff_de on eBay
2011-09-06	7.79 EUR (GBP 6.82)	50 tabs of Sera’s florenette A from aquaro24_de on eBay
already had	1.00 EUR (GBP 0.87)	1 m of airline
already had	6.40 EUR (GBP 5.54)	20 ml of eSHa 2000, an antimicrobial medication
already had	11.10 EUR (GBP 9.61)	25 ml of Sera Protazol, an anti-Ichthyophthirius multifiliis medication
2011-10-17	1.71 EUR (GBP 1.50)	postage for Hydrocotyle sp. ‘Japan’ which was sold on 2011-10-10
already had	3.84 EUR (GBP 3.37)	12 g of generic tropical flake food (the tub I have is from King British)
already had	5.35 EUR (GBP 4.69)	90 g of small high protein granules (the tub I have is from JMC)
already had	2.50 EUR (GBP 2.19)	100 g (10×10 g double blocks) of frozen Daphnia (the blister pack I have is from Ruto)
2011-10-17	25.00 EUR (GBP 21.92)	10 Danio margaritatus from a local breeder
2011-11-01	0.75 EUR (GBP 0.66)	postage for Hydrocotyle sp. ‘Japan’ which was sold on 2011-10-30
2011-11-04	62.00 EUR (GBP 53.39)	10 Yunnanilus sp. ‘rosy’
2011-11-16	1.45 EUR (GBP 1.24)	postage for Hydrocotyle sp. ‘Japan’ which was sold on 2011-11-13
	426.63 EUR (GBP 369.98)	Current total
future	13.00 EUR	fish
future	20.00 EUR	other critters

Items on the list which are already paid for are at the top, in black; greyed out items are ones I have not bought yet and include price estimates. I will be updating the list and revising the estimates as and when needed.

And everything divided into categories:

Aquarium	105.99 EUR (GBP 93.81)
Decoration	7.09 EUR (GBP 6.25)
Equipment (permanent)	33.64 EUR (GBP 29.61)
Equipment (replacement filter)	27.80 EUR (GBP 24.53)
Equipment (usable)	45.31 EUR (GBP 40.75)
Fish	25.00 EUR (GBP 21.92)
Fish food	11.69 EUR (GBP 10.25)
Medication	17.50 EUR (GBP 15.15)
Plants (including fertilisers)	56.47 EUR (GBP 49.69)

Sales

As with the costs, I will try to keep track of profits as well.

2011-10-10	2.91 EUR (GBP 2.50)	Hydrocotyle sp. ‘Japan’ via a generic US/GB forum in UK
2011-10-10	2.91 EUR (GBP 2.50)	Hydrocotyle sp. ‘Japan’ via a generic US/GB forum in UK
2011-10-30	2.86 EUR (GBP 2.51)	Hydrocotyle sp. ‘Japan’ via eBay
2011-11-13	3.10 EUR (GBP 2.65)	Hydrocotyle sp. ‘Japan’ via eBay
2011-11-20	4.30 EUR (GBP 3.68)	Hydrocotyle sp. ‘Japan’ via eBay
	16.80 EUR (GBP 13.84)	Current total

Balance

The current balance is -409.83 EUR (GBP -356.14)

Water usage

I am going to try estimating how much water I use at least for a few months. I don’t expect these to be particularly accurate, but they should be useful as a rough guide on what can be expected.

• Washing the sand (7 lots washed 3 times each with approximately 6.5 litres each time): 136.5 litres
• Filling the aquarium (taking into account 15 kg of wet sand): 50 litres
• Topping up: 45 litres
• Water changes: 125 litres
• Total to date: 356.5 litres

Test kit usage

Lets see how many tests each of these does in practice.. current until 2011-08-16:

• KH: 14
• GH: 4
• ammonia: 40
• nitrite: 34
• nitrate: 13
• pH: 1
• high range pH: 5