Budget doesn't exist in this hobby: Brian's 45g Build

[Etaloche]

Hey guys, I'm Brian and completely new to owning an aquarium. Recently moved back to Vancouver from Ontario and kind of spontaneously decided to finally start up a mini reef. I have been looking into starting one up and researching from time to time for the past couple years but the cost of starting a tank always deterred me from committing. Couple of weeks ago someone parked on the side of the road opened their door without looking and smashed my mirror off my car. They decided not to go through insurance and paid me $600 which was the quote for repair. Managed to find one for $100 from a scrap yard and had some extra cash So I thought what better time to look into starting a mini reef again.

I was just casually browsing through craigslist last week and found a brand new 20g tank for $20 and thought that's a really good price so I'll just buy it and store it until I end up using it for a tank one day. After that, I was just browsing on the forums here and saw a 29g for sale for $20 as well so I actually just decided to buy that too I went over to user Galizio's house to pick it up and that was the first time I've actually seen a mini reef in real life. It was so much more beautiful from what I have seen in videos and I was completely blown away. His tank was absolutely stunning and this was the moment when I knew I was committed. So now I have 2 tanks and don't really have a plan just yet. I might sell off the 20g or end up using it as a sump.

I say this will be a budget build but that doesn't necessarily mean it will be cheap. I guess cheap is a relative word but in general I don't really like using just the cheapest product available especially in something like a mini reef where quality of equipment will matter. When I say budget I will mean that I will try to get the best performance I can while keeping the cost as low as possible by either buying used items or fabricating my own stuff. So I will be documenting how much I've spent as I go to perhaps give other new reefers a sense of the cost of starting up a reef from complete scratch.

For now I guess I have some planning to do ahead of me and will be sitting in front of my computer looking for some good deals for the next while. If anyone has suggestions or tips as I go don't hesitate to let me know. Any help will be appreciated as I have never tried something like this before.

Total cost so far: $40

Here are the tanks


The 29g I will be using for the main tank that I got from Galizio
It had black silicon which I thought looked nicer than just clear


Finally, the 20g I might end up using as the sump.
It came with a metal mesh top which fits the 29g width-wise as well so I might cut it in half later and use it on the 29g