New to hobby, seeking advice

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Babalouie

Well, the price tags have been kind of shocking so far. I thought $2000 was an adequate budget to get a ricordea tank cycling, but it doesn't seem to be the case. [...] So, is there a simpler way to do this? Should I just pinch my pennies? It's just ricordea with some sexy shrimp. It was my impression they did quite well in nano tanks and the requirements were quite modest.

You can certainly have a suitable setup for $2000 all inclusive, but it is not likely to be A 93-gallon custom cube.

Are you the DIY type? You can buy a standard aquarium and drill it yourself. Practice drilling a couple $9.99 10-gallon aquariums first. If you can drill one of those cheapo paper-thin-glass tanks without breaking it then you can EASILY drill a bigger tank without breaking it. I've drilled around 40 holes in aquariums and I've only ever broke one 5-gallon with paper-thin glass and one 20-gallon that I was testing to see how fast I could drill it. Some aquariums (Hagen comes to mind) sometimes have tempered glass (usually just the bottom of the tank) and you cannot drill tempered as it will shatter. Email the manufacturer before buying.

After you drill the tank you can silicone a glass overflow box into the corner, then put acrylic over the glass so you can't see into it. Add some plumbing pieces and you're golden.

Ricordea are certainly simple to keep, but I would strongly suggest a sump if you want seahorses. Seahorses eat a lot of food and are VERY messy eaters (they waste a lot). If you have a sump then you open a lot of better and cheaper opportunities for filtration and skimmers.

Another option is to buy a used setup on Kijiji or even the buy & sell forums here. If you go with a standard size (not a cube) then you will have more options and the price will be lower.