First salt water set up, is it a rip off???

[Arnold]

Ok, so I'm seting up my first salt water tank. So I went down to a local fish store and the lady there is real nice and seems pretty knowlegable. She told me what I need for my 55 gal setup and I am wondering if the prices are good.

Wet Dry filter/skimmer $260
Sea salt $22
Hydrometer $19
200 w Heater Therm tech $30
25lbs coral sand $25

I found this on ebay too: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3983556590&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&rd=1

Thanks in advance for any help, any futher advice is welcomed.

Arnold

 

[gilraen]

Marine stuff its expensive no matter what. But there are places online where you can find cheaper stuff including shipping and handling. Just do a search. My personal favorite places to buy stuff from are:

www.saltwaterfish.com
www.drsfostersmith.com
www.marinedepot.com

Also, if you're willing to pay $19 for a hydrometer (which are crap in my opinion), might as well buy a refractometer for $59 and there you'll ALWAYS get an accurate reading for years to come. Again, do a search on what you want to buy and you'll find really cheap stuff. Even e-bay has great deals sometimes. Hope this helps.

 

[fishyrican]

You can also check out www.bigalsonline.com

 

[seaham358]

do not use crushed coral get sand......

 

[mjvincent]

Those prices seem pretty much in line with lfs.