Heres the cheapest setup for a saltwater predatory tank which is pretty cool.
Tank - 30 Gallon (around 40 bucks)
Fluval canister filter - 70 to 100 bucks.
Tube lighting (no need for fancy reef lighting) - 30 bucks.
Crushed coral for the base (varies, but cheap)
Some kinda big lava rock thing for an eel to hide in (20 bucks)
Salt (10 bucks)
Hydrometer (to get the salt level right) 10 bucks
Fritzyme (10 bucks) (bottle of bacteria)
1) Put crushed shit in tank (base) and rock.
2) Fill tank, get the slat to right salinity (easy, just use hydrometer)
3) Hook up fluval, get it running.
4) Wait 30 days (for the water to cycle)
5) buy 1 damsel (4 bucks), throw it in tank,
6) wait a week, see if it lives.
7) Now you can add fish, good hearty predators are:
Snowflake eel, grouper, lionfish. Add no more than one a week. Don't put more than 3 or 4 in tank that size (they'll grow).
8) Food, don't use feeder, they gots diseases.... Buy frozen squid from the grocery store (cheap).
9) train them to feed out of your hand (takes a few weeks, but very cool when they get the routine down).
There ya go, fast path to cheap predator tank.
