Hi there! I am Imran here to help you out. Okay I have been working with aquarium for now about 9 years plus. I have my personal aquarium where I have and had various fish. Keeping fish in aquarium tank inside my home always have been my hobby. I love fishes and nature interactive nature. Mainly I love keeping a fish tank inside my room as they can require small space in you want so! So 9 years ago when I started with my first aquarium tank , it was a broken tank glued with superglue. I got it as it was given to me free of cost. Before that I also had a bowl , a small one with two gold fish and artificial plants. It didn’t went well as I didn’t had any experience back then. The main fish keeping phase started when I got that broken fish tank. It was a 14.961 gallon tank with a dimension of 2feet*1feet*1feet. A small one right? I bought a regular air filter some artificial plants and two small Japanese Koi fish. Pretty small. Back then around like 9/10 years ago these things were pretty cheap but if you compare these in todays date. It be quite expensive.
Let’s make an assumption in our head!
A aquarium tank with 6mm glass (I will always recommend you to take a glass thickness range of 6mm) will cost you near 127$ to 300$ or more!
For substrate you would need gravel or sand. It can be black or white sand. I don’t prefer just adding any stuffs on your tank as It will hamper the life cycle of your fish. A 10lb or 4.5kg of white sand will cost you around 17 dollars or more. For black sand will cost similar. Gravel starting from 6 dollar.
Artificial plants will start from 5 dollars to 20 dollars. Although I started with artificial plants as I didn’t have any experience and money back then, I will recommend you any day to have live plants as it will enhance the beauty of your aquarium and I definitely will want you to provide you the best possible way to make your aquarium as perfect as possible.
For live plants , they start from a range of 5 dollars plus.
Now let’s talk about the filtration. Something you can’t avoid while building an aquarium is filtration system. It’s a must. Remember when I told you about the bowl aquarium I bought? Back then I had no knowledge and that’s why I didn’t bought any filtration system back then and as a result my fishes died. So making sure you have a proper filtration system is a must. It is said that your aquarium should have a filter which can flow water 10 times more according to the water quantity you have. EX for 30 liter tank , your filter should flow water 300 times per hour.
Starting price for you filtration system will cost you I believe 20 dollars to 400 dollars.
For a lighting system I will prefer a UV light if you are focusing on getting a planted aquarium.
It will start from 25 to 200 dollars. And if you are not building a planted tank then you can get regular LED lights for 6 to 150 dollars.
You have to keep your fish tank over a cabinet as it will not look nice if you just put your tank anywhere plus, An aquarium tank with water and landscapes will weight a lot so I will recommend you to have a cabinet for your precious fish tank.. Some cabinets will have strong metal frame or wooden frames. Starting from based on the quality 65 to 300 dollars.
All done! Now let’s talk about the most important fact of a fish tank. You might ask what it is ! Obviously I will say that it’s the fish ! Fish can be priced in various perspective. Same fish in various sizes can cost you differently! But I am giving you an average price range. Fishes can cost you 1 dollars to few hundred dollars.! I will recommend you as a started to get a small tank with small fishes like Moly , Platty or Guppy. It will be easy for you.
So now if we summarize the total average costing of building your own dream aquarium, it will cost you average a range of 650$. I have counted the average by selecting a price range sitting in the middle obviously keeping in mind of the quantity of the things you need. This count is done for a 15 to 20 gallon tank on average and from my personal experience I will recommend you to start slow and proceed through the way and if you need me I am always there to help you with my experience. Thank you for reading this Blog and your precious time.