New Setting Up cost

[soomin]

Help some advise from expert here, i plan to give up my marine & try plant tank, my tank is 2.5' height, 2' wide & 4.5' lenght, sump design, can use existing AC compressor chiller, CO2, lighting plan to use 2 150W MH, roughly how much the initial setting up cost, plan to keep a simple & low maint tank.

[burntrubber]

Since you already have all the equipment, you now only need the substrate, hardware like wood and rocks and plants.Cost will vary widely depending on choice of substrate, fertilizer,type of wood and even where you buy the plants and material from. I'd estimate from the cheapest materials available, start at $200.
Easy plants that need little maintainence are ferns, cryptocornye,moss, echinodorus and foreground plants like tenellus or marsilea.

remember to wash your existing equipment clean...don't end up complicate the water PH and etc

it really depend on your scape you want to achieve because the cost is tie to the material used. For example seiryu rocks will cost you $4-5 per kg. Manten rocks will cost you $9 per kg. Same goes for the wood.

if your going for the ADA substrate set, it will cost you quite abit already because of your tank size. fishy business has the bundle for 4ft tank.
5 packets of ada amazonia,4 packets of power sand and other base ferts for amost $500.and then you have to get wood,rocks etc

i estimate that it would cost you more than $600(majority because of the soil). to get it set-up.