I've had one up and running for about 6 days now..too soon to know if it will work for me. But i do have to say it cost me way more then the $10 AC was saying it would cost back in 05.
I had the MJ1200 laying around so i won't add that in.
I used an old RC salt bucket (side note...I was thinking the rubber seal on this bucket would allow me to run it under my sump with about 3 foot of head pressure...it's not a true rubber o-ring just a foam rubber gasket and i couldn't get it to hold the pressure
) Free
I didn't want to go with a silica based sand so i went with Aragamax sugar sized aragonite...$24.00/30lb bag x 2
Two 1/2" uni-seals $1.50 x 2
10 FT of 1/2"id reinforced pvc $9.00
6 ft of 1/2in rigid pvc $3.50
1/2" ball valve and fittings to connect the rigid and flexible pvc $5.00
Grand total not counting the pump was roughly $65.00
Granted i could have saved about 40 bucks if i used regular ol playsand but then i would have had to add in the cost of the MJ pump to get my point across which is...that this project, just like everything else in this hobby, turned out to be waaay more expensive then i had planned!