An aquarium supplier quote is an equation with two sides: seven inputs from the buyer and the site, five lines back from the supplier, and a price that is only as good as the weakest input. The catalogue covers the easy half. Of the published product pages, 98 of 101 give the material and 95 give the warranty, while 28 name the included equipment and one gives a glass thickness. The three fields that move a total most are thickness, equipment scope and packed volume, and those are the three a buyer usually leaves out.
The catalogue is strongest where the quote matters least
Of the 101 product pages Ruibit publishes, material, warranty, voltage and OEM terms sit at 90 Percent or above. The fields that decide a number sit far lower: available sizes at 58, included equipment at 28, glass thickness at 1. Table 1 sets the two groups side by side.
Table 1. Published fields across 101 aquarium product pages
Counted from the published product pages, one page per listing, value taken from the specification field.
From that material a supplier can fix colour, voltage and warranty terms. It cannot fix the glass or the equipment, which are the two lines that change the total most.
Three fields move the number, and none has a default
Glass first. Published bands show what a height step does: 220 USD at the 80 Cm end and 485.71 USD at 300 Cm, with the price per square metre of glass rising from 107 to 256 USD across the same length range. A thickness figure is the only way to price that, and one page in 101 publishes one.
Equipment second. A chiller, sump, pump and light turn a tank into a system, and 28 of 101 pages name what is included. Packed volume third, and it is the one that bites after the order: 80 pages publish a packaging word such as carton box or wooden case, and none publishes packed dimensions, so freight per unit and the access route cannot be quoted from the catalogue at all.
The site supplies what no supplier can guess
Three numbers belong to the building rather than the product. The route from the truck to the position is a sequence of clear widths and turns, not a doorway: a 300 Cm tank ships in a crate over 3 M long, which does not turn in a 1.0 M stair or pass a 0.9 M door.
The floor is the second. A filled 150 Cm unit runs at about 540 Kg per square metre against 195 Kg per square metre of domestic design live load, so the position, the joist direction and the structural sign-off belong in the request. Power is the third: published units run from 5 W to 4,000 W, which is the difference between a 13 A circuit and a dedicated supply.
The one-page input list
Table 2. Aquarium RFQ input list, by who supplies the value
Rows ordered as the supplier needs them, not as the catalogue lists them.
Send the list as a table, one row per input, with a unit and a value in every cell. A supplier can quote a range from a range; a missing cell has to be priced as a risk.
Two commercial inputs are easy to forget because the catalogue does publish them. Lead time and MOQ appear on 83 pages each, and lead time splits between 7 days on a standard size and 35 days on a custom line, so the request has to say which of the two is being priced. A 7-day quote and a 35-day quote are both accurate and not comparable.
What should come back
A quote that answers the list has five parts: the tank at a stated thickness, the equipment itemised, the packed dimensions and crate count, the delivery term, and the exclusions by name. The last part is where accuracy is won, because the tank-only band on this range runs 394.29 to 2742.86 USD, and a system at the same figure is a different product with the chiller, cabinet and light inside it.
Fix the change clause before the order as well: which party pays when a site measurement differs from the drawing, and who holds transport risk at each handover. A quote that names neither is accurate only until the first survey.
FAQs
1. How should the route be measured?
As a sequence of clear widths and turns, not a doorway: a 300 Cm tank ships in a crate over 3 M long that will not turn in a 1.0 M stair or pass a 0.9 M door.
2. What floor data changes the quote?
Position and joist direction. A filled 150 Cm unit runs at 540 Kg per square metre, against 195 Kg design load.
3. Does lead time affect accuracy?
Yes. It appears on 83 of 101 pages: 7 days on a standard size, 35 days on a custom line, and the two are not comparable.
4. What power should be stated?
Units run from 5 W to 4,000 W: a 13 A circuit against a dedicated supply.
5. Is tank-only pricing comparable to a system?
No. The band runs 394.29 to 2742.86 USD, excluding chiller, sump and light.
