As a fellow broke college student I completely understand where you are coming from. As I said before changing multiple set ups is a huge waste of money. If you go the tub route at first you will be able to reuse most of the items like the thermostat and thermometer once you get the T8. The tub itself costs like $10 so it's no big deal. The headache of glass tanks isn't worth it... You couldn't pay me to use them.