tanks a money pit?

[timdam]

i'm always hearing how a reef tank is a money pit. and i'm setting one up now. but i'm hoping that it's NOT going to be a money pit. am i wrong to think this way?

here's the way i see it....

- equipment = costly, but that's just initial setup

- buy frag packs = costly, but hopefully after i buy them i can sit back and let them grow in

- lights = i went with LEDS, so while costly to get, i won't have to change bulbs anytime soon

so if all is done right, i'm thinking my only cost would be a little extra on the electricity bill, and money spent on bi-weekly water changes. other than that, i'm hoping i won't have to constantly be throwing money into my tank, after all the initial stuff.

am i wrong?

[Bigshow]

I'm not trying to bash in your parade but this is a costly hobby. I try to warn everyone in this hobby that I speak to about the price. If everything goes well and you don't have any significant problems you should be fine. Depends on the size of tank, what type of corals, fish, inverts determines your monthly maintenence. For an example foods, supplements, chemicals, testing equipment things like that. To save money you should definatly use a rodi unit.

[jenglish]

A tank on cruise control costs electricity, supplements and waterchange supplies. Depending on the size of the tank, cruise control can be relatively cheap.... but it usually doesn't last.

[timdam]

oh, don't worry about raining on my parade. that's why i'm asking.

like i said, i know of the initial costs. trust me, i've spent alot on that. and like i said, i know of the water cost and electricity.

but other than that, hoping that nothing goes TOO wrong, is it possible for me to not spend TOO much after i have the frags that i want in place?

[Bigtymez]

I had a 24 g aquapod, and once I got it set up and stocked it only cost me about 10-15 bucks a month on water. I was changing 5 gallons of water a week.

I bought all my frozen food in the beginning and it lasted me over a year.

I had full reef set up with 2 fish, cuc, etc...

If you have a fairly large tank, it could get to be costly.

[tank o tang]

A reef only becomes a money because unlike fish onlys, you can always justify the itch to buy more frags.

[WhiskeyTangoFox]

Originally Posted by timdam

oh, don't worry about raining on my parade. that's why i'm asking.

like i said, i know of the initial costs. trust me, i've spent alot on that. and like i said, i know of the water cost and electricity.

but other than that, hoping that nothing goes TOO wrong, is it possible for me to not spend TOO much after i have the frags that i want in place?

depends what kind of frags you have. it you're just keeping zoa and lps you can get by with just water and light maintenance (maybe some carbon or whatever once a month). if you plan on keeping sps, you're going to need several test kits in addition to the nomral Nitrates/PH/Amonia kits CAL/ALK/MAG/Phos/etc etc). Additionally, you're most likely going to need to dose atleast a 2 part (cal/alk), and probably additional things like mag, amino acids, etc.

[Chipie]

Yeah, more frags, more aditives, better powerheads, more fish, more snails, another tank LOL It's never over LOL

[lordofthereef]

Honestly, anything can be called a money pit if you don't enjoy it. The vast majority of our money is spent on luxuries to make our lives nicer. This goes the same for owning a tank. If it enriches your life and you are able to enjoy it, I wouldn't call it a money pit.

[Ben's Reef]

The fact of the matter is that it is going to cost something monthly. I can't imagine having a a large enough setup to make it self sufficient (besides electricity). I personally have to purchase the following:

Bi-monthly:
Fish food
Phytoplankton

Every 6 months (+ or - a Month):
PO4 neutralizer
Carbon
Micronutrients
Water Conditioner
Salt

I might be forgeting something but you get the idea. The cost of it all isn't that much if you average it out but there is no way around spending money on the tank every month in my opinion.

If you play your cards right and take good care of your tank I suppose you can make up costs by fragging corals and trading them in to your LFS or selling them online.

Originally Posted by lordofthereef

Honestly, anything can be called a money pit if you don't enjoy it. The vast majority of our money is spent on luxuries to make our lives nicer. This goes the same for owning a tank. If it enriches your life and you are able to enjoy it, I wouldn't call it a money pit.

Like he said too, not a money pit if you enjoy it.

[Bigshow]

I'm not really sure how much I spend on electricity or a wc but I recommend buying all chemicals, food for fish,corals,inverts in a lump sum because one it lasts longer and two it's a heck of a lot cheaper three it's typically cheaper online.

[jeepguy242]

Originally Posted by lordofthereef

Honestly, anything can be called a money pit if you don't enjoy it. The vast majority of our money is spent on luxuries to make our lives nicer. This goes the same for owning a tank. If it enriches your life and you are able to enjoy it, I wouldn't call it a money pit.

couldnt have said it better

[travis32]

I agree, it's not so much a tank on cruise control isn't that costly. I agree with that statement wholeheartedly. However, throw in the fact that we're humans that are never happy and never have enough of anything, it quickly becomes something to throw extra $$ into.

You can fit a LOT of corals in any size tank. I have almost 20 different species of soft and LPS corals in my 55 g tank and it's only been up going on 3 months. Around half of them came in on the LR I got, the other half I've purchased from local reefers.

I still don't feel I have enough corals. I want my tank covered in color and corals. I'll need close to triple what I have right now to fill my tank in. I want to hardly see the sand bed. I want most of the rocks covered with color and corals. Oh and I want some fish. Which I have.

So, if you become happy enough with it that you can stop with just a few coral frag packs, and just a few things here and there. Then yes, you can cruise cheaply.

It's just that one always sees something different. I need to upgrade my power heads. I would like to change out my overflow with a safer, more reliable overflow. I would like to change my PC lighting to better lighting.

And if I ever get done with all that, I would like to start a macro tank with a couple seahorses. Maybe some soft corals, but the focus would be on a variety of macro. So, you can see I've already started thinking about a second tank. I don't have money to finish my first one the way I want.

It becomes an addiction. The money pit isn't in cruising, it's in constantly trying to improve things to become the most ideal tank that resembles our little piece of the ocean.

Hope that helps. I just got some great looking candy cane coral, favia brain coral, I've got my eyes on some bubble coral I want yet, and then I want to look for color specific corals and start getting more choosy. Never finished... That's without accounting for any possible things that go wrong like tank crashing or fish getting agressive, etc. Or tank overflowing, sump overflowing, etc, etc, etc, etc that can go wrong and cost lots to fix!

[larry joe]

Im new to this hobby too and my money and time has mostly went to ICK and phosphates.QT, and remember all food has phosphates.Cyano is a pain and Ick once introduced is a nightmare.That is my experience!

[timdam]

i'm not trying to talk trash and say "my tank is going to be perfect, and i won't have to touch it after setting it up". but i'm just saying, i'd like to not be spending an arm and a leg all the time. yea, if things go wrong, then of course i'd have to fix it.

but i've seen where people don't feed their corals except giving them good lighting and proper water changes (and with a skimmer). yes, i plan on feeding my fish. but i don't think that will cause me to call my tank a 'money pit'.

also, not saying that i won't stray and buy new corals every now and then. i just wanna know that keeping maintenance fairly cheap can be accomplished in this hobby.

[Chipie]

I say it can be done but i don't know many who don't want to improve and buy more corals or equipement. Maybe you are one of the few. I know i widh i was.
I started with a 8g biocube, then a 32g, then a 65g and now have a 180g sps tank and another 20g setup lately for raising Bangaii Cardinal frys. One thing that helps keep costs down is not getting into SPS corals. They have needs that LPS and softies dont' have and end up costing a lot more to keep happy. Once you start sps, you're hooked just like on a drug LOL Good luck

[InsideJoke]

Originally Posted by timdam

i'm not trying to talk trash and say "my tank is going to be perfect, and i won't have to touch it after setting it up". but i'm just saying, i'd like to not be spending an arm and a leg all the time. yea, if things go wrong, then of course i'd have to fix it.

but i've seen where people don't feed their corals except giving them good lighting and proper water changes (and with a skimmer). yes, i plan on feeding my fish. but i don't think that will cause me to call my tank a 'money pit'.

also, not saying that i won't stray and buy new corals every now and then. i just wanna know that keeping maintenance fairly cheap can be accomplished in this hobby.

I think that with patience it can be. I'm currently redoing my tank to help fix some corners I cut in the first round and make things a little easier on me.
But buy a few frag packs, let them grow out. Frag and trade. Thats how I plan on getting most of my corals and it seems to work. I really dont care about having a "bare" tank right now with a few small frags. Cause I know with time and patience that my tank will eventually grow out and if I take my time it will be a very nice tank.

Just time and patience. Both key to this hobby I think.

[lordofthereef]

Originally Posted by timdam

i'm not trying to talk trash and say "my tank is going to be perfect, and i won't have to touch it after setting it up". but i'm just saying, i'd like to not be spending an arm and a leg all the time. yea, if things go wrong, then of course i'd have to fix it.

but i've seen where people don't feed their corals except giving them good lighting and proper water changes (and with a skimmer). yes, i plan on feeding my fish. but i don't think that will cause me to call my tank a 'money pit'.

also, not saying that i won't stray and buy new corals every now and then. i just wanna know that keeping maintenance fairly cheap can be accomplished in this hobby.

Depends on what you consider an arm and a leg. The initial investments (buying all the hardware and livestock) is going to cost far less than maintenance will, for sure. Unless you have a GIANT tank, your monthly costs will probably average out to be less than the cost of many cell phone contracts these days.

[sikk50]

Tanks are always costly, your matnence practices do a lot to determine cost though

[MikeandNicole]

Just to show you how a tank can change and evolve I will give you a quick story of our 20g tank.

Started: HOB filter and pc lights with live rock, fish, inverts
1st update: Lights to a 4 bulb T5, started adding zoas and softies
2nd update: Swapped the HOB filter for a skimmer and added HOB fuge, start introducing LPS
3rd update: Get introduced to SPS, addiction intensifying
4th update: Upgrade light to 5 bulb T5 fixture and a mp10
5th update: Replace the actual tank itself after becoming so scratched
6th update: Start dosing regimen to feed and color up SPS (damn this is addicting)

TANK CRASH (lost power for 2 days)

Restart tank with all new sand bed and some choice pieces of live rock, buy a ton of frags because the empty tank makes you depressed. Looking for a bigger tank to upgrade too.

This has been over roughly the past 2 years. My wife and I love this hobby so we have no problem doing this and it is a shared passion that we do together. I love the way our tank looks now and it is funny looking at the pics of the evolution. It all depends on how you want your tank to look and what you want in it. Corals can be bought for cheap prices or very expensive prices depending on what you want.

[Jstdv8]

my guess is anyone who can afford a proper LED setup for a reef without making it themselves probably won't have a problem with the money factor of a SW reef tank.
Dare I ask what LED light you got and what size tank?

[timdam]

i went with the ecoxotic 23.5" lights. my tank is a 24 x 24 x 18. cost me $750. and just b/c i bought expensive lights, doesn't mean that i got alot of money. i just want to do it right with the equipment, and then coast a little. seriously, i don't have money like that.

i kinda look at buying those LEDs as saving me money in the long run anyways. (but that would be another thread).

[timdam]

and come on, just b/c i got some LED lights, isn't it a little unfair to say that i probably don't have a problem with the money factor?

[thebkramer]

When I'm not buying corals or fish, or having to get calcium...
I spend around $30 a month on food and salt. (not including electric don't know what that is, but its not much different than before)
I usually get the 50gl bag of Instant Ocean and Formula 1 frozen cubes.
So as long as I don't need to get anything else, like carbon (every 3mo), scraper replacement, nori (every 3 mos or so) and any "ER" items, I think its a small cost per month.

[Wiggywiggy]

It was stated above, but any hobby is costly to some degree, it basically comes down to how much enjoyment you get for your "investment". The best approach is to be patient, and be proactive. Understand what your trying to accomplish going in and make sure you know what it will take to get it there that way (and keep it that way) so you have no surprises in extra hardware, setup, etc.. Create a budget and stick to it..the patience part will help with the latter..

Frag packs, etc are nice, but why not try to trade or buy from locals in the hobby. This way you can save and develop relationships for later. Trading is the best part of this IMO.. just my .02