? for the tank maint. pro's

[birdsnest]

Well, as a side gig, I have been doing the upkeep and maintenance on the 300g reef tank that is located at the hotel where I hold my reg. job since this past March. My local LFS has asked a few times if I am interested in servicing a few more tanks through his shop. However, they do not have a set price on what they charge for maintenance and upkeep. So, my ? is what tends to be the avg. rate one would charge to maintain/upkeep ones tank?

 

[H2O]

Nice. what ever u think is good .. i dont think there is a avg. rate , if u doing a great job on the tank then your pay should look just as good .. but if the tank looks like crap then negotiate , what ever u can get

 

[returnofsid]

I've done the same thing, maintaining tanks of a few customers, of my LFS. I billed monthly, based on how much work was to be done, on each tank. For instance, here's 2 examples, extremely different from one another:

#1. 150 gallon reef tank, the owner of the tank didn't want to have to touch anything, ever...lol. He wanted a beautiful tank, to show off to his friends, but didn't want to touch anything or learn anything about it. He reminded me of a rapper wannabe! He demanded weekly maintenance. It ended up being much more than "maintenance," as he also wanted his substrate completely removed, replacing it with black sand. He had a RO/DI unit, hooked to a holding tank with an auto float switch. Our contract stated that he'd have saltwater mixed, when I arrived, and it would be at the correct salinity. That NEVER happened...lol. I'd show up, to do a large water change, to find cold RO/DI water. It was infuriating! He also shopped at another LFS, who was only interested in making money. Each week, I'd show up to yet another fish or 2 in his tank, rarely were any compatible with one another and sometimes they weren't reef safe...lol. I charged him $400.00/month. I finally told him that if he didn't stop adding things to his tank, based on the second LFS "advice," he'd need to find another maintenance person. The last straw came, when I arrived to find he'd added a shark to the tank!! I quit...lol.

#2. 200 gallon reef tank. The owner was very interested in his tank, but worked out of town, leaving him little time for maintenance. His tank was in BAD shape, when I started. He'd never used RO/DI water and the tank was an algae swamp! However, he was very interested in learning and helping fix the problem. This guy is LOADED and willing to pay any amount. He offered me $500.00 per month, to maintain his tank. I refused to take that much, as I felt it was way too much. For the first few months, WE did weekly water changes, with RO/DI water. After we got his tank cleaned up and stable, we went to monthly 50 gallon water changes and regular testing/dosing of Ca/Alk/Mg. Eventually, a time came when I only maintained his tank when he was out of town. Otherwise, he learned to enjoy doing it himself. I charged him $250.00/month, for the first 2 months, then $150.00/month after that. Now, he throws me $50.00 or so, every time I do maintenance, when he's out of town. He also knows that he can call me, in the middle of the night, if an emergency crops up, which he has, twice. Once a snail plugged up his overflow drain, causing the tank to flood...lol. Another time, his return pump stopped working. Both times, I rushed over, in the middle of the night, fixed the problem, he tried to pay me a couple hundred each time, I refused. We've became great friends.

Basically, I think a general rule of thumb is $1.00-$2.00/gallon, depending on how labor intensive the job is. If you have to transport water, the price goes up!

 

[Acro76 Verified Sponsor]

I think Sid pretty much answered this one... but in addition:

Most people and companies are not as nice as Sid's scenario #2... they want and expect you to do whatever it takes to make the tank look good. While I always try to explain that what I'm charging is based on the work I'm actually doing, many people have it stuck in their mind that for $$$ per month the tank should always look pristine. No mattter what happens! If they add 20 new fish without telling you, a kid dumps a whole container of food in the tank....etc. I'm expected to pick up the pieces.

I've charged as little as $.50 a gallon to as much as $10 per gallon, so don't get caught up in that. Pricing accurately really means talking to the customer, checking out the tank and filtration and having some experience. Then you can figure out how many hours you will really be putting in. Keep in mind that it is always harder to raise the price later on... I usually do 10-15% raises every 2-3 years, just to try and keep up with inflation.

 

[dallas reefer]

MOSTLY, determine what YOUR time is worth.

Ask them what their time is worth if they balk at a price. Ive done that before.

It takes a TON of work to run a business properly. Wether it's running a cleaning crew. Lawn crew. Or fish crew. Main thing is sit down with a pen and paper and jot down all the expenses with the service. When you're done with that, you can take that, add your labor, and figure how much "per gallon". Usually ends up around what "everyone else" charges. Unless you drive around in a hemi. Like i do. Which sucks.

It's pretty easy once you get a "method" down.

 

[five O]

The average in Vegas is $1 per gallon for saltwater, $2 per gallon for reef. Just and average tho.

 

[birdsnest]

Thx for the feedback ppl! I have been getting $400/month for the reef at my hotel which equates to roughly $1.33/gal. So that seems pretty inline with what one might expect to pay.