How do people afford this hobby!!!

[Silverfish]

No seriously, I’m getting back in after 8 years and I can actually hear the sudden disturbance in the force. I’m sure lots of opinions.
Well I sold it all and actually did quite well on all parts and livestock but now I’m starting at zero.
I don’t see many threads about cost except to say that “it’s expensive” .
How expensive? Some real numbers would be good. No judges here! We are all in this hobby together!
Why the interest? Like I said, starting again and just tryna feel better about this endeavor. Love to hear some positive feedback!!
Thanks so much

 

[OriginalUserName]

Like most things, the answer is "it depends".

You can do a nano tank with softies and some elbow grease for darn cheap, or you can pick up a huge tank full of SPS and have a computer do everything except buy new corals for you. My first entry into corals from being a fish guy was under $800 for everything. My new tank build is going to be a higher end 140 gallon SPS dominate tank with auto water changes, and equipment to make my life easier and I think I'll be in it for about 7k plus livestock.

 

[chefmur]

I just got back in after 5 years, Red Sea Reefer 250 about 65 gals SPS, I went high end equipment Radion lighting , Vortechs , Apex controlled but I am at between $5K-$6K, yes it's expensive but if I played golf , fished or hunted it would be about the same. Once the initial purchase the upkeep is not bad , SPS can get expensive but I spread out.

 

[mch1984]

I have to agree with the above, I'm helping my dad do an SPS tank right now but it's on a budget. We paid 40 for the tank and sump and were using a bunch of used equipment from me. All said and done with, I bet we don't put more that about $600 into it. Then on the other side is my 90, I've got about 4200 in it so far and I still need to buy dosing equipment, and more automation equipment.

 

[dsfirstsltwater]

So my 20g nano I'm into just about 600 just equipment. With everything livestock included and I'm around 1k.

 

[ZoWhat]

HUGE startup costs for sure. I'm 11yrs in.....have all the equip I need but smthg breaks every 2yrs....so it never stops. I got a $500 Barracuda main pump that has 6 yrs on it. Im just waiting for that thing to just STOP working one day.

To depress you further.... I ran some #s for 2017.....and over the year counting electricity, water, salt, every little thing I could think of....just MAINTAINING what I had was about $1500 for that year.

Lump in throat...I know

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

There have been several threads on how much people have spent, those would be a good place to start.

 

[Silverfish]

Thanks for the replies! Yikes I say! Chefmur had a great point . One that I have been using myself. We all have hobbies and with many of them the cost is spread out over a period of time where in this hobby the cost is predominantly upfront. Either way whether it's buying a motorcycle or working on a car or collecting darn near anything your gonna spend it! Magic cards anyone???

 

[OriginalUserName]

Thanks for the replies! Yikes I say! Chefmur had a great point . One that I have been using myself. We all have hobbies and with many of them the cost is spread out over a period of time where in this hobby the cost is predominantly upfront. Either way whether it's buying a motorcycle or working on a car or collecting darn near anything your gonna spend it! Magic cards anyone???

At least my magic cards in HS wouldn't randomly STN. Although women seem to like the reef way more so maybe it's a tossup.

 

[Pntbll687]

I'm on the lucky side of things. I work in distribution, selling some aquatic products, nothing high end, but I get MOST stuff at work. It's 15% over whatever my company pays for it.

There are on occasion things I have to by retail.

Oh, and the connections I have made with vendors (different brands) comes in handy when I need "samples" to show. The samples do get shown to dealers, but somehow it always ends up being things I need for my tanks.... Hmmm...

Tank - free
Stand - free
sump - free
return pumps - free
dry rock - free
RO Unit - $50

And my wife STILL has the nerve to complain about the cost of things.

 

[ca1ore]

Drive a smaller car, live in a smaller house, eat nothing but Kraft mac and cheese, and send your kids to the local community college ..... a man's got to have his priorities after all!

 

[tripdad]

If you think this is bad try owning a boat. By the way that's an acronym for Bust out Another Thousand, lol. If you bought a personal watercraft, a fishing boat, a really good set of golf clubs, it all gets expensive and I dare say they are all a lot less educational than trying to keep a reef alive and thriving. Last thing I learned on a golf course was not to stand anywhere near Dan when he's teeing off! Ouch! And lets not even consider any type of motorsport.

 

[Silverfish]

I'm gonna give you a pass on that PNT. I thought you were showing off at first but your last comment brought it home for many of us!

 

[Pntbll687]

I'm gonna give you a pass on that PNT. I thought you were showing off at first but your last comment brought it home for many of us!

HAHA

I've made a deal with my wife...
I can get whatever I want for the fish tanks, it just has to be free. Either samples from vendors or sell stuff I have to pay for the new stuff. It has really helped with reigning in what I get

 

[vector824]

Even with everything basically used I put $2000 so far into my 75g including livestock. It does rack up quick but man I do love my salt babies, makes it all worth it.

 

[Wiskey]

I have a few thousand in my 75G, but I plan for it to run for many years so when I bought equipment I bought things I knew would last, and built in redundancy where I could. It's been 4+ years since I setup my current system and I don't regret a dime of it.

Start up costs are high, but operating costs are fairly low. I buy a couple boxes of salt per year, some RO filters, a little GFO, and Kalk,.. etc. All these things are fairly cheap. I have solar on my house so even power is half price. As an aside my Apex handles ATO which is plumbed out to my garage, and CA/ALK additions, along with heater safties, and flipping things on and off. This saves time and backbreaking water carrying.

Then all that's left are frags. I buy everything as a frag which really keeps cost down, but I also get the joy of watching it grow. I'm not sure if everyone knows this, but most LFS's will break a frag off pretty much any colony and sell it to you if you ask.

Whiskey

 

[Silverfish]

Man I guess sometimes all you can do is laugh. Great stuff! May you all have great success and years of enjoyment!

 

[ca1ore]

If you think this is bad try owning a boat.

Oh yes, #5 on my list of life rules: far better to know somebody who owns a boat than to own one yourself.

 

[phlibbyreefer]

125 gallon. Between tank, stand, canopy, trigger sump, vortech vectras, vortech mp40s, hydra52s, rock, all new starting from scratch about $6k doing all the work myself. Its a lot of money but at least its not ******* and blow.

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

Just parents who have done well in life to have nice things, my 90g freshwater tank ran us about 8k and I have about 3k in my biocube at the moment. My parents have good jobs, but we flipped houses we would buy a 60k house and my dad is very handy and we would put 30k in it and then sell it for 170k and we did this for about 10 years. My parents believe in paying cash and not using interest and doing stuff for yourself.