How do people afford this hobby!!!

[vetteguy53081]

Start slow and get either one component at a time or upgrade one at a time. We all have/had to start somewhere and build our way up. Also Buy the best you can afford , this way you buy it once.

 

[Harrison Gordon]

I have a 75g with the basics and a little extra. I have an oversized skimmer and an undersize sump. Modular marine overflow, filter sock, reactor. 6 bulb t5, tank and stand from PetSmart. That's pretty much it.
All in w/o livestock, $2500.

Hope you join back with the party!

 

[Mrx7899]

You can make this hobby as expensive as you want it to be

 

[Skep18]

I go to work...

Lol, all joking aside, when I decided to jump into the hobby I think mentally I just committed to having to touch the five figure mark if needed. Certainly isn't a ROI or business decision. The exact opposite really. I'm pretty much counting that money as gone. But wudya do... Its a hobby.

 

[Rattzreef]

I was always told to take the size tank you'd like to have and add two zeros after it and that's the cost to set it up.. I had over $1000 in my 10g AIO alone after being out of the hobby for a few years and starting over.. So I guess that's pretty accurate.

 

[Crimson]

I bought mostly used gear and gear from my previous owned tanks. My 32 gallon AIO is a far shadow of my 105 gallon but it is what it is. It helps with stress, plus my 9 year old daughter enjoys it when she is with me every other weekend. I almost gave it up due to an outbreak of dino, I beat it but not without it costing me money. I had to buy a UV sterilizer and dino x to beat it. So, instead of buying frags I had to buy gear.

My dream someday is a 72 x 24 x 12h reef. Maybe by the time I am Paul's B age...or hit the lottery I don't play.

 

[Sugarbell]

Seriously no idea at this point I am an SPS addict and have recently started purchasing high end collector stuff... my one frag rack- probably $5000 due to Jason Fox lol!

 

[Sugarbell]

And I Have a 300 gallon, a 100 gallon frag tank and I just bought a 82 gallon half cylinder so I can go back to breeding seahorses

 

[4FordFamily]

Buy used! Oh and work hard play hard!

(Work smart equally as important)

 

[MPS]

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!

True words!! Lol. I live in a tiny apartment where my 110gal is certainly the largest item, shy of the bed but just barely. Haha.

 

[MPS]

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.

Got to agree with you. There could be worse ways to spend our money.

 

[Rispa]

Also the more you make yourself, buy used, and buy in bulk the better off you are in the long run

 

[MPS]

Hi
110gal. Into it for $9k so far. The scary thing is that I’m not ready to stop yet. SOON will come the automation peice. That’ll be an easy Grand.

 

[Bledoux]

No matter how much money spend you also enjoy your tank every day

 

[MPS]

No matter how much money spend you also enjoy your tank every day

Some might call it borderline obsession. I choose not to pay attention to them.
I do tend to lose great amounts of time when I start watching the tank however.

 

[Proberta]

I learned my lesson with cutting corners and bought some decent equipment for my current tank (25 Lagoon). It took me 3 years to collect everything I needed, but it was worth it.

What always shocks me is how quickly some of the high end corals are sold. $600-800 corals bought up in a snap!

I'm just starting my 25 g Lagoon. What's your set up if you don't mind me asking? Any pics? This is my first tank that I am setting up myself.

 

[Flatlandreefer]

It can definitely be expensive but as others have stated it is a hobby. Buying a dirt bike could cost you 5k, working on cars would be much more, really most hobbies are going to cost you somewhere in the 1000s. My advice, which I didn't take, would be if you are going to start small plan for an upgrade. Buy components that can be used in a bigger tank when you will want to upgrade. Starting small can be a good thing though, you can prove to yourself that you actually enjoy this hobby without spending the big bucks right off the bat.

 

[playapixie]

How do I afford it? I don’t have kids!

Seriously, yes. It’s expensive. Of course “it depends” is the best answer, but unless you’re staying super low-tech, it’s pretty expensive.

I only have 34 galllons but it’s a fully stocked and developing mixed reef. It has Radion light, Apex controller, ATO, skimmer, etc. I’d say the tank and hardware that is currently on it alone cost something in the neighborhood of $2500, and that doesn’t include stuff I’ve had to replace over the years. I’m around $1000 in livestock (fish, invests, and a lot of nice little coral frags) in the last 6 months after recovering from a bad crash. Add in test kits & meters, additives/supplements, replacing or upgrading gear, losses of livestock for various reasons, etc and I’d guess I’m somewhere in the ballpark of, hmmm... probably something like $1000/year for the last 7 years...and that’s on a small tank. The expense is a big part of the reason why I haven’t gone bigger yet.

 

[mikes686]

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

We eat a lot of top ramen and ice cube soup. Jk, we've been into it about a year and been picking up stuff a little at a time, slowly upgrading.

 

[NY_Caveman]

$2,082 for my JBJ 45 setup (first page of my build thread in my signature lists all equipment). I generated cash for this hobby by selling some gear from a different hobby: musical instruments.

Sold this 1962 Les Paul Jr. I owned for 30 years

and this 2000 Fender Precision Bass