Please Stop Stating This Is An Expensive Hobby.

[tyler1503]

How much time and money did u spend, and how much experience did u have to garner before u could do things on the cheap?

My very first marine tank was a $30 glass tank. $30 flow pump. $30 heater. Lighting was $40 for a second hand fitting and new tube, $5 of substrate. $20 of rock and I didn't/don't spend more than $30 per piece on corals or fish for this tank. I siliconed in a wall to keep the heater and pump separate so I essentially turned it into an AIO. After the silicon cured it took me all of about 20 minutes to put the basic setup together including adding water, aquascaping and all the hardware, cycled for about 4-5 weeks give or take, then daily 2.5% water changes. Per week, including feeding, I spend about 10 minutes on the tank. Plus several hours staring at it lol.
Not expensive at all. Certainly not the prettiest tank, but it's good enough for me

 

[tyler1503]

more like a new forum in the build section "Tanks on a Budget" thank me later.

Agreed. That would be a great forum section!

 

[racin2438]

Pretty much agree with you all....but I think if we don't at least tell them that it can cost a lot..then they can fail either cuz they did not buy some of the crucial equipment, did not research things right, over paid, over invested in things not needed. Buy wrong corals that are to delicate, not compatible, Cuz a LFS will tell you that they are all ok to have.

And I'm stating this mainly to newbies, who will get discouraged and fail then bad mouth the hobby.

So it can be as expensive as we want, but as we all know as soon as we see another tank on here, stores, friends homes, we all get that ich to spend more and more.

We started with a good 60g cube after 8 months it went to a 150g with a least 10k invested and it was fine at 1500.00 b4 in the 60g cube.but seeing other tanks made me hungry for bigger and better.

I'm sure some of you can relate....

 

[Chameleon]

It is expensive. Relative to some hobbies its cheap. Relative to others its expensive. My wife paints. Painting is a cheap hobby. No if ands or buts about it running a reef tank has certain cost associated with it and these add up over time. I dont know why people spend so much a month on their systems but mine functions just fine on about $50 bucks a months or less for everything including electricity, salt, calcium and alk, water, and bulbs. That is about $600 dollars a year and once you add in a yearly or biyearly purchase of a piece of equipment and the occasional frag picked up at the fish store it probably runs about $1000 a year at least. I am not a buy the latest and greatest and I work on ways to cut cost and am a huge fan of DIY yet to maintain my tank I spend close to $1,000 a year. Given the median household income is about 50K a year a fish tank cost about 2% of a family's yearly income on a budget reefing plan. I'd say that is expensive at least more expensive than no hobby or painting

 

[droblack]

Reefkeeping often becomes an obsession of sorts, and many spend much more money than they initially intended.

For those that are patient and frugal, good deals can be had, but it is not a cheap hobby.

Maybe we should have our significant others chime in here, as their viewpoints might be different and eye opening. Of course, they usually do not know how much was really spent.

 

[Letoan]

In every hobby out there, you can go cheap or go all out, it's all personal.

I constantly ask myself these questions: Is my tank looks as good as the way I want it to be? Is the animals I'm keeping happy? IMO, don't put the dollar sign into what you like to do.

 

[mainereefer]

anyone know of a cheap hobby?
my other hobbies - atv's, guns, painting, crafts,musician,aquaponics..... I still havent found a cheap hobby...
maybe collecting rocks? but that would hurt my back and expensive to pay chiropractor.... nope no such thing as a cheap hobby

 

[droblack]

A few cheap hobbies:
meditation
walking
drawing
watching grass grow

Of course, you can make any of these expensive by walking and meditating in exotic locations, drawing with the best Wacom pad, or watching the right grass grow in the wrong state.

 

[heathd.hd]

This is better than my boating! Lol. That's expensive!

 

[DavidinGA]

I'm at about $16/gal in my 210gal (that's just equipment and no livestock). It's pretty cheap overall I think.


Here's a quick breakdown of my expenses:


210gal tank $600
Stand $100
Salt $75
Sand $150
Dry rock $300
Skimmer $400
Return pump $100
3x WaveMakers $250
75g sump $40
Heaters $30
Lights Mh 3x 250w $190
Dosing pumps $150
Dosing chemicals $50
UV $50
Reef angel plus extras $300
Rodi $120
Ato electronics $30
Ato pump $15
Ato 55gal container $20
Glass magnet cleaner $30
Gac/gfo reactor/pump $50
Gac/gfo media $50
Diy ATS $30
ATS pump $30
Plumbing $100
Misc $100


Looking at those numbers you can see where I bought new or got used deals. If I'd bought everything brand new I'd probably be well over $25/gal (ouch).

 

[Diesel]

In other news Ebola In NY, what the heck??

 

[ingtar_shinowa]

In other news Ebola In NY, what the heck??

Lol it doesnt count if only the doctor who worked in the region gets it!

 

[G_Sanab922]

This is better than my boating! Lol. That's expensive!

Ewww a Merc! haha looks like that little sucker can fly. This hobby can be expensive but compared to others it isn't. like fishing (boating), cars, flying and many others.. But that's comparing to hobbies that not everyone can afford. in my opinion this is an expensive hobby that most can afford. Really though, just depends on how deep your pockets are. Now what is the point of this thread? We all know that it's as expensive as you want it to be, just like every other hobby...

 

[Diesel]

Nothing learned yet!
Lets vote on a new forum in the build section "reeftanks on a budget", I want to see what comes out of that.
Really I thought it couldn't be done but reading some nice comments on here that it's possible.
maybe some day a fuse get lite under my ....... and I'll give it a shot at it too.

And as long there isn't a "Coral INC" on wallstreet I'll just enjoy my reef as is.

 

[G_Sanab922]

Nothing learned yet!
Lets vote on a new forum in the build section "reeftanks on a budget", I want to see what comes out of that.
Really I thought it couldn't be done but reading some nice comments on here that it's possible.
maybe some day a fuse get lite under my ....... and I'll give it a shot at it too.

And as long there isn't a "Coral INC" on wallstreet I'll just enjoy my reef as is.

The DIY sections is sort of like a reef tank on budget, maybe a DIY/Budget Section....

 

[CastAway]

I'm at about $16/gal in my 210gal (that's just equipment and no livestock). It's pretty cheap overall I think.


Here's a quick breakdown of my expenses:


210gal tank $600
Stand $100
Salt $75
Sand $150
Dry rock $300
Skimmer $400
Return pump $100
3x WaveMakers $250
75g sump $40
Heaters $30
Lights Mh 3x 250w $190
Dosing pumps $150
Dosing chemicals $50
UV $50
Reef angel plus extras $300
Rodi $120
Ato electronics $30
Ato pump $15
Ato 55gal container $20
Glass magnet cleaner $30
Gac/gfo reactor/pump $50
Gac/gfo media $50
Diy ATS $30
ATS pump $30
Plumbing $100
Misc $100


Looking at those numbers you can see where I bought new or got used deals. If I'd bought everything brand new I'd probably be well over $25/gal (ouch).

Now this is interesting. I'm going to go home and do the same thing, add it up...

Factor in livestock and power consumption, that dollar per gallon figure could get interesting. Thanks for sharing David!

 

[ou12004]

You can pick up an all in one tank for about 400-500 maybe better in a reef club and stock your tank with free corals if you wanted (GSP, Xenia, Mushrooms, etc). That being said once you get started reefing becomes an addiction and all of sudden you are out 5 Grand on a new 100 gallon tank to replace your 29 all-in-one. It could be an inexpensive hobby but it is not.

 

[Chetrod]

Planned correctly and budgeted it can be easier to deal with the financial part of an aquarium. The initial setup dictates the cost factor. Other factors impact the statement as well. If you are running a 300G with 400W Metal Halides, chiller, large pumps, skimmers, heaters, etc etc it can most certainly add up. Including electric bills etc. But if your making 200 a week its expensive if your making 2000 a week maybe not so much.

 

[Bombertech]

It really depends on how you classify your time/money. Going the 100% DIY route you can get into the hobby cheaply, sustaining a low/no cost setup is possible. I haven't put a dollar into this hobby in a year and a half. Time wise, yes you do have an investment but that's the "hobby" part. Recreation doing something you love to relax and decompress from the day. Now if I HAD to have the newest this and that, then yes, I would say it can become an expensive hobby.

 

[yellojello]

It really depends on how you classify your time/money. Going the 100% DIY route you can get into the hobby cheaply, sustaining a low/no cost setup is possible. I haven't put a dollar into this hobby in a year and a half. Time wise, yes you do have an investment but that's the "hobby" part. Recreation doing something you love to relax and decompress from the day. Now if I HAD to have the newest this and that, then yes, I would say it can become an expensive hobby.

Water change = money
Electricity = money
Fish food = money
Top-off water = money

I'm sure you've spent at least $1 out of these over a year and a half. =P