What’s your average monthly upkeep cost?

[Cichlid Dad]

You mean you want me to admit what I spend?!??? Never!

 

[Formulator]

Thank you all for your responses. So it seems at minimum with electric increase, food, and a few basic supplies, I’m looking at least ~125-150 usd per month in operating cost. And I know if I’m hitting up the LFS, I’m likely to buy frags and fish so that cost could easily hit the 250+ per month.

I’ll be honest, that a bit more than I expected and remembered from the last time I had a tank. albeit that was 20 years ago.

I’ll figure out some way to rationalize it I’m sure .

I really think you can keep the cost lower than that with some creativity. Electricity is the hardest one, especially if you live in an area with high electricity costs. Perhaps solar power as you mentioned, or even using natural light if you live far enough south and can afford the up front cost of installing solar tubes.

 

[PharmrJohn]

Last time I ran a tank was 12 years ago and it ran me about $100 per month. Never did look into my electric bill difference. But after stocking, I expect my 155 will run at least 150 per month. And one has to take into account upgrades along the way as part of the monthly output. But I plan on getting that out of the way with my buy in. I'll get everything I want from the beginning to get that out of the way.

 

[C_AWOL]

Between 9 tanks totaling 2615g in display volume (not counting any qt or sump volumes) on an annual basis that I can easily calculate.

2520 on salt (instant ocean)
1560 on fleece rolls (red sea 1200, clarrisea 5000, bubble magus L)
2000 on frozen fish food (pe mysis, spirulina mysis, ocean plankton, calanus, krill, diy)
600 on dry fish food (various nls buckets, fd krill, fd ocean plankton, seaweed)
1330 on additives (ab+, vitachem, selcon, chaetogro, diy potassium+limewater, 100% glacial acetic acid)
1320 on miscellaneous comsumables (carbon, gfo, biopellets, calcium reactor media)
~350 on 7" 200 micron filtersocks (I reuse these to death so it might be less tbh)

So without counting water+electricity+likely missing items/harder to calculate items(such as testing) I spend about 17690 annually which comes out to almost 1500 a month.

Keep in mind my tanks are not linear in cost (my larger tanks cost way more to feed + do maintenance on than smaller) and I'm very heavy handed with feeding + run 7/9 tanks with a high/very bioload (either large quantities of fish, big fish, or both)

 

[UMALUM]

I always told clients to expect about a dollar a gallon.

 

[Ef4life]

I always told clients to expect about a dollar a gallon.

That seems to track with what’s been said roughly. A good starting point to plan a budget at least

 

[miyags]

Just the basics are getting out of reach for me..RODI resin, I go thru to much..cost of salts quadruple since I started.$20 for a 200 gal box... I'm slowly getting out..sold off most of my corals..still have my fish, most are in their late teens early twenties. started in the late 80's. It's a never ending money pit..My age / The thrill and addiction has eroded in me..

 

[mmorrison55]

I always told clients to expect about a dollar a gallon.

For the main tank volume or main tank + sump? I’m assuming this formula is a close proximity of the upkeep cost for the main tank volume for the most part.

This already has me thinking it might be easier on the wallet to stick around 100 gallons. I was originally thinking I would like to get something in the 200-220 range.

I had a 50 gallon tank when I was 1st in the hobby 20 + years ago and when it crashed, I got depressed and didn’t want to start over. I’ve matured (hopefully) and expect to have problems that I will need to work through, but hoping 100 gallons might be big enough to provide some cushion from an event that would kill everything quickly. Not as good as having 200+ I’m sure, but I can’t justify that kind of monthly outlay at this time.

Plus I’ve seen some beautiful reef tank set ups in the 100 gallon size, and think I could be happy with that.

 

[UMALUM]

More of a give or take rule of thumb. You'll find months where you come in light and then months where you come in a little heavy.

 

[C_AWOL]

I think it's fair to say that in most peoples situation it would be display only as far as "dollar per gallon a month" considering most prefab sumps are usually filled only to ~9".

Using my own tanks the sumps add an additional ~1315g to my already 2615g worth of water putting my total at approximately 3900g of water which I don't account for when doing my own water changes or dosing (under dosing is easily fixed, over is not)
Without electricity and water, my original cost per gallon a month would be ~58 cents a gallon and after factoring the sumps actual volume it lowers my cost to ~.38 cents a month.

For sure the upfront cost of a 200 will greatly exceed that of a 100 but maintenance cost may only marginally increase (or not at all) depending on the planned route.

For example, it cost me less to maintain my 210 clown harem anemone tank (335g total volume) than it does my 150g semi fowlr (190g total volume) due to the necessary food input and nutrient export for the latter.

 

[danreef55]

C_AWOL sounds like an awesome system. Do you have a tank thread? Would enjoy seeing it.

 

[C_AWOL]

C_AWOL sounds like an awesome system. Do you have a tank thread? Would enjoy seeing it.

I don't have a build thread but keep in mind it's 9 different systems ranging between 60-675g in display volumes, not one singular 3900g system (maybe someday)

 

[danreef55]

I don't have a build thread but keep in mind it's 9 different systems ranging between 60-675g in display volumes, not one singular 3900g system (maybe someday)

@C_AWOL I figured these are separate systems. Send some pics when you get a chance.

C_AWOL sounds like an awesome system. Do you have a tank thread? Would enjoy seeing it.

 

[BradB]

Surprised people's costs are so high, maybe they are being overly high with estimates.

I have a 270 gallon display, probably just under 400 gallon total. Typically I do a 75 gallon water change every 2 months ($25 for salt), $40 for electricity. Fish food, test kits and 2 part and anything else combined is less than salt. So I am about $60 if nothing goes wrong and I don't want to add or change anything - which is where the real money is. Very easy to blow $300 at a frag swap, on 1 fish, or spend more buying something stupid like an Apex.

Advice: This hobby is about money, knowledge and time. You can make up for a deficiency in any 1 with ample investment in the other 2. If you are deciding whether or not you can afford a reef tank, and aren't comfortably paying double your estimate, you need to be certain you have ample time and really know what you are doing. An almost successful reef tank is almost as expensive as a successful reef tank, so if you jump in and back out, you end up with no money and no reef.

 

[BeanAnimal]

If you count these things nothing good will come of it.

 

[RedReefer]

100 gal reef. $50 monthly with electric, food, salt, etc.

 

[mmorrison55]

100 gal reef. $50 monthly with electric, food, salt, etc.

This is more like it and what I was hoping to be looking at once I have stopped buying livestock.

 

[Goaway]

112g. return pump, skimmer, jebao 150 wave maker, 3x noopsyche k3, 1 t5 set. 35-40 per month electricity. Hardly do water changes
Monthly food blend is 10 per month. Ribbon eel live food was $4 per week

Raising my own mollies now

Afr dosing is 12 per month...

I'd say monthly my tank is around 60 to maintain.

 

[Sump Crab]

The biggest expense for me would be the energy cost to run the tank, although im not sure what that is lol. Besides that it's very cheap. I buy a 5 gallon bucket of salt every year or two, some food here and there, RODI filter stuff once a year, and some carbon every three months. I don't dose or anything like that.

 

[fishtex]

Cheaper than golf; cheaper than attending a professional sports event; cheaper than a popular artist’s concert; and many other things. It’s all relative.