What's the average reefers monthly budget?

[pwfess]

The average new car payment is $734 a month!!! Family and friends will look at me like I'm nuts when I drop hundreds, or even 1k+, on a nice coral. But these same people will pay well over $500 dollars a month for transportation. Personally, I decide not to have a car payment and I work a little extra in order to cover my hobby expensive. So I ask everyone if they have a monthly budget for the reef tank?

 

[pwfess]

I have to live modestly to remain debt free or I'll be broke and /or in debt. Also I don't swim I sink

Thanks. With just a mortgage your on the right path. I set a goal to have our home paid for by age 59. I paid it off when was 58.
Day care is so expensive these days. I was fortunate with my Gals flexible schedule and the help of my parents we never had to pay for child care.

My goal is 60. If I can swing 58 i'll be happy. Cost of health inusrance is biggest issue but I'm sure I'll figure it out. Youre not kidding on daycare being expensive. I'm at $1700 a month to have the two of them go

 

[pwfess]

Ok, Mr. Private Eye-contracted-by-wife. My tank is self-sustainable, maybe $20/mo. Totally feasible and not even enough to merit an accounts audit.

My wife and my reefing contract are constantly under negotiation

 

[Borat]

Approximately 20 US&A bucks a month for my 100 gallon SPS tank.. that does not include electricity costs though!

 

[Jasonak]

I have to live modestly to remain debt free or I'll be broke and /or in debt. Also I don't swim I sink

I do not swim either, when ever I try to people always dart down to the water to try and rescue me, my wife on the other hand is a Olympic swimmer. But put a snorkel on me and I could swim to hawaii and back. Snorkeling is so different from swimming if you ask me. I spend hours every day in the water with a snorkel on. I can only tread water for about 2 minutes without a mask and snorkel then im a goner.

 

[pwfess]

All this money talk has me close to buying another Master Scolymia now lol

 

[Reeferbadness]

How do you drain your tank so quick ??

For a while, i used one of these connected to a sink - but found it too slow. Now I just use a regular syphon and do 10 or 15 g 2x a week. Syphoning 15 g only takes a couple of mins

 

[Jasonak]

That what I use but it takes for ever to get 70 gallons out.

 

[exnisstech]

My goal is 60. If I can swing 58 i'll be happy. Cost of health inusrance is biggest issue but I'm sure I'll figure it out. Youre not kidding on daycare being expensive. I'm at $1700 a month to have the two of them go

Ya Healthcare is not a big worry for me because I don't do doctors. I am on a government paid plan with a $7300 deductible so I do have some coverage for a catastrophic injury or similar so I wouldn't have to sell the house lol

 

[Fenral]

Congrats on the hard work and debt free retirement! Thats my goal (although reefing is hindering it right now and 2 daycare bills lol). But we only have the house mortgage debt right now

You think daycare bills are bad... Wait until the dentist gets ahold of them (My girls just tanked my budget for 2025 with both needing braces...

 

[Chris Spaulding]

2 Tanks 300g and 150g 50 plus fish total food is the biggest expense about $80 a month for food. I feed ALLOT of frozen. Then there is other maintenance stuff at about $25 a week.
So $200 month. This does not include new coral additions and such. I really do not want to know.

 

[Noodles_Jefferson]

I love hanna NO3. I do ICP monthly with reef moonshining and it always lines up with ICP. I think most people reefing would agree on those big 3 for hanna checkers.

ok, good because with the Salifert you have to check the color against the color chart and sometimes it's guesswork. I prefer a digital readout.

 

[pwfess]

You think daycare bills are bad... Wait until the dentist gets ahold of them (My girls just tanked my budget for 2025 with both needing braces...

Omg you’re so right with that. I’ve been dreading thinking about the braces down the road haha

 

[pwfess]

ok, good because with the Salifert you have to check the color against the color chart and sometimes it's guesswork. I prefer a digital readout.

Yeah but stay clear of Hanna Ca and Mg. They’re no good. Salifert is great for those and you only have to see when the drops turns the reagent to blue and then you read the number on your 1ml syringe and correspond it to their chart: it’s very good

 

[SpyC]

Nobset budget here. If something needs replacing I order it. For fish and coral, it is very dependent of sales and what I am looking for. Could spend $500 3 mo ths in a row and other times $0 for months.

 

[pwfess]

Nobset budget here. If something needs replacing I order it. For fish and coral, it is very dependent of sales and what I am looking for. Could spend $500 3 mo ths in a row and other times $0 for months.

That seems to be the trend from some people. At least that how Ive been. Except I havent hit the $0 for months yet

 

[deome]

I put nearly all my tank expenditures on one particular credit line (mostly to spread out payments on ruinously expensive equipment purchases), so I know know my budget pretty well--right now it runs about $200/mo, excluding livestock and coral which I can rarely afford.

 

[pwfess]

I put nearly all my tank expenditures on one particular credit line (mostly to spread out payments on ruinously expensive equipment purchases), so I know know my budget pretty well--right now it runs about $200/mo, excluding livestock and coral which I can rarely afford.

You will in time

 

[Paul B]

I don't have a budget. If I see something I like, I buy it. But my tank is very old so it is overfull so I can't buy much. I don't test, quarantine, medicate or change much water so I hardly spend anything on the tank.

Of course I buy food and maybe once a year need RO/DI cartridges or pre filters for it.

 

[stewy14]

like 10$ not even a month

 

[pwfess]

I don't have a budget. If I see something I like, I buy it. But my tank is very old so it is overfull so I can't buy much. I don't test, quarantine, medicate or change much water so I hardly spend anything on the tank.

Of course I buy food and maybe once a year need RO/DI cartridges or pre filters for it.

lololol