jessikarabbit
Community Member
/agreed
Its an expensive hobby for sure, but the beauty of having the ocean in your home is amazing!
Whats the monthly cost?
- Thread starter Oberst Hajj
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/agreed
Its an expensive hobby for sure, but the beauty of having the ocean in your home is amazing!
tnyr5
Tony
My 100 gallon system with a refugium would cost about 100 per month to run if I bought everything instead of trading corals for drygoods at the lfs. 100 includes salt (15% weekly), replacement bulb, media, food, etc
ReefPiracy
Active Member
i'm sure its around 100 a month easy.
mc-cro
Active Member
are we talking about total cost per month now?Now that is a cost I dont want to know. I just started keeping a diary, in the last 2 months I blew almost a grand in just bs stuff for the tank. maybe I should stop keeping a diary.
vamaro
Community Member
I have a 220 gallon tank, Sedra 12000 return pump, ATB large skimmer, ozone, 2 tunze 6105 and 1 tunze wavemaker, 4 36inch t5 on 4.5 hours per day. Electric bill is about 125 in the winter. More in the summer if the chiller is on.
I only add Alk. One capful of Reefcode b per day.
Food is what costs me. I am guessing but I would safely estimate that I spend at least $8 per week in food. I have a FOWLR with big triggers, etc. Gotta keep them fat and happy.
About $150 per month.
I try not to think about it too much. I would like to get a more energy efficient return pump in the near future.
I only add Alk. One capful of Reefcode b per day.
Food is what costs me. I am guessing but I would safely estimate that I spend at least $8 per week in food. I have a FOWLR with big triggers, etc. Gotta keep them fat and happy.
About $150 per month.
I try not to think about it too much. I would like to get a more energy efficient return pump in the near future.
Maintenance and Husbandry are IMO the most important factors to consider when deciding on a tank size: are you willing to commit the $$ it will take it will take to maintain it every week or month to your tank as if you do not then at some point you are going to cut back on maintenance and care and that will eventually lead to a tank that will start to have problems and it is far easier IME to be pro-active and take care of the maintenance than to be re-active and take care of the problems as they will end up costing you more than what the maintenance cost would have been.
So for my 20 gallon Nano-Reef : about $50 a month between salt, foods, electric, compounds, etc. etc ... maybe a little less. I have actually never really tried to figure it out as whatever it is going to cost is what is what I need to spend to keep the tank in top condition. FWIW
So for my 20 gallon Nano-Reef : about $50 a month between salt, foods, electric, compounds, etc. etc ... maybe a little less. I have actually never really tried to figure it out as whatever it is going to cost is what is what I need to spend to keep the tank in top condition. FWIW
220g here. 1000w of lights, 2 return pumps, 1 fuge pump, 2 300w heaters (don't always run obviously), ATO, mixing pumps, 2 mp40's, massive skimmer, calcium reactor, biopellet reactor, salt, food, water, carbon reactor... so on so forth. Around $250-$300 a month all said and done. At least until bulb changing time that is a $200 alone.
Zack
Valuable Member
Definitely an expensive hobby, I haven't tried to calculate my total cost per month but when I do later today I hope I'm not in for a shock. I really had no idea what I was getting into 9 months ago when my saltwater addiction began!
Sent from my VS950 4G using Forum Runner
Sent from my VS950 4G using Forum Runner
Well that is not too bad I think ... not even 1.50 per gallon .. it's a big tank for sure. And on the lighting maybe you should consider LED's that would save on electric and on replacement cost of bulbs a LOT ... just saying ...
That may be a good idea indeed if you don't want to get a shock ...
I have thought of LED's I just don't think they are "there" yet. Not trying to derail the convo but the spectrum is to thin IMO, you take a gorgeous coral from a MH system and they will look great anywhere but from an LED system where they look unbeleivable and transfer to any other type of light they fall flat big time!
I guess it depends on how you make the change over from any light to any other light, whether LED or other ... I have a bunch of links to articles on Lighting and how it affects corals and they color and will post them to my thread, today if I can and you can then get perhaps a better idea of whether you want to make the change.
But what do you mean by "not there Yet " if I may ask ?
Zoomer
Community Member
I am sure by now you have an idea of the potential costs of all of this, the best advice I can give you is to be patient, spend a little more and buy the most energy efficient equipment you can afford. I just finished setting up a 120 (150 gallons of total volume), I have/had extra money coming in at the moment and could afford Radions (love'em by the way) and other slightly more expensive equipment; however I didn't want my month to month maintenance costs to be high so I made sure to focus on energy efficiency to keep my electric bill down (and my wife away from sticker shock ). Another element to consider with lighting halide/T5/Led is bulb replacement costs; between that and the electic bill an LED system pays for its self eventually - well sort of. One interesting thing I found when calculating my system (KWH - $27/mo) is that I plugged in 2 x 130w for my LED's, but at present I run them at 40% and have coral coloring up nicely...
). Another element to consider with lighting halide/T5/Led is bulb replacement costs; between that and the electic bill an LED system pays for its self eventually - well sort of. One interesting thing I found when calculating my system (KWH - $27/mo) is that I plugged in 2 x 130w for my LED's, but at present I run them at 40% and have coral coloring up nicely...
OP
OP
Oberst Hajj
Well-Known Member
I'm lucky in that my wife used to work for the utility company and her mom retired from there. So, she is energy minded to begin with. The other plus I have is that she is always hot (and I'm always cold, go figure), so anything that will keep the temps down in the "fish room" would get the nod of approval.
Yes indeed, to save on energy costs, being aware of what needs to be done to reduce them is a + and turning off lights ,Tv's and whatever else that consumes energy that is not needed at any given time wii definitely reduce overall costs. And so anything that can reduce energy consumption used on an aquarium will help a great deal as well. I am all for it.
jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
My main LED array can consume a maximum of 198w, but the maximum it is set at is ~140w or so.
My pumps consume a maximum of 185w (2x MP10wES, 1x MJ1200, a generic waterfall pump, and soon to be an MP40wES I added in).
My refugium and algae scrubber lighting total up to 80w (which is really, really overkill and I'm actually frying some macro in the fuge).
Add another 25w for anything else miscellaneous and for driver inefficiencies, and that totals up to 430w. Roughly $20 per month in electricity, which is actually more than I would like to pay, but oh well.
For food, I'd say i go through about $10-15 per month. This will change, though, as I'm going to make my own food, so I expect that to go down to about $5 or less.
Additives and dosing, maybe $5 a month. Baking soda and generic calcium additives are your friend.
Salt, little to nothing per month (no water changes or anything), I use regular Instant Ocean. $5 or less
Let's just call it $50 per month. Tank size is 80g.
My pumps consume a maximum of 185w (2x MP10wES, 1x MJ1200, a generic waterfall pump, and soon to be an MP40wES I added in).
My refugium and algae scrubber lighting total up to 80w (which is really, really overkill and I'm actually frying some macro in the fuge).
Add another 25w for anything else miscellaneous and for driver inefficiencies, and that totals up to 430w. Roughly $20 per month in electricity, which is actually more than I would like to pay, but oh well.
For food, I'd say i go through about $10-15 per month. This will change, though, as I'm going to make my own food, so I expect that to go down to about $5 or less.
Additives and dosing, maybe $5 a month. Baking soda and generic calcium additives are your friend.
Salt, little to nothing per month (no water changes or anything), I use regular Instant Ocean. $5 or less
Let's just call it $50 per month. Tank size is 80g.
My main LED array can consume a maximum of 198w, but the maximum it is set at is ~140w or so.
My pumps consume a maximum of 185w (2x MP10wES, 1x MJ1200, a generic waterfall pump, and soon to be an MP40wES I added in).
My refugium and algae scrubber lighting total up to 80w (which is really, really overkill and I'm actually frying some macro in the fuge).
Add another 25w for anything else miscellaneous and for driver inefficiencies, and that totals up to 430w. Roughly $20 per month in electricity, which is actually more than I would like to pay, but oh well.
For food, I'd say i go through about $10-15 per month. This will change, though, as I'm going to make my own food, so I expect that to go down to about $5 or less.
Additives and dosing, maybe $5 a month. Baking soda and generic calcium additives are your friend.
Salt, little to nothing per month (no water changes or anything), I use regular Instant Ocean. $5 or less
Let's just call it $50 per month. Tank size is 80g.
I would say that is "pretty" good for an 80 gallon. I spend about $50 for a 20 high .. so you have it well under control in terms of cost per month.
jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
And it is actually not as efficient as it could be. My return pump is a Mag 7 and uses more power than I'd like, the waterfall pump is a generic one I had laying around and is not energy efficient, and my fuge light is wayyyyyy too powerful, I'm actually frying chaeto under it.
Guess that is good as you can bring it down even further which for an 80 is going to be great .. Mine is way too high and it is mostly because of the foods a strong heater running most of the night because right now it gets pretty cold around here and the thermostat is set for 63 during the night so the house is pretty cool and the heater has to play catch up and is on all night of course. But even if it is high for a 20, it is not bad as a total amount.
BTW in a couple of weeks I am changing from a 20 H to a 20 L that is already drilled, and a sump (the 20 H). All I have to do is get the bulkheads and valves etc .. and a pump of course. I need to build a few baffles in the 20 and maybe a little space for a fuge. And then maybe I can get a "real" skimmer as opposed to that HOB one that I now have (although it is doing a pretty good job given how all the corals look).
Good to see you here too Ben.
