Average Costs?

[electropunk06]

Hi just a quick one, What are the average monthly running cost of a 75gallon (250L) marine tank?
Thanks
Lloyd

 

[juggernuts]

at a guess probabaly about 0.0001% of what it actually cost you to setup!

 

[ozzie2011]

That would depend on type of lights used, food used, additives etc. I would say about £25-30 a month. I use twin halides but we never really noticed a big rise in our electricty bills unlike other members. The big thing is when you run out, maybe you use zeo which is about £30-50 every 6 months for each treatment, salt £50 a tub as and when....halide bulbs £50 each every 12 months,T5's £30 each every 9 months, uv £30 very 12months.Test kits, £100 a year and thats without stock

Its a tough one to break down monthly to be honest

 

[Jack.]

Most times, If you have to ask you can't afford it. But quite honestly 20 to 30 bucks a month is what's the most it can run you.

 

[KittyKat]

The equipment is quite easy to calculate: wattage * hours-it-runs-for-per_day * days-in-a-month. Then add up the results for all the equipment you want to have, divide by 1000 to get it in kWh, then just look at your electricity prices for kWh. Of course, add dry goods on top.

I actually always find these things easier to calculate per year (to include dry goods), then divide by 12.

 

[dannywrc]

mines around £100 a year. equipment as follows in a 125l tank with 20l sump.

2x24w t5
2x28w t5
maxijet 1200
koralia 1
koralia 2
v2 skimmer
150w heater
50w heater

HTH

buying salt and ro is probably more so you need to take that into consideration too

 

[electropunk06]

Hi thanks for the help, it is looking more promising i could probably afford £50 a month. and have £300-350 to get my tank set up to have marine fish would this be plausible?
What equipment would i need?
Thanks
Lloyd

 

[HappyGeorge]

Depends what you have already, £350 to set up would be a bit tricky. Live rock is going to be at least £4 a kilo, and that would be from someone needing to offload it quick in a classified somewhere. You're going to need about 30-40kg I would think so that's at the very least a third of your budget.
Then don't forget the water changes and salt, if we said salt is £2 a kilo, and very roughly 33g of salt per litre and you will be doing a 25l water change a week and then the cost of the RO water, or an RO unit for home (more initial outlay). If I used my LFS supply as an example then just the initial filling a 75G with water is going to cost you approx £50 just in water and salt.

Are you planning on a sump?

If you list your current equipment people could advise on what would be possible.

If all you needed to add was a skimmer, live rock, salt, a refractometer, and RO it might be just possible.

That's assuming you have pumps, heaters, lights, test kits, powerheads, sand, containers to transport the water in.

I am setting up at the moment and almost everything has gone over budget and forgot a few things like adding the price of bulbs to the cost of the light unit!

Could you also clarify the tank volume as 250 litres is either 55 UK gal or 66 US gal?

 

[electropunk06]

Hi ive just bought a juwel rio 300 (350L sorry typo) and have a fluval u2 internal and the standard juwel bio flow filter. my plan was for tropical and it is cycling but thought marine would be posable and am dong some research. i have 4 HO t5 lights. and a rena 300W heater along with the juwel one.
So it is prety much set up for tropical at the minute hard wear wise, but still dont have any substrate or decorations.
not sure on sump, would you advise on one, i do have a spare 60L if that would work as one.
Thanks
Lloyd

 

[ozzie2011]

If you go down the sump road mate, you will iether have to get the tank drilled or buy an overflow box, then there is the pipework, the fittings for a drilled tank are about £20 each. I have a guy local to me that charges £10 to drill each hole which works out cheaper than doing it yourself. You would also need a return pump.

In my opinion even though you could use a 60l I would say its too small by the time you have partitioned it.

 

[electropunk06]

Yeah i though that, think im going to leave marine alone for a year or two. and stay with tropical for a little longer.
thanks for the help, im going to keep researching marine until im ready.
Lloyd

 

[HappyGeorge]

Yeah i though that, think im going to leave marine alone for a year or two. and stay with tropical for a little longer.
thanks for the help, im going to keep researching marine until im ready.
Lloyd

I think that is sensible mate, trying to do it on a tight budget could lead to some major frustrations when you can't have the tank you want because of hardware limitations and hunting down the 2nd hand kit to do it on budget would be a nightmare, probably better to wait a while and look at buying a system thats being sold complete on the bay of E.