Here It Goes

[lil.guppy]

Ok ya'll....I have tied all the fish possible and now im on my last leg with cichlids. (owned them for 3 years now) I have a feeling that I will try these guys for maybe another couple of years if that.
My question is....with my set up (55gallon) how much am I looking at to transform this into a saltwater. And what am I looking at $ wis to keep it going.

 

[WayneVT08]

Initial start-up cost is high, maintenance is minimal (daily top-offs, water changes etc).

You just have to do it right. If you try to cut corners you will pay in the long run, so setting it up right the first time is a big thing, start reading, and researching everything, read all the sticky's.

I guarantee you you will spend quite a bit of money on it, if I didn't get my tank and stand for free (its a 30 gallon). The things I did pay for were the MH light, the sump, rock, pumps, powerheads, heaters, and the skimmer I just bought today (woo!) I probably have spent about 700 dollars on initial start-up.

Just make sure you do it right, and start it very slowly, I didn't and added a few too many fish too fast and I paid with a fight with ich that is ongoing now. Good luck!

 

[SkiFletch]

Ultimately that depends on what kind of tank you decide to have... Fish Only (FO), Fish Only With Live Rock (FOWLR), or a Reef tank. FO's are cheap, FOWLR's, have a high startup cost with the LR, otherwise cheap and easy to maintain. Its reef tanks where things get really expensive...

 

[ox5477]

True, as said twice already, things can get expensive, especially when the bug gets ya and you can't help but stopping to your local lfs twice a week to check out if they have gotten any new stocking.... bu beyond that, it just takes a little time to learn the basic knowledge of a healthy environment and like anything else, once you've been doing it for a little time, it becomes second nature

I just started converting my 55 over to salt. I already have a fowlr in a 30G which will be moved over to the 55 when everything is ready.. but as an idea of what I've got and the cost...

LR (roughly 35lb) - @$6.99/lb - ~$250
Base rock (Dead live rock, roughly another 30lb) - @$1.99/lb - ~$60
300W heater - ~$20
Skimmer - ~$120
Light - 4x65W PC's, 2 actinic, 2 10k - ~$200
Powerheads - 2 Maxi-1200's - $25 a piece
- 1 Koralia 3 - $45
Fish - 1 ocellaris clown (TR) - $18
- 2 yellow fairy wrasse - $21 a piece
- assorted inverts - $50 - largest chunk going to cleaner shrimp... I think $11 or 12


I plan on getting some photosynthetic corals as I won't have to spot feed them and frags can run anywhere from $40 to $150 depending on the rarity and color.

so let's see... all together for my 55 so far:
~~~$855~~~

This is of course excluding cost of salt, testing equipment, and an increase in utilities.. but it's all worth it.

For anybody else readin this too... remember this does not include the tank and stand cost... roughly anoth $200 to 250 depending on your lfs and what brand of tank it is... might even be more expensive