How much did you spend on you marine setup?

[aquarius]

i want to start a marine tank somewhere in the future, hopefully not in the far far out future. but anyway, how much would it cost me to set it all up, lets say a 100 gallon tank and if i were to buy all the best necessary equipment, just an estimate. thanks

 

[ste2k3]

It depends on wether you want fish only or reef and what degree you want to get into it?, i.e. do you want a sump which would bemuch better. 100 gallons is really the cross over size from externals to sumps so you have the chaice of either. you need to be more specific as to what you want.

I have a reef with a sump double halide etc etc and I got alot of the equipment second had or made it my self. this system has cost me well over £1000.

 

[aquarius]

shows how much i know. what's a sump? and i want to have both reef and fish

 

[reefboy2002]

also you need to work out whgat fish you want
and what corals

certain fish will eat corals and be bast**ds with each other
such as damsels
most butterfly fish will feed on corals etc

also u need to work out what filteration u want to have

a sump tank is some were were u have a dsb (deep sand bed )
or a miracle mud calurpa set up

and u can have ur heaters etc in there out the way

cheers reef

ps

btw i spent about 1500+ on my 90 gallon reef setup
and just setting up a bigger system 130 gallonish

 

[Great Lakes]

I shudder at the thought of what I have in mine. This week alone, I have bought light bulbs, and three corals. $500.00. Oh, and a 150 gallons of salt mix too.

I am setting up my 100 gallon refugium this week. I just finished my brine shrimp grow out tank.

If I had to guess, I would say I have spent over $7000.00 on my tank so far.

GL

 

[CJK]

It doesn't bear thinking about...the cost...it must be near to over £2500 we have spent on our marine set up and its only been going about 7 months

Also its also hearbreaking (not only about the money) when something dies. We have never lost a fish but have lost an Arrowhead crab due to a bad molt that made him weak and he got sucked in the filter and yesterday we lost our beloved plate coral due to stress of the move from the old tank to new one. Thats about £75 down the drain already

Sharon

 

[zooom101]

I just recently started a 29 gal setup.

100$ for tank, hood, filter.
70$ for stand.
70$ for various salt supplies,(Salt, hydrometer, Aragonite, air pump, ect.)
40$ for 2 pieces of live rock. (RIDICULOUS)!!
10$ for 2 yellow tail Damsels to cycle it.



Thats about 300 dollars. I havent even gotten An Octopus yet. (Its gonna be an octopus tank.)


Expensive hobby.

Billy

 

[ste2k3]

NO SKIMMER?

A protein skimmer is essential if your not using mud etc. also, do NOT cycleyour tank with damsels. its crule!!!.

$300 seems very cheap for a complete marine set-up. what size tank do you have?

 

[zooom101]

Its a 29 gallon.



I plan on getting a skimmer in the near future. It isnt necessary right now with the tank so lightly stocked.

By the way, why not use damsels to cycle the tank? They're doing fine and the tank has been cycling for three weeks now. If I shouldn't use damsels, what should I use?

Billy

 

[ste2k3]

you don't need to use anything to cycle your tank. it wil cycle on its own. also, how do you know your damsels are fine. just because there not dead dosn't mean that they are happy.

 

[zooom101]

I was under the impression that in order to cycle the tank, you must put fish in to raise the ammonia levels of the water. Bacteria then turn nitrite into nitrate. The bacteria are what you are trying to obtain in the whole process. If you dont have any fish in the tank, what provides the rise in ammonia levels?

I'm not challenging your knowledge of the hobby here, I am very new to fishkeeping, and would like to know how a tank cycles without fish. I have heard that you can buy ammonia and add it in, but this takes a lot of time and is expensive.


Billy

 

[devinf]

I noticed you plan to keep an octopus.

I would suggest keeping him in a tank by himself. They can be quite mischevious. A good preventative measure to take is to cover the top of the aquarium and some of the sides with astroturf - when he finds his way out of the tank (and he will), they dislike the feeling of astroturf and it will help to keep him in the tank and not walking around.

Example. Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific. Have a tank in one of their back rooms with a nice looking octopus. One day he was missing (after they had weighed down the tank cover from previous escape attempts). They found him inside another tank happily munching away. Same octopus was also able to unscrew a lid from a jar to get to food inside.

A protein skimmer is essential and should be bumpe up on your priority list for the tank.

Devin

 

[FrankSlapperinni]

wouldn't a 29 gallon aquarium be to small for an octopus? I was under the impresion that they needed a 75 gallon tank for only one.

 

[Great Lakes]

Don't sweat the skimmer right away. You will be fine without it for a few months after you are cycled.

On the octopus, read up carefully, they are escape artists from all I have heard.

 

[Landlocked]

If you get an octopus, make sure that its not a blue-ringed octopus! They're very poisonous, and if you're bit by one, you're most likely to die. People still ship them, though, and some lfs still carry them. DO NOT GET THEM!