How much dose it cost to start up a saltwater tank

[93sdryden]

How much dose it cost to start up a saltwater tank?
excl. fish and tank

 

[canyoubelieveit]

What size tank are you going to have? It can get fairly expensive. Do you want to have coral? The lighting required for that can bring the price up quite a bit. To get the tank set up, excluding the tank and fish... try to set aside around 500 dollars. I'm sure that you can do it cheaper...but if you want quality, it will cost at least that much.

To echo the thoughts of others... If money is an issue this is probably not the right hobby for you.

 

[stellablu]

Depends on what size tank you use, whether you want live rock and/or live sand bed (which I personally wouldn't go without either), what type of filter system you choose to use, what type of lighting you need or want, protein skimmer, calcium reactor, sump, refugium, powerheads, heaters, blah blah blah...

Some options are more expensive than others and there are ways to get around most of the more "expensive" items...such as using Ebay or trade/buy/sell forums or building them yourself. However, some items are worth the money and I wouldn't suggest going the cheap way out.

Some decisons would have to be made about lighting, for example. Depending on the tank size and what you were housing (corals, live rock, fish only etc) you might be able to get away with using something similar to Coralife's Aqualight or you might need to fork out some extra cash for metal halides which can make a world of a difference cash wise.

Say you were setting up a 30g. I would say, AT CHEAPEST, you might spend $300 just setting it up. I'm not including costs of live rock and such. This price mainly includes filter, lighting, protein skimmer and a heater. You could hold off on a protein skimmer until you get an algae bloom, but I'd have it hooked up beforehand. I've found the ones with the UV sterilizer to be overrated, especially when keeping corals.

Oh, goodness. This is such an easy...yet supremely complicated question haha.

I'll try to find you some links that might help you...it would help to know what size tank you're interested in and what kind of fish/inverts you'd like to keep.

 

[stellablu]

To echo the thoughts of others... If money is an issue this is probably not the right hobby for you.

I second that. To add to it though...even when going in with a lot of money for set-up doesn't mean you're done spending money. This is especially true if you decide to keep corals...which are like an addiction and not a particularly cheap one at that.

If you don't know much about saltwater fish and systems do your homework! My daughter's teacher wanted me to set her up a "Nemo" tank ::shutter:: but didn't have the slightest bit of knowledge about how much upkeep, how much money, and how much time you have to spend when you own a saltwater tank. You need to learn about compatability between fish, take in consideration feeding habits, hardiness, and adult size of fish.

There is NO harm in taking the extra time to read into the hobby...I fully encourage you to dive into all the websites and ask as many "silly" questions on the forums as possible...for I would MUCH rather answer to same questions over and over again than have someone post about a mistake they've made...and you will make mistakes. We all did (or still do!)...

(I talk too much!)

Going to find you those links now.

 

[93sdryden]

the tank is a 100 gallen
very big.

money is not a problem.

 

[Navarre]

Well prices vary from country to contry and shop to shop.

Its better to give you a list of itmes and then let you find the best proce for them.

(This is assuming you want a reef settup)

2x 250 Halides
2 Actinic tubes

Aragonite sand

50kg of liverock minimum

2x 300w heaters

Skimmer

A number of powerheads that combined will give minimum of 1000gph turnover

Sump or external filter (or both) is advisable but not essential.

UV steriliser is advisable

Cleanup crew.. a mixture of 100 snails and hermit crabs

Hope this helps.

 

[leon]

In 1 word! ALOT!!, With this hobby the list of things to get is endless, then the list for livestock is endless aswell, impulse buys are so easy to do, when i did FW tanks, i thought £10 was alot for a fish, a few hundred pounds for a complete set up, but this is easy to spend a fortune cause theres such a huge choice of stunning fish, corals and inverts. Ive spent the best part of £5k since september last year, and im still no where near where i want my tank to be, ive spent £65 on 1 fish, £80 on a true pair, £50 on 1 coral, i have a fish on order thats £85!. You can do it slowly like your supposed to do, but cause the range of stuff comes in weekly, and it maybe something youve never seen, PLUS most lfs keepers dont really know what theyre on about, with "yeah its reef safe", when refering to anything, getting it before someone else does is just soooooo easy. We all make mistakes, we all buy that fish we shouldnt have, but this is all part of the learning process, you'll come to know your fish species, what goes on what doesnt, sites like this are here for that. Im going off subject now, so i'll leave it at that. )
leon

 

[Def]

I am budgeting £800 for the complete setup, excluding tank/cabinet/sump tank costs, including live rock and excluding all livestock. That's for a 100g tank + 30g sump (UK gallons).

 

[leon]

Ive spent £850 on L.R alone, i have 105kg's mind, but i could have done it cheaper, its best to look on the net in for sale sections, ebay ect, sometimes i can be worth buying a whole set-up for the stuff you want then sell the stuff you dont, the cheapest L.R i can deffo get if £7 per kg and thats fiji, caribean redsea or tongan, most lfs do it for between £10 - £12 per kg, some peeps sell it for £5 per kg when they shut there tanks down, these are the best to get!
This hobby can be done alot more cheaply, but its sourcing everything, and newbies tend to just trust their lfs unfortunately, I was one of them! )
leon

 

[blout]

put it this way if i had 10 grand and no bills to pay i would spend it all on a new tank and all the right equipment, but really its what you want to put into the hobby in the first place.

 

[RamJet]

I have put close to $1500.00 into my 15 gallon reef and I spend more each month to mantain it. Keep this in mind, thats $100.00 per gallon! I think that you will find that this is the case with most reefers that have a tank that is full and heathly.