monthly costs?

[lkpatterson]

How much cash flow on a monthly basis do you guys spend on this hobby? I know everyone has different issues and setups, but, I'm still researching. Just for a 75g reef ready oceanic set up I'm looking @ >$2,000. I plan to start with fowlr. Any ballpark figures for monthly maintenance and supplies? Thanks

 

[dacia]

Getting started is obviously the most expensive part of this hobby. Keep researching, though, and your costs will decrease dramatically because you won't have to buy new stuff to clean up old mistakes.
Normally my money is just spent on food, more salt, calcium additives for the reef, etc. It's really not that expensive once you get all the LR you need and all the equipment including the RO/DI unit. Unless you mean how much your power bill will go up...

 

[nm reef]

Monthly maintenance costs are fairly low...basically just the expenses for foods/additives/light replacements(I stagger replacements every 3 months to reduce cost each time)...the major expense is in setting up a reef and the purchase of equipment and live stock. After you've built and stocked you are set until you decide to upgrade!

Home of
New Mexico Reef

nmreef@cox.net

 

[marinemarty]

I Have a 75 Oceanic reef. After you get all the hardware the maintanace is about 15-20 dollars for additives and food, and my lights dual 175 MH(8hrs) and Dual 95 watt atinics vho( 12 hrs) jacked up my bill $65 plus all the pumps and all. HTH
Martin

 

[daniel411]

$65 dollar increase in electric bill for just a 540w of lighting and some pumps? Sounds quite a bit high.

 

[lkpatterson]

I'm sure its all worth it.

 

[dukenay]

if you use ---- ya can save a lot of money on your start up or classifieds
Duke

 

[escape2thewater]

My electric bill spiked about 25 bucks for dual 175w MH & 4 NO actinics. I am in FL though, I beleive electric/utilites is cheaper here then NY where Marty is.
Kyle

PS - Yes once you get everything set up its not as bad, but I have to always be upgradeing something to be happy! No winning!

 

[sammystingray]

I believe New York City has the highest electric rate in the country...more so than even California. Atleast it did when I looked it up last week. 4 cents a kilowatt hour here....beat that!

 

[cdubbs]

great so my dad will be happy when he gets the next electric bill..im from brooklyn ny..nyc always has the highest prices for everything..especially car insurance

 

[marvida]

OK, This happens to everyone who gets into this hobby. They start asking about costs. Worse yet they start keeping track, and some have even been foolish enough to share that info with family & friends. My advice to you is simply to STOP asking and in no way keep track. Just get your tanks set up (yes, there will be more than one) as soon as you do the warm fuzzies take over and suddenly it doesn't matter.
Seriously, I try to work with a goal of $50 per month, annualized. This is for new stuff. Who knows what maintainence, power, etc. costs. Someday I hope to start living within that budget.
Having addictive personality disorders doesn't help.
Have fun!

 

[dzones]

I think my electric bill climbed about 30 bucks a month but considering I have over 1000 watts of lighting and a total of 22 items plugged in for my tank I think that is pretty good.
Between the electric and other typical costs like salt and food I would think on average about 50-60 bucks a month.
I would pay a lot more considering that it is the biggest draw I have in my house.
Every time someone comes over they head straight for the fish tank.