Please help

[scossairt]

Hi, i'm sorry to be so exact but could you answer this please.
How much money did you spend on you setup and what was it you spent it on?
How much time do you spend a day taking care of your fish--doing what?
How often do you test?
How often do you add water?
how much time do you spend a week taking care of fish?
Thanks for any help! :help:

 

[jafrench]

Money- Too much: 90gallon tank-$150
Lights-$800
Skimmer and equipment- $250
90lbs Live Rock-$300
100lbs Live sand-$150
Fish & Corals- $300
Adoring my Beautiful Creation- PRICELESS
Time per Day- Tending and feeding-1Hr or less/ Watching-Several Hours
Testing Time- Once every 3 weeks or so
Add Water- about 3gal/2 days
I couldn't spend enough time watching my fish. Every dollar has been well spent and there are plenty more dollars to spend. I love this hobby.

 

[turningtim]

Hi, and welcome to the boards!
1. Don't know and I don't want too and I REALLY don't want my wife to know! :scared:
2. According to my wife TOO MUCH, me not enough!
3. Probably to much, but I can sleep at night.
4. Quite a bit.
5. see #2

JMO! It really depends on the set-up you want to build. You can buy all new stuff w/ every gadget out there, spend tons of money, will you have success maybe? maybe not?..... If you look and are patient you may find a great deal on a used set-up that will meet your needs.
A new tank will require more time, an esatablished tank not so much. This hobby does take time no matter what.
A new tank will require more testing and then what ever your comfortable with, I test twice a week. PH, CAL, ALK, MAG, PO4, TRATES and SG. Always test waterchange water before it goes in the tank so all tolled 3 times.
I don't add water everyday b/c I drip Kalk for top off water. I go through my Kalk conatiner every 2-3 days. I lose a little less than a gallon a day in evap.
In the end I really don't add up time or money b/c this is a hobby/fun/relaxing and I don't need the added stress. I buy some new some used stuff and try and be as economical as possible without buying junk. I will say I spend more time watching than I do working on it!

HTH I'm sure your just more confused!

Tim

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by scossairt
Hi, i'm sorry to be so exact but could you answer this please.
How much money did you spend on you setup and what was it you spent it on?
How much time do you spend a day taking care of your fish--doing what?
How often do you test?
How often do you add water?
how much time do you spend a week taking care of fish?
Thanks for any help! :help:

Rocks - $300
Tank and filter plus glass top and live sand(I put it on at night only, no top during the day, dog hair!) $250
Lighting and Timers - $850
Protein Skimmer - $165
Inhabitants - $80
Corals - $300
I run test once a week!
I top off with RO water daily, I lose about half a gallon per day. $1.65(5 gallon per week) since I use the same RO water for 2 tanks,,,all this setup isn't including my other tank.
I spent about 10min each morning feeding and checking up and about 10min feeding and checking everynight, plus 10min in cleaning off the glass and around 20min to feed the corals every 3 days. And sometimes 5 hrs at a time moving things and making sure things are ok. And around 30-45min doing water change weekly to bi-weekly. And before when fish was sick, I spent about 2 hrs each day taking care of them until they're well.... :happyfish

 

[dogpoor]

90 Gallon reef tank
Tank, stand, sump/refugium, lights - $500.00 (used)
skimmer - $150.00
Misc equipment - $200.00
Rock - $400.00
Sand - $150.00
Fish and Invertebrates - $500.00
Test once a week.
Top off every other day. Water change every 2 weeks.
Time spent - Maybe 30 minutes a day. More when doing water changes.
Once a month equipment cleaning - 2 hours.
jafrench said it all - The time spent with this hobby is PRICELESS!!! Such a beautiful sight to come home to. There is something new to learn every day. And it is a major addiction. This is one tank. I have 5 others. And I know there will be more.

 

[jjlittle]

150 galTank , hand made stand & canopy ,lighting MH & VHO,pumps ,skimmer , sump & refrug, plumbing, ro/di unit, 300 lbs LR , Ls & cc , fish , coral, additives / treatments, - about $8,000.00
I loose about 5 gal evap a day.so replace that
10% water change every week
Test 2 times a month unless I notice something wrong
Tank pretty much runs it self , if you set up the tank right you will have very little to do to it weekly I clean glass & skimmer couple times a week other then that takes care of it self.
What it is worth to me $Priceless

 

[hansgraf]

I could not even begin to add up what we have spent but I am sure it is similiar to the other people who posted replies. My advice to you is do all of the research and know what you are doing BEFORE you start. We jumped in feet first and did not start asking questions untill things were not working. We have literally flushed tons of money down the toilet because our fish were always dying. It was only then that we started asking questions - mostly here on board- We kept at it because of the amount of money we have invested and now almost a year later we are finally doing well. My tank is not near where I want it to be yet but it should be within the next few months. We got very discouraged that it was not going smoothly and we were losing so much money so make sure you have the right setup and know what you are doing before you start.
Good luck