PROJECT COSTS $$$$$$ and a thank you

ackermsb

ackermsb

Member
FIRST OF ALL, I want to say that I appreciate all the people on this board who take the time to respond (which seems like everyone) to help everyone else. It's a really great thing I stumbled upon while web-surfing as I am a newbie and have received a ton of good responses to all my questions by people who are passionate about marine life. It has only made my experience with the hobby more positive.
ANYWAY ... I have all the goods and a 180G FO setup and running for years (I have not stopping reading about the hobby so I am trying to bring myself up to speed). I want to make the switch to a reef but I'm just not sure if it will be worth it ($$$) and I am trying to project my spending budget.
Can someone break down some average costs for me if I was to drain my tank and begin by adding LS and LR and how many pounds I will need. I also have some very bright (NO?) lights and a wet/dry filter so I would assume I would need a protein skimmer. If you guys and gals could help me put in perspective the costs I am looking at to turn the tank from FO to a partial reef with soft corals and then I could take it slow to build it up but I am looking for initial setup costs.
LS - $$ # of lbs.?
LR - $$ # of lbs (needed to get started)?
Skimmer - $$
Ligths - $$
It would really be a big help so I can figure out if its worth it. I guess the biggest initial cost would be the lights.
 
stacyt

stacyt

Active Member
Here are the prices that I see at my LFS.
LS: $25 per 20 lbs. Bag
LR: $5 per lb.
Skimmer: Depends on quality. For a 180 spend at least a minimum of $200.
Lights: Depends on the setup. MH/PC's/VHO. Or combination of the 3.
LR you'll want at least 180 lbs. Most say 1-1.5 lbs. per gallon. LS most will say 4" minimum. There's a site somewhere that you can figure out how many lbs. you'll need to acheive this, by entereing your tank dimensions. I'm sure someonw can post the link for you.
 
S

sebae0

Guest
hi akermsb and welcome, i have a 180 gal also and here is a list what it cost me:
lights: 2 250w metal halides cost me 200.00 for the ballast and 65.00 for each bulb. 6500k iwasakis. i also have 1 175w ballast that was 120.00 with a 10000k ushio bulb 68.00.
sand: approx. 400lbs to get me a 4-6" dsb, bought 250lbs of southdown playsand 6bags@ 9.99. i had the other 150 in established tanks already.
protein skimmers: i had 2 seaclones from my other 2 tanks that were 79.00 each got them at a online store.
i plan on adding 440w of vho lighting real soon which is gonna run about 240.00 w/bulbs.
hope this helps you out a little and good luck
 
krishj39

krishj39

Active Member
You can get LS for around 2$ a lb, and LR for about 3$ a lb, but you have to shop around, this is all ordering online though. I agree with everything said, just wanted to let you know you can get the LS and LR a lot cheaper if you order online.
 
hondo

hondo

Member
Lots of ways to do this some expensive, some cheap but all are effective. I will explain a cheap way to do things.
LR for a 180g reef your going to need 180 - 250 lbs. This is very expensive and the only real cheap way to go is mix base rock with lr and it will all be live in time. Buy 90lbs of good LR and mix it with 90 - 120lbs of base rock. Hard to put a price on this as it depends on where and what type of LR you are getting but figure $4 - $5 per lb and $1 per lb for the base rock.
Sand - go with dry sand from Home depot (southdown if you can find it but pretty much any kind of play sand seems to work even silica sand). You can either seed it with a small amount of LS or just spend $50 on a detrivore kit from an online retailer and the sand will have all the critters it needs. Dry sand at Home depot costs something like $9 - $12 for 50lbs.
Lights - very easy to save money here by going the DIY method. for a 180 I would recomend going with a MH/VHO combo. do a search on this site for DIY lighting or advance ballasts and you'll see numerous threads. You can buy 3 advance 250w ballast for around $65 ea. Make your own reflector (materials at home depot) and buy a mogul base from pretty much any website wire it your self and you have 3 X 250w MH set up for under $200. Buy 3 Iwasaki 6500k bulbs at $59 ea and your MH is set. For the VHO buy 2 workhourse 7 ballasts $45 ea, four sets of end caps $9.95 and wire it yourself. Bulbs run $24 - $29 on the net. This will give you 440w of VHO.
You will also want to buy some small 4" fans for ventilating your hood. do a search on this site and you'll see some cheap alternatives for this also.
 
yellowg555

yellowg555

Member
I found a place that sells cured marshall live rock for $2/pound. I bought 100 pounds of it recently and even went to their holding tanks to pick out the ones I wanted. The reason why it's so cheap is because most of the corraline algae has died off, but there is still some left. Great looking pieces, and I'm happy I got it from there even though they don't have much color on them. Email or PM me if you want to know where.
 
ackermsb

ackermsb

Member
WOW....
Much appreciated from all of you. Although I think I am still as confused about my direction (FO or reef) than i was before.
I guess the difference is money and since I just bought a house, I am a little reluctant.
So frustrating. You guys and gals are amazing. I will post some pics soon (as soon as i get my digi back from my sister) and maybe you can throw some ideas my way
 
ackermsb

ackermsb

Member
What is the best way to get the crushed coral out of the tank?
Can I change out the sand without redoing the entire tank?
Can I cycle the tank with the fish in there or should I get rid of the fish?
 
dattong

dattong

Member
I'd buy a cheap, big plastic container at target or OHS (about 50g) to transfer the CC and current water, fish, everything into it and have it run like usual while waiting for the new set up to complete its cycle. Go for reef, you know you love it, just that $$$ confuses you rite now :)
But for 180g tank, you gotta expect to spend alot of money. Base on my 100g, you'll need like about 400lbs of LS (can mix different type to save $), at least 200lbs of LR, 3 MHs, a good skimmer) everything else you already have. So I think it'll cost you about $2500 to get it started (no livestocks)
It'd hurt me quite a bit when thought about the amount of $ that I've spent or been spending for this hobby. But I've never regeted about it. GO FOR REEEEEFFFFFF !!!!!!!!!!!!
 
tim_russell

tim_russell

Member
First off, I'd like to know where YellowG555 got lr online for 2 dollars a pound. Sounds like a good deal to me.
If you were to start all over, I'd do a 3:1 ratio of ds and ls for your substrate. Myself, Southdown wasn't available here, however, I found some GREAT sand at Lowe's for 1.99 per 25lbs and it was Silicate free. I HAVE HAD NO NO NO problems w/ it and have no diotoms and algea problems at all. Here is another idea for the LR. I did a 55gal tank with this. Instead of buying LR, i "made" lr with the help of http://www.garf.org/ My wife and I enjoyed it because WE together(and yes, we, cause the tanks are my lil hobby) made it adn it got her more interested in them. The only draw back is, if you make it( and the lr "officially" is called agreocrete), it takes time and, but I have some quick tips on curring faster **wink wink**.
When you cycle, also, drop some raw shrimp from the seafood deli at walmart or krogers in it. A 180g tank, you can probably put 5-10 pieces of shrimp in there. It cut my cycle time on a 90g in half....and that tank, again, is doing great....
Good luck and congrats on the new house
 
yellowg555

yellowg555

Member
I don't want to say the name of the place publicly, but feel free to email me at yellowg555@yahoo.com and I will let you know. I actually didn't order it online...I went to their warehouse in Long Beach and picked out the rocks I wanted from their 3 massive holding tanks.
The reason why it's $2 a pound is that they used a boat and hauled up 60 or 80 tons of the rock from around some atolls in the Marshall Islands, but experienced a failure in their generators or whatever they used for power on the boat. So all the rock they had harvested prior to the equipment failure lost most of its color since they had to wait a month or two before the proper replacement parts could be shipped out to the Marshall Islands. All their rock with color sold out quick, but most of the rock that is left (around 20-30 tons) has some red corraline algae on it.
 
overanalyzer

overanalyzer

Active Member

Originally posted by tim_russell
it takes time and, but I have some quick tips on curring faster **wink wink**.

Hey tim - what are you tips to cure it more quickly?? either post or shoot me an e-mail:
hilscher@kc.rr.com
 
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