well i have offically hit the $2500 mark.

[scubadoo]

I got in this hobby over 30 years ago.....I would be hard pressed to place a number on what I have spent. Power outages, sickness, moves, tank crashes., cabinet failures/collapse, equipment failures, overstocking, not listening to good advise, etc, etc etc. Plus all the mistakes possible and known to the hobby.
I probably have made every mistake possible. I have not lost a fish in over 5 years now....so maybe I have learned something.

 

[wwfstyle]

My biggest mistake was spending all the money for underground filters and CC and purchaseing stuff before being introduced to this forum. If I knew about this forum before hand I would have started out right but I had to learn from ALOT of my own mistakes and listening to an old LFS. I bet I lost or misspent about 1.5k before comeing here. While doing my cycle the LFS didn't tell me about having to wait so I bought alot and all died during the cycle. But after being on this forum I started over and did most of the things right. And hopefully all goes well.

 

[blemmy_guy]

Originally posted by wwfstyle
My biggest mistake was spending all the money for underground filters and CC and purchaseing stuff before being introduced to this forum. If I knew about this forum before hand I would have started out right but I had to learn from ALOT of my own mistakes and listening to an old LFS. I bet I lost or misspent about 1.5k before comeing here. While doing my cycle the LFS didn't tell me about having to wait so I bought alot and all died during the cycle. But after being on this forum I started over and did most of the things right. And hopefully all goes well.

Ditto!!!!
Todd

 

[funkyman]

As long as enjoyment, comrodery (clubs & discussion boards), distraction (from work, domestic problems, and this twisted world), pride and accomplishment etc are the biproducts.......the money means nothing.
Salt water tanks are what's turned out to be the biggest "mutual" interest I have with my soon to be 13 year old son.
Can't put a price on that.

 

[jay knows]

Good posts and information from all. I think the money is something well spent as I sit and stare at my tank for an hour or two every night.
Now today I plan on ordering some new lighing so $3000+ mark here I come.....

 

[chainsaw5vent]

:jumping: hey peoples!! i'm trying to get my old 125 (15years old)acrylic up and running again. my hardware upgrades (used of course) korallin3002 $275, AquaC 240/mag 12 $325, 2 O2 bottles (CO2) free from work:jumping:
eventually all this equip will be used in the 72x30x30 275 gal. inwall tank that i've dreamed about and explained to the boss

the new tank bid has come in at 1600 bux delivered and the metal stand bid was 250-300. i haven't talked to any construction guys yet for demo and reconstruction costs yet.:notsure: :scared:??? after all, my determined location is a load bearing wall--garage to living room under a second floor.

 

[xoxox]

Yes, Mucho Bling...
The one thing I've learned is that if you look hard and are willing to do DIY you can save a ton. LFS are good for some things, like salt, but if you use them to purchase everything it costs a lot. Many very good deals online for equiptment and such.
Off to pluming and carpentry school :hilarious

 

[acrylic51]

Don't feel bad at all with my fishroom project i'm at about $3500 and haven't even finished the room as of yet and still growing as we speak.....

 

[stsweene]

Originally posted by chainsaw5vent

:
eventually all this equip will be used in the 72x30x30 275 gal. inwall tank that i've dreamed about and explained to the boss

the new tank bid has come in at 1600 bux delivered and the metal stand bid was 250-300. i haven't talked to any construction guys yet for demo and reconstruction costs yet.:notsure: :scared:??? after all, my determined location is a load bearing wall--garage to living room under a second floor.

Chainsaw - Im in the construction business and to save yourself alot of $$(materials) and headaches I would pick a non-load bearing wall to rip up, Its so easy to tear open and frame up ******** walls, once you get into your exterior walls you must reinforce what you are taking out 2X. How bigs your tank? Just a thought, get some quotes from different people before you commit. And your more then likly going to have to get an engineer to approve and design a new support system for that side of the house and the 2nd floor. HTH

 

[chainsaw5vent]

:thinking: stsweene, but that's the perf location for the tank. ALL equipment would be out in the garage. and in my house, there are no floating walls downstairs that are useable for tank purposes.
i could go on the cheap and just run all the plumbing and electrical out the wall and do an ******** tank/stand combo. but i'm really stuck on the "inwall" look for this room. the tank/stand combo would take up an awful lot of space for furniture unless i place the tank in the corner (NOT!)

 

[stsweene]

Oh anything can be done, for the right price Its totally possible, just might run you a few $$. Is your garage heated??

 

[stsweene]

You guys that have spent over 2-3,000$ is that with corals or FO? Cause thats crazy.

 

[wwfstyle]

If you want a nice tank display you could easily spend more then 2-3k. Especially if you have a 100 gal tank or bigger. You figure that an average coral costs what $50 times that by 20 is 1k. I have seen a few corals at my lfs that cost more than $300 so $50 is being generious. Then on top of that you have your inverts on top of that. So I dont think it is crazy I guess it's just how much you love your tank and this hobby. My tank at home is one of the 1st places that my friends and family go and they all think that I'm nutz for how much I put into this tank, but they like to sit and watch it all.

 

[chainsaw5vent]

Originally posted by stsweene
Oh anything can be done, for the right price Its totally possible, just might run you a few $$. Is your garage heated??
nah. in socal, the garage does not need to be heated, just well ventilated to get rid of the summer time heat. sometimes it does get into the low 100's for outside temp, garage temp low 90's... fortunately, i live on a hill where on most days there is a breeze that starts early in the morning and continues all day long.
the only true heat sources in the garage: chevy 1 ton passenger van, freezer, refrigerator.

hey honey what happened to all the groceries that we bought the other day???

:joy:

 

[ohiorn67]

I have to agree with you there WWFSTYLE.....at first it was hard to think how much we were spending...we have only been doing this just less than 2 months and have definitely hit over the 3000+ mark on our new 90 gallon, but when we all come in the door, that is the first place my hubby, the kids and I run to check on. Last night we put in a small red starfish, a cleaner shrimp, a coral and a 6 line wrasse.....all doing super....120.00 out the drain and that was a deal! At lease we are done for another week....we try to put a few small things in like that mix each week 100.00 a week for sure for a bit....Next will be a fireshrimp, maybe 2 corals and another small fish, maybe a royal gramma....then gonna wait a couple of weeks, make sure all parameters stay stable and then we shall get our final and most exciting fish....our tang.
Our tank then will be fish complete with:
pair of maroon clowns
6 line wrasse
royal gramma
tang.....
then we will concentrate on a few more coral frags and then watch them all grow!!

 

[farmboy]

To all:
When speaking of saltwater setups. . . .GO BIG OR STAY HOME!
My fish adventure started out as a fish bowl for my little girl's birthday present. A few martyred goldfish, a WHOLE lot of reading and about a year and a half later. . . We've kept a community FW tank happy and have taken the plunge to SW.

 

[jay knows]

definately agree with everyone. It is worth the expense. I have been spending at least $200 a week on different things, and this weekend I will do the same, more coral frags and zoo clusters on the way.
Everyone thinks I am nuts, they are like you could have gone to mexico for 2 weeks and had a blast, but with a nice 75 gal tank in my living room, is like bring a vacation into my home.
I love it and daze out at least an hour a day at the tank.
Just found yester that I am getting a .5 nitrite reading, and my nitrate is at 20, so I have to figure out why and how, and get it to zero.

 

[ohiorn67]

Well I am telling you, I am hooked, that is a funny story up there in the posts, because we started out with 2 goldfish named Rocka and Radlick!! don't ask...but my daughter decided to give her goldfish some birthday cake and it went belly up!! So we were able to save poor radlick and decided to start a 20 gallon freshwater....now this has been great and actually quite easy to care for since it has been established a long time. My hubby almost fell over when I said in Feb...I want a big saltwater tank for my birthday....gosh I am one expensive date that never ends!!

 

[farmboy]

Everything(critter) you add can cause a mini-spike. You probably won't see it on a test but the bacteria has to adjust for the bio load. Your nitrite reading may be a cumulative of little spikes (assuming your initial spike/cycle is over). A water change should take care of it.

 

[ohiorn67]

Farmboy, last week we put in together....featherduster, 2 kinds of mushrooms and a sally lightfoot crab.....this week yesterday we put in a colt coral, cleaner shrimp, small red starfish and a 6 line wrasse. You think it was to much? So far have seen no water parameter changes and will do another 10% change this weekend. We do this about every 7 to 10 days....once everything is more established I would like to try and do water changes more like every 2/3 weeks if possible....our rocks are turning gorgeous colors, no bad algae is overgrowing anywhere...so whatever we are doing must be working so far.....next week want want another smaller fish and then the last fish in 2 weeks will be our tang if we can find one we like.