Monthly expenses of a reef tank

[OliverCc]

Hi everyone, 

I’m a total beginner and wanted to try a new hobby. But I have no idea what are the monthly maintenance costs for a 34 gallon (130l) tank. I would have around 5 fish in it with some corals. Of course I would pick the ones that can live together.
 

I would like to buy the red sea reefer 170 deluxe: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/deluxe-reefer-170-complete-system-34-gal-red-sea.html

 

Could someone experienced tell me what costs the keeping of such a tank? 
 

Thank you very much

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

First, and foremost, welcome OliverCc! 

 

This is a really subjective topic - and I'm sure you'll get many varying answers. 

 

I would say at am minimum you'd want to budget $50/month for a tank that size, to cover you added electricity, water changes and any other little incidental things you'll want/need along the way(food/test kits/dosing/etc). 

[jservedio]

I've got a 50g tank and I've spent the time actually calculating it out to get an idea:

 

Electricity: $8-10/mo (my tank uses about 108 KW/h/mo in the summer and about 120KW/h/mo in the winter in NC)

Salt Mix: $3.50/mo in salt - 2x 5g water changes per month

RODI: $3.15/mo - I change Carbon/Sediment every 6 months and DI every 12 months. I make about 30g a month in RODI with 90g of waste, so the water cost is negligible at around $0.20/mo.

Equipment Replacement: $10/mo - changing dosing heads, replacing powerhead/return pump every 5 years or so. Light every 10 (though, my last return pump lasted 11 years and my light is almost 10 and still going strong - this is probably actually a bit lower).

Food/Test Reagents: $2/mo

 

That's about it - my total is generally between $28-30/mo.

 

Edit: I didn't factor in my dosing since I used kalk for the better part of the last 10 years, which is only about $0.25/mo, but now I'm using 2-part and it's about $3.50-4.65/mo depending on which alk I use. Either way, under $35/mo!

 

[Clown79]

Each tank is different.

 

I went through di every 2-3 months which costs $22 every 3 mnths.

 

Carbon block every 5 mnths $30 each time

 

Sediment and regular carbon $20 every 5 mnths

 

Water quality is not equal so depending on your source water and treatment of it will depend on the filters use use in rodi and how often its changed.

 

Food - frozen $20 every 6 mnths

 

Dosers - $40-60/yr

 

Salt $80 a year or so

 

Testers $15-$30 a month 

 

Floss $13 every 3 mnths

 

Carbon $18,  2 times a year

 

Pods $70 to seed my tank

Phyto $30 

 

Calibration fluid $20/year

 

Hydro $40/mnth

 

 

[jservedio]

44 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

Each tank is different.

 

Dosers - $40-60/yr

 

Testers $15-$30 a month 

 

Hydro $40/mnth

 

 

Definitely curious about these ones!

 

What doser are you using? It's $75 for all three heads on mine and I get about 4-5 years out of each head before it goes too far out of calibration to be reliable and I go through a fair amount of alk/ca.

 

How do you use $30/mo on test kits??? I know you probably test a lot more than I do, but is that for all your tanks? Even accounting for the fact you guys pay a lot more than we do in the US, that's a ton of money! That's basically ripping through a full test kit for every single parameter every three months! I get 3-6 months out of my Hanna alk reagent and the other Salifert kits all end up making it well past expression. My nitrate test kit "expired" in 2016 and still has a handful of tests left!

 

And last, what's Hydro and why is it almost $500 a year haha

[Reefkid88]

Mine is under $5. 

 

 My light runs at 16w,50w heater,and my AC30 filter idk how much power it pulls. So based on that I'm sure its under $15-20 a month maybe ?! Idk. Oh plus a gallon of premixed sw from a local store for my monthly water change. 

 

[Clown79]

1 hour ago, jservedio said:

Definitely curious about these ones!

 

What doser are you using? It's $75 for all three heads on mine and I get about 4-5 years out of each head before it goes too far out of calibration to be reliable and I go through a fair amount of alk/ca.

 

How do you use $30/mo on test kits??? I know you probably test a lot more than I do, but is that for all your tanks? Even accounting for the fact you guys pay a lot more than we do in the US, that's a ton of money! That's basically ripping through a full test kit for every single parameter every three months! I get 3-6 months out of my Hanna alk reagent and the other Salifert kits all end up making it well past expression. My nitrate test kit "expired" in 2016 and still has a handful of tests left!

 

And last, what's Hydro and why is it almost $500 a year haha

Alk i tested 2 times a week on 2 tanks. I got maybe a month or so out of regeant and phos i tested weekly because i always had a hard time maintaining it and ended up with dino.

 

Those were $15.65 each + 13% tax + $10 shipping. 

 

Ca and mag, lasted long, i only tested monthly at most.

Nitrate i tested every 2 wks to a mnth. It lasted long too.

 

Doser, i used manual. The bottles range from $20 and up, depending on size.

 

Hydro is electricity bill. Its very expensive here. Can go anywhere from $50 + a month. Depends on size of dwelling, consumption, time of day of use.

2 tanks cost about $40 extra a month. 

 

If you pay for water here, making rodi would have cost me more too

[jservedio]

11 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Alk i tested 2 times a week on 2 tanks. I got maybe a month or so out of regeant and phos i tested weekly because i always had a hard time maintaining it and ended up with dino.

 

Those were $15.65 each + 13% tax + $10 shipping. 

 

Ca and mag, lasted long, i only tested monthly at most.

Nitrate i tested every 2 wks to a mnth. It lasted long too.

 

Doser, i used manual. The bottles range from $20 and up, depending on size.

 

Hydro is electricity bill. Its very expensive here. Can go anywhere from $50 + a month. Depends on size of dwelling, consumption, time of day of use.

2 tanks cost about $40 extra a month. 

 

If you pay for water here, making rodi would have cost me more too

Wow that's crazy - The alk and phosphate reagent here is $9.00 and free shipping! I test once per week as long as I'm not making adjustments and get 6 months out of it. I only test ca/mg twice a year since I was never more than +/-50ppm over a decade and nutrients get tested once every 8-12 weeks unless I'm solving a problem.

 

Makes sense with the dosing if you buy pre-mixed. I should probably update my dosing price since I switched from Kalk recently, so it's about $3.50 a month for that. With kalk I got 6 years from a $15 container dosing 1-1.4dkh/day so the price was negligible.

 

I would say your electric is expensive, but I have no idea how many tanks you've got up now. In any case, reefing up in Canada is not cheap!

[Clown79]

1 hour ago, jservedio said:

Wow that's crazy - The alk and phosphate reagent here is $9.00 and free shipping! I test once per week as long as I'm not making adjustments and get 6 months out of it. I only test ca/mg twice a year since I was never more than +/-50ppm over a decade and nutrients get tested once every 8-12 weeks unless I'm solving a problem.

 

Makes sense with the dosing if you buy pre-mixed. I should probably update my dosing price since I switched from Kalk recently, so it's about $3.50 a month for that. With kalk I got 6 years from a $15 container dosing 1-1.4dkh/day so the price was negligible.

 

I would say your electric is expensive, but I have no idea how many tanks you've got up now. In any case, reefing up in Canada is not cheap!

I have 0 tanks now and saving a lot of money and time.

[Jakesaw]

2 hours ago, Clown79 said:

I have 0 tanks now and saving a lot of money and time.

Are you out of the hobby, or just a life issue that caused you to pause for a while?

 

Curious

Thanks

[Clown79]

3 hours ago, Jakesaw said:

Are you out of the hobby, or just a life issue that caused you to pause for a while?

 

Curious

Thanks

I had to shut them down due to a few reasons, sold off everything but i still come here to help out.

 

[Jakesaw]

6 hours ago, Clown79 said:

I had to shut them down due to a few reasons, sold off everything but i still come here to help out.

 

Much appreciated.