set up costs

[scott16]

my mum likes saltwater tanks with coral and fish and she was wondering wat should be a minimum budget to get one up and running with a few fish

tia

[scott16]

opps sorry didnt see sticky

[wasp]

Hi Scott, a good cheap option can be to buy an existing set up from Trade Me, they tend to go for far less than the person has spent on them.

If you find something you like, ask here first though, some of them are not very well set up, which might be the reason the person eventually decides to sell. There are also some really nice ones though, i really feel for the vendor having to sell them for so much less than they have cost.

[scott16]

ok thanks will watch trade me

[tHEcONCH]

But if you want a ball park figure, it will cost you at least $1000 to get started, plus an absolute minimum of $20 per week to run.

[markoshark]

I was discussing how much it costs to setup a basic tank - You are looking at around $1000 / foot, for a basic setup.

However, if you shop around a bit (hint: Check the commercial trade & exchange), you should be able to pickup a real bargin

[raeh1]

I say as little as $400, for a 88litre with a weirpro hang on.

Briananmones one was sweet.

[wasp]

If memory serves correctly, in the end it cost him over $2000.00.

However, lets be honest, if we want to go ultra cheap, we could set up a tank for 60 bucks.

But do we want it to work? There is someone who has just set up a seahorse tank for $700.00 and has now run into problems with it. Reading the post, there is still a lot of money to be spent on it before it will have good quality water in it.

[tHEcONCH]

Yep, there is a huge difference between scraping together a highly unstable arrangement of bare minimum equipment that will only support certain very tolerant inhabitants, and doing it properly so that you can enjoy watching happy creatures doing their thing. I think $1000 / foot is probably not a bad estimate.

[Ira]

And a huge difference between a FOWLR and a reef.

[Zev]

Yep, there is a huge difference between scraping together a highly unstable arrangement of bare minimum equipment that will only support certain very tolerant inhabitants, and doing it properly so that you can enjoy watching happy creatures doing their thing.

True

I think $1000 / foot is probably not a bad estimate.

I'd say more like $15 - $25 per litre.

I think the cheapest part of our setup was the tank, which seems to be a very bad starting point - you hear it time and time again - 'I have this tank laying around and I was thinking about going marine...'

[wasp]

Here is a reasonably minimum requirement for a successful reef tank to last more than a few months-

tank & stand

lighting

pumps for flow

protein skimmer (not a crappy one that won't perform)

test kits

RODI unit (Chch people excluded MAYBE)

liverock

calcium, alkalinity and magnesium supplements

livestock

Then there is much more that might be needed, but the above is, in my opinion, the barest minimum.

With lots of people on a tight budget wanting to start, I have been thinking hard trying to come up with a cheap plan to get them started without spending heaps, but i just can't think of one that will honestly work, other than go second hand and possibly purchase a bargain.

[Zev]

Here is a reasonably minimum requirement for a successful reef tank to last more than a few months-

tank & stand

lighting

pumps for flow

protein skimmer (not a crappy one that won't perform)

test kits

RODI unit (Chch people excluded MAYBE)

liverock

calcium, alkalinity and magnesium supplements

livestock

Then there is much more that might be needed, but the above is, in my opinion, the barest minimum.

You forgot to add:

Patience

Open chequebook

Understanding Partner or Parents!

[reef]

So many views

My view is that you should allow a budget of over $1K, many of the beginners posting will say that they can do it for far cheaper like $500.

The more experience hobbyist would have learnt the hard way and therefore have a more realistic budget.

We get so much rubbish equipment in the market that it makes it look cheap to enter the Hobby, however the reality is that the products don’t perform and is designed to give beginners the feel good factor.

How many of us have spent money upgrading? How many have had to buy the same equipment over and over as the last one was crap?

Best advice is to buy the best equipent and do it once. Might look expensive in the short term but you will save thousands in the long term.

Marines need good water quality, so give the best you can as they are not disposable items.

[raeh1]

As I said I could do it for $400 plus stock and be very successful.

Tank $50 (88 litre), stand not required (due to size, put in some furniture), Rock (find one on trademe $8 per kg approx) for 10 kg =$80, Light MH 150 watt (find one on trademe) $150 approx, pumps 1,000lph *2 $50, Heater $25, Skimmer weirpro $120 (should be more money invested here but hey, test kit basic $65.

OK maybe $540 then :oops: :oops: :oops:

But I'm in the same boat as reef, no matter what size your tank is if you buy quality equipment you will not regret it. Ie the 2-3k I have spent or the $750 on a deltec skimmer are worth there weight in gold :lol:

Also if you sell up you will get most of your money back.

[wasp]

Well, that could work, basic small setup, $540.00. That's assuming a person actually can find things at the prices you said :-? , but it might be possible. Then they need to stock it, get a water purifier, and calcium, alkalinity and magnesium supplements, unless they are just going to trust this to the water changes, in which case they would have to buy some salt, NZ NSW will not be high enough in these elements to purely use that for other than softies.

But I guess you could say this $540.00 would be a bare minimum starting point, although personally I would not recommend it I think the person would eventually regret it & upgrade everything, however some broke student or whatever could get started this way.

Also if you sell up you will get most of your money back.

For a very small, bare tank? Doubt it.

[Drifty]

$540 gets you a tank with rock and a light, then you have to stock it, wouldnt take long to get to $1000

[scott16]

i like seahorses wat are they like in terms of looking after and how much

[wasp]

Sounds like that Djsurfs guy would be the man to ask.

[chimera]

$540 gets you a tank with rock and a light, then you have to stock it, wouldnt take long to get to $1000

...and at over $100 a coral you will be into several thousand before you know it, but before you even get to that stage you start forking out $30 to $50 for each test kit you buy, you then start stocking your tank with livestock too fast causing endless algae problems to which you spend hundreds of dollars at your LFS on products to try and cure the algae along with bags of artificial salt to perform countless water changes, later that week half your fish die from stress to which you buy replacement fish a month later, a week after that half your fish die again from whitespot introduced from the new fish you poorly chose when purchasing, later that week you notice some of your corals start to whither away because you fail to realise the importance of flow in your tank so go out and spend a hundred bucks on some powerheads, several weeks on one of the cheap heaters you bought blows up so you buy a decent one, you soon start to get even more hair algae growth so you buy a fluidised reactor and phosphate remover in an attempt to cure it, the hair algae comes and goes and its only later you realise its because you've been topping up with tap water so you fork out several hundred on an RODI unit, you continue with your water changes but you get frustrated because your tank doesnt look as you expected, you find out that the $100 skimmer you bought just won't do the job so fork out several hundred in an effort to obtain better nutrient export, you notice your tank is starting to progress nicely but you notice your corals arent growing, you find out your small pot of calcium and alkalinity supplement you've been buying at ten times markup is not sufficient to keep up with demand so you buy a bag of Calcium chloride and some baking soda and start a new dosing regime, while you're dosing you notice the cheap powerheads you bought is ripping the side off a coral because of its bad design, the other starts to rattle and breaks, this happens several times so you get so annoyed you spend a several hundred on some decent powerheads, at this point your phosphate remover loses its effectiveness and you start to get hair algae and diatom growth again, you mention you are running 2nd hand T8's with 2 year old bulbs on a public forum to which everyone tells you the lighting is inadequate so out comes the wallet again and several hundred go on 2nd hand halides, the T8's get sold on trademe at 1/10th of what you paid for them, you still notice diatom growth over your glass and rocks and find out the aragonite sand you bought is actually a cheap alternative so you syphon out the sand and chuck it out, your tank is finally starting to look good and you're happy, you check your bank balance and realise that the $1,000 you were initially told is complete and utter bollocks and even on your small tank you've already hit several grand, you decide to go away for a weekend break to get away from it all and when you get back, you find that you really should have also invested in that thousand dollar chiller to protect your now overcooked investment...

Some of it is speaking from experience, but not all

[wasp]

So True!

Only you forgot the part where, after all this and dropping way more money than expected into the cheap tank, the person decides to upgrade and all the cheap equipment ends up sitting in the cupboard.

Well that's what happened to me anyway. :-?

[camnbron]

Since the start of the year when I began my reef tank build - slow and steady - I have invested a reasonable amount on my 4 foot tank. Not that I am complaining, I'm enjoying the hobby and knew going into it that I would be forking out the dosh.

I would put my system down on the fairly basic level (currently :lol: )

as I don't have reactors, computer, fish room. I need to get a grasp of the basics before I start doing that.

Cost wise I've spent around $2500 on hardware (lights, pumps, skimmer, tank, stand, test equipment, dosing suppliments, etc)

and I have already spent around $1000 on stock (corals, fish, live rock, etc)

Some of that stuff has been second hand equipment and stock from other people. What I haven't taken into account is travel costs, (petrol, wear and tear, time, speeding tickets :oops: )

Luckily on my dash up to grab corals from Dogmatix I didn't get a ticket! Still cost me $50 in gas, but they look good (not going to onsell them Conch) and I'm happy :bounce:

[raeh1]

I disagree chimera.

But I do think expenerience is the key to success.

And any beginner should get frags, not corals for $100 a crack thats crazy talk even if you spend 3,000+ most people will lose one or two.

If I had the money I'd prove it. :-?

[tHEcONCH]

Sadly, I agree with him. I haven't had the comedy of errors he has described, but its fair to say that one of the first lessons experience brings is that you get what you pay for, and if your tank isn't right, it is wrong. There is very little margin for error with marine, and it only takes one thing to be a little out of wack and the whole system will collapse. I'd add one thing to the list of recommendations:

DON'T BUY DAMAGED CORALS! - even if they are cheap.

[davidb]

DON'T BUY DAMAGED CORALS! - even if they are cheap.

Not always true Conch... I got a cheap organ pipe coral off Hollywood fish farm as they couldn't sell it, as it was damaged and only had 10-15 polyps left. I have had it in the tank for a month now and it has at least 100 polyps... So you can buy cheap/ damaged corals providing you are willing to take a risk (or you are given them, as it was in my case!).