High Tide Aquatics

Monthly cost to keep your tank running

What are your monthly cost to keep your tank running?

  • 50-100 USD

    Votes: 5 33.3%

  • 100-150 USD

    Votes: 4 26.7%

  • 150-200 USD

    Votes: 3 20.0%

  • 200-300 USD

    Votes: 1 6.7%

  • 300-500 USD

    Votes: 1 6.7%

  • >500 USD

    Votes: 1 6.7%
  • Total voters
    15
Alexander1312

Alexander1312

Supporting Member
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A recent post about a 200 gallon tank inspired me to set this up.

I'm unsure how many of you track your monthly expenses, but I do. I separate between one-time purchases (lights, pumps, etc.) and monthly maintenance (food, supplements, filter etc).

I am currently at 550 USD per month (IM 150 + Nano Tank). This does not include electricity.

Folks vastly underestimate the ongoing cost of these larger tanks, even if you want to run them intentionally cheap.

Edit: Happy to adjust the poll if we need to call out larger amounts more specifically.
 
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It's hard to separate between say I need this to run the tank each month, and oh that's cool let me grab it, i'm already here so i might as well get that too.

Can't figure Electrical costs we run 3 window units 24 hours a day no central air. 2 fridges, and two deep freezers and currently 5/6 tanks and all the equipment that goes with them, bills avg 300-350 more in summer time when ac doesn't auto shutoff off at temp.

1 32gallon
1 29 gallon
1 30 gallon
1 10gallon
1 65 gallon
And 1 32 gallon not set up yet.
I definitely spend more on oh that's cool/ upgrades purchases than actual upkeep.

My biocube32 gets the most attention without missing any up keep.

The other tanks aren't neglected by any means but I wouldn’t be worried if i went 3 days over changing filters on them.

Between all the tanks i probably spend around $150 avg on pure maintenance.

Oh that's cool stuff some months i spend alot more some a lot less depends on work. I would estimate 2-300 monthly avg.

Yet I l've never bought anything in bulk which I think should. (AFR i get the tiny bottle never got the powder for example example) I always see the prices and end up getting smallest package of everything that works so constantly getting more. I will aim to adapt the long term cost saving over immediate cost and that would save me a lot.
 
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If anyone wants to track their costs, buy some kasa smart strips or the smart plugs with power tracking. Also with home assistant you can plot graphs of it very easy.

You can convert these to $ cost instead of kWh, but I didn't do it for this screenshot:

1000010238.png


These are the two power strips powering my peninsula. I haven't really done this calc before, and it makes me sad to see those numbers.

Not accounted for is the cost of keeping the heaters on higher than I normally would in that room at night, or the power conversion loss from the EcoFlow battery I have as a UPS for one of those strips.

If we assume $0.468 per kWh which is the default amount I see from a Google search and that's around $94. I'm not accounting for ToU pricing, and I'm ignoring my solar panels offsetting (not really fair to count IMO because of it wasn't for the tank that power would be being used for something else).

Beyond that my main cost is probably water & salt and the amortized cost of equipment (incl RODI media). I don't really buy fancy coral and generally don't buy new equipment. Let's just assume add another 50% and this tank would be around $150.

I'm also not counting my frag tank in this. These numbers honestly disgust me. Such a wasteful hobby. Not just the $, but the resource usage. Maybe I'll look into some additional efficiency plays, such as at least insulating my frag tank and reassessing if I need as much light over my non SPS side, or ToU lighting adjustments.

Reefer 500.
 
Honestly, don't think I can answer that, mostly purchasing comes in big chunks, i.e. new filters & resin for RO/DI, a good price on salt that you stock up on, buying large bulk amounts of regents for supplements, and jumping back into the wayback machine things like replacement bulbs were often bought in chunks when I saw the tiniest of sales pop up.

As for the "big tank plunge" yeah that's a hard one, you might find that free (or really low cost) monster tank, but then thinking about the sheer amount of equipment you need to make it go... yikes. I got at one time a 6foot by 5foot tank, for the free. But then the idea of how much lighting needed to cover that thing made me queasy, this was a transitional point from MH and LED lighting so luckily some good reflectors gave a lot of coverage, but I still opted for the back part of the tank being "lower light". Then there's the protein skimmer, and flow pumps, and you realize that most equipment you had on your much smaller old tank really can't be reused, perhaps you have a lighting fixture that allows you to buy one less fixture for the bigger tank, maybe you have a MP40 and now only need 5 more. It's not too long before you find out "free" really costs a lot of money. That's not even including all the livestock you'll end up buying because "moar bigger space moar bigger fish"

Overall though, electrically most equipment is fairly efficient these days, no one is using that quarter horse return pump (well usually), but my tanks tended to be in a cooler part of the house, so most electricity was due to keeping hundreds and hundreds of gallons of water at 76°F when the ambient room temp was in the low 60s (or lower on cold nights), that's when I found out how uninsulated that room was. Also why I put solar on my roof (plus SF had a monster break for those who lived in "low income neighborhoods" regardless of your actual income, which made it ultra cheap).

But my current tank is 20g, and there is minimal money that goes into it. Some kalk powder, top off water, maybe once or twice (a year) I'll do a water change.
 
Alexander1312 said:
A recent post about a 200 gallon tank inspired me to set this up.

I'm unsure how many of you track your monthly expenses, but I do. I separate between one-time purchases (lights, pumps, etc.) and monthly maintenance (food, supplements, filter etc).

I am currently at 550 USD per month (IM 150 + Nano Tank). This does not include electricity.

Folks vastly underestimate the ongoing cost of these larger tanks, even if you want to run them intentionally cheap.

Edit: Happy to adjust the poll if we need to call out larger amounts more specifically.
Click to expand...
I agree this is a worthwhile thing to do IF you want to know or IF it would change what you do. Joking aside, if knowing it’s more expensive than you thought makes you or your spouse enjoy the tank less, but you’re still going to do it anyway, is that a good thing? If it makes you do things differently or get out of the hobby that could be a good thing overall but might not actually make you happier. More knowledge seems like it should always be better, but it isn’t.

Whenever I’m considering switching something I calculate the costs of it vs alternatives including status quo. Like a gatekeeper for new ongoing costs. I don’t add everything all up though. I don’t know how much it would be but I think it would make me more likely to reconsider if the hobby is actually worth it to me, cost:enjoyment ratio wise.

The other thing to consider honestly calculating (I don’t) is how much time you spend per month on it. Whether free time or money is more scarce for you, they both are for most people. It’s the same sort of issues- Do you really want to know?
 
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