Curious how much people are spending to maintain their reefs...

[Mr Cob]

Just want to compare what I'm doing to what others are doing.

Please feel free to share what techniques you use to manage a stable reef system. Dosing, equipment, Tank size/volume, etc.

This thread might be a good reference to compare.

*this is a private poll so no one can see what you answered*

[justahobby]

58 Display w/ 20 gallons in the sump

Kalk: I buy my kalk through bulkreefsupply which saves a whoole lot compared to Kent, etc. 3.5 lbs @ $11.....This will last a year.

Magnesium: I just bought the Seachem's $12 crystal dry form which is supposed to treat up to 4800 gallons and is 10,000 ppm more concentrated than the Kent magnesium $30. I won't know if it works out cheaper until I finish the unopened bottle though. I will post a thread once I get a feel for how well it works/ ease of use. The $30 Kent bottle has lasted close to a year.

Salt: I buy it buy the box (RC) which cuts down on cost/ additional additives (thanks to Gabe's great prices!). A box $50 will last a few months.

Food: I buy it so irregularly/ lasts so long, I hardly consider it an expense.

Iodine: Again, it lasts so long .....

Lights: $50 a year for a MH bulb and $25 every 7-8 months for an Actinic 96w PC

My main expense so far is LFS bought RODI. Once I get the RODI unit I think I will be saving a lot more. Less trips to the LFS equals less compulsive buys.

[Mr Cob]

Mine is pretty minimal. I don't dose anything. Occassionally I drop some Zoo-vert in or some liquid calcium....but hardly ever.

I have a 144g with:
HOB Refugium
Sump with live rock and lots of Macro (mag 18 return)
Koralia 3 x 2
Koralia 1 x 1
2 Heaters
Nano Skimmer (have a larger skimmer that will be hooked up soon)
20K bulbs (2x 250w)
Top off unit will be hooked up soon too

...and that's it.

For maintenance, I top off about 15gallons a week and water change 5 gallons a week. Clean the glass daily with a mag float. Empty skimmate once a week and check equipment maybe once a month along with cleaning pre-filter on return pump. I also check the SG every couple of weeks.

I do not have fast growth on my corals, actually it's kind of slow....which is why I'm curious what others are doing. Changing lighting is not an option for me. I love 20k bulbs.

My tank is very stable and I do not have and nuisance algae or problems with turnover rates on coral or fish.

I'm always so afraid to make any adjustments but I've been curious about what others are doing and comparing that with what I'm doing to see where I could improve on my system.

I also have an 8 gallon BioCube....there is seriously NO maintenance to this tank. I top off like 1/2 a gallon every 2 weeks. Love this tank for it's simplicity. It's loaded with macro...to feed my tangs with in the 144 and some live rock and sponges. Tons of pod life and mysis shrimp in this thing...waiting for Dwarf Sea Horses.

[Mr Cob]

Justin, we are in the same boat on the RO/DI water. Not to mention the cost of gas and our time lugging jugs around. 20gallons a week for me! Annoying!

[hobogato]

specifics - $monthly amount

Tank size:
150 gallons

Filtration:
DSB, macro algae, and mangroves - no sump or skimmer

Water:
tap thru carbon filter - $1.70

Lighting:
solar tubes - $0
t5 suppliment (218 watts @ 12hrs/day) - $6.30
bulbs ($80 per year) - $6.70

Circulation:
closed loop (140 watt external pump) - $8.00
tunze wave box (30 watts) - $1.70

Food:
spectrum pellets - $1.70
frozen - $3

Salt:
5 gallons twice weekly - $12.50

Miscellaneous:
carbon - $5
filter floss - $1
super glue - $10+

TOTAL (per month)- $57.60

[d3rryc]

Wow, how to figure an AVERAGE? I'll go a couple of months just buying food and RO for water changes, then the next month I need new bulbs and all my suppliments run out and Danny runs another coral sale and...

[hobogato]

you can add up a year of expenses and divide by 12 - that usually takes care of long term expenses as well.....

[FireWater]

I am pretty much the same as you Rob. I try to not dose anything if I can get away with it. I just make sure to keep up with water changes - Usually 10- 15 gallons per change on a 7 - 10 day schedule. I will occasionally dose 2 part or Mag if I have to. Lately I have been using some extra supplements - Like aminos for the coral and Brightwell Koralcolor. I run carbon and a phosphate pad. I like to enjoy the reef and not feel like it is a job.

[d3rryc]

Yeah, but I'll have to run through Quicken at home first (and probably hide the results from my wife!).

[hobogato]

:lauging: yeah, i was pretty surprised at how much my "simple" setup costs just now.....


(and probably hide the results from my wife!).

[ShAgMaN]

I have a 150 gal. that is doing great. Only thing I do is:

Sea lab no. 28 block once a week, phyto or chromo twice a week, and water changes (15-20 gal.) every other week. Oh and I use filter floss which I rinse every week and replace monthly.

It's cheap, my rock is full of purple, and my corals and parameters are good. I did have a cyano prob, but I blame that on a broken skimmer. Also my LED lighting is great for cost savings and overall efficiency, along with a UV sterilizer which I swear by.

Note - I clean the glass daily, have two korilla 4's plus return for good circulation, and seem to have a good clean up crew - crabs, snails, serpent and sand sifting stars, sea hare, ect.

I don’t want to tell you that I also use tap water – oops, I just did.

Edit - I forgot Iodine once a week.

[Europhyllia]

you can add up a year of expenses and divide by 12 - that usually takes care of long term expenses as well.....

but how to account for water and electricity? Who would want to know the dirty details anyway? Not me... ;)

[hobogato]

water is probably neglegible unless you are doing huge water changes and have an RODI.

electricity is easy - for each thing, multiply wattage by hours run by 30(days) and divide by 1000 to get kwh in a month. then multiply that by the rate the power company is charging you :)

[ShAgMaN]

Thats a good idea, why the heck didnt I think of macro in my 8 gal. cube, thanks.



Mine is pretty minimal. I don't dose anything. Occassionally I drop some Zoo-vert in or some liquid calcium....but hardly ever.

I have a 144g with:
HOB Refugium
Sump with live rock and lots of Macro
2 Heaters
Nano Skimmer (have a larger skimmer that will be hooked up soon)
20K bulbs (2x 250w)
Top off unit will be hooked up soon too

...and that's it.

For maintenance, I top off about 15gallons a week and water change 5 gallons a week. Clean the glass daily with a mag float. Empty skimmate once a week and check equipment maybe once a month along with cleaning pre-filter on return pump. I also check the SG every couple of weeks.

I do not have fast growth on my corals, actually it's kind of slow....which is why I'm curious what others are doing. Changing lighting is not an option for me. I love 20k bulbs.

My tank is very stable and I do not have and nuisance algae or problems with turnover rates on coral or fish.

I'm always so afraid to make any adjustments but I've been curious about what others are doing and comparing that with what I'm doing to see where I could improve on my system.

I also have an 8 gallon BioCube....there is seriously NO maintenance to this tank. I top off like 1/2 a gallon every 2 weeks. Love this tank for it's simplicity. It's loaded with macro...to feed my tangs with in the 144 and some live rock and sponges. Tons of pod life and mysis shrimp in this thing...waiting for Dwarf Sea Horses.

[theedprado]

Yeah, AC is the big expense.

[txav8r]

The Reef tank

75 gal. with about a 20 gallon sump.
2 250w MH's
2 heaters
ATO
Skimmer
Surface fans.
RO/DI with aboout a 4:1 rejection rate

I change 10 gal. every other week
Dose B-Ionic daily
feed 2 cubes of frozen daily w/ 2 drops of garlic.

I have Kalk (thanks Justin) that I am planning to start dripping but I'm scared.
Everything seems to grow at a fairly steady rate.

Predator tank probably costs about the same.
more food, less light, bigger water changes.

I'm almost scared to add it all up.

[Bill S]

My wife says the 215 is "staggering". Just the electricity is $100 a month.

[Mr Cob]

Ace, your post is perfect. It would be cool to have a complete thread loaded with those types of posts to compare cost with tank size and equipment used.

Thanks for sharing.

[hobogato]

my electricity use on the 240 was cut in half when i went solar.

we used 10000kwh less the year with solar tubes over the year before with halides and a chiller. highest bill in the summer with halides was almost $600 and without the next summer was about $300


My wife says the 215 is "staggering". Just the electricity is $100 a month.

[justahobby]

That's not including the record hot summer we had this year.

[Rychek]

I've got a 90 gal reef with 30 gal sump/fuge
T5 lighting (2x IceCap 660s/6x bulbs)
2x Koralia 3
Hydor 300 watt heater
Mag 9 return
Currently I do not run a skimmer
Home made RO/DI

I dose B-Ionic and Iodide with each topoff and feed daily. My average monthly expense is between $60 and $80 (using the yearly total/12 method Ace mentioned above).

I was very surprised to learn how much I was spending. Makes the downgrade to a 30 gal look much better.

Edit: my corals weren't growing much at all (even the zoas and plays were maintaining their sizes), so I started using B-Ionic and things picked up a bit. I switched from Instant Ocean to Reef Crystals and my SPS and most zoas really took off.

[Mr Cob]

Shag...how long have you been using Tap? Just curious. I used tap before when I first started and I always had cyano problems. Do you have the same problems. Have you also used RODI and can you compare the two?

[alton]

We are looking at it wrong, look at what we are saving. If we smoked 2 packs a day x $4pack x 365 = $2,920 a year! Watching my aquarium I don't even think about a cigarette The last four weeks with the cooler temperatures my tank is keeping my home warm. I am saving again! You people need to look at the brght side of this hobby. Look at how easy your spouse can buy you and her Christmas gifts to go into the tank. Last year I saved $2,000, my wife wanted to go to the carribean snokeling, so I bought her goggles, six beers, a bar stoole and sat her in front of my tank. After the six pack was gone she thought she was swimming with the fish. Okay I better stop now and go get me another beer.

[Mr Cob]

Edit: my corals weren't growing much at all (even the zoas and plays were maintaining their sizes), so I started using B-Ionic and things picked up a bit. I switched from Instant Ocean to Reef Crystals and my SPS and most zoas really took off.

I've been using Instant Ocean. Think I'll slowly change out to Reef Crystals and see if my growth increases. Still don't want to dose though. Thx for making the edit.

[Bill S]

Rob, good RO/DI. water changes and Reef Crystals by the bucket will dramatically improve your reef. When you have your own RO/DI and buy RC for $34 a bucket (when Dr F& S has them on sale), water changes are cheap compared to dosing.

[ShAgMaN]

Shag...how long have you been using Tap? Just curious. I used tap before when I first started and I always had cyano problems. Do you have the same problems. Have you also used RODI and can you compare the two?

Cobb, I've been using it the whole time (Tap Water).

Here's my deal. Since I've been in SA (4 years) I've had a 75 gal. (sold after a year), 56 gal., and 150 gal (still have these). I've never had a problem with cyano until the last month or two, and only in the 150 gal. Correction: I think I had a real small amount in my 56 gal., but the power compacts are old and what was in there left after a water change is completely gone.

Regardless, I used chemi-clean in the 150 and now my tank is perfecto. Course it’s only been a week, but I really don’t think the cyano was from tap - my skimmer was broken and I think all the extra nutrients jacked it up.

It just seems like I would have had problems way before if it was the tap water. Anyway, there is another thread I started concerning cyano which I’m going to keep updating to track this issue. In the meantime I’ll stay with tap agua.

[Mr Cob]

Rob, good RO/DI. water changes and Reef Crystals by the bucket will dramatically improve your reef. When you have your own RO/DI and buy RC for $34 a bucket (when Dr F& S has them on sale), water changes are cheap compared to dosing.

RC it is.

[theedprado]

We are looking at it wrong, look at what we are saving. If we smoked 2 packs a day x $4pack x 365 = $2,920 a year! Watching my aquarium I don't even think about a cigarette The last four weeks with the cooler temperatures my tank is keeping my home warm. I am saving again! You people need to look at the brght side of this hobby. Look at how easy your spouse can buy you and her Christmas gifts to go into the tank. Last year I saved $2,000, my wife wanted to go to the carribean snokeling, so I bought her goggles, six beers, a bar stoole and sat her in front of my tank. After the six pack was gone she thought she was swimming with the fish. Okay I better stop now and go get me another beer.

Awesome

[ErikH]

LOL.

Geez, I'll have to come back and update this, but I would say about 150/mo.

[phippsj]

I am pretty much the same as you Rob. I try to not dose anything if I can get away with it. I just make sure to keep up with water changes - Usually 10- 15 gallons per change on a 7 - 10 day schedule. I will occasionally dose 2 part or Mag if I have to. Lately I have been using some extra supplements - Like aminos for the coral and Brightwell Koralcolor. I run carbon and a phosphate pad. I like to enjoy the reef and not feel like it is a job.

My aquarium was doing just great until I made my first 'dose' of a supplement. I then went all over the place trying to get parameters to settle. I am now back to just doing water changes. I do not have enough coral and all to suck all the nutrients that the water changes replace.

[corydrysdale]

My setup
125 Gallon reef/30 gallon sump/fuge
3-150MH lights
4 96w pc's
4-Led moon lights
2-swirl halogen spot lamps on refugium at 30watts each

Took all pumps in my tank out and put in Vortech MP40
digital Fluval 300 heater
1/3 Hp tradewind chiller
Midwest aquatics Sulfer Denitrater
Phosban reactor
Buckeye field supple RO/DI @75 gallons perday
150 watt heater and maxi jet 1200 for saltwater circulation in a 44 gallon brute garbage can with air pump
Bought 100 feet of blue/white filter pad at Anna's linens for 99.00 instead of buying pieces of it for 9 bucks for a 2x3
I do dose Kents Calcium powder and super buffer just to maintain water peramiters, some iodine and occasionally magnesium which i all buy from FostersSmith in the larger sizes.
Big purchase was also the 3 buckets of tropic marin salt which just for the heck of it id try, but have been using Reef Crystals Pro for most of the year

Also just made the purchase of what i hope to be the last Major item i will need for many years. ReefKeeper Elite with SLI and SL2 componets
On top of that, upgrading my RO-DI filtration with the addition of 2 more Color changing resin filters and pump to help increase my PSI for which right now im only barely getting 48psi. Hopefully increasing the pressure will make better use of the waste water.

All in all. I have no cotton picking idea what im spending on maintaining this. I was loosing too many SPS and LPS to big temperature changes so the chiller was purchase used from Aquarium Designs. We took advantage of a home depot special to add more insulation the the attic in the house and this has really helped in the cooling and heating of everything. I dont have as much evaporation in the tank so using less water except for 20% water changes every month. And after 1.5 years of running a reef tank im sorta on my way of knowing what works and what doesn't or atleast what kinda works for me.

If i had to guess at the monthly cost..maybe 80-100

[Paul28]

this sounds like fun to do but im scared to find out :)
i bet i spend a 100 easy with the electric and phosban, carbon, fish food, and all the stuff i buy frags and wait dont let my wife see this