Supid me to think a normal person can have a Reef tank

[LauraCline]

lol, I'd also bet there are a fair number of people in debt up to their eyeballs trying to keep up with TOTM. I'm also on a normal budget and I find patience is the key to keeping within budget. I'm buying some used equipment and use frequent customer discounts and sales for things at LFS. For example, I got my 150 RR tank with extra plumbing, etc. for $200 and it was practically brand new. I bought my 45 gallon tank, stand, lights, and a canister filter for $40. Also the local reef club can be an invaluable resource. Lots of times people are giving away or selling things cheap. I also read alot so I'm less likely to buy junk I don't need which wastes money.

[piscivorous]

Save quite a bit with the DIY stuff too.....a good part of what has been enjoyable to me up to this point is the fact that I've had to become a proficient electrician and plumber on top of biologist, chemist, physicist and carpenter.

[meklo_h2o]

This hobby is quite expensive. But no one says you have to buy everything the first month of starting a tank up. You can start with a really basic system and then add to it when you can. You may invest five thousand into a tank but it isn't so bad if it is spread out over 5-6 years. And your learning through the whole process so your tank is that much stronger in the end. Aside from how much money you put into your tank the number one factor should be having fun and enjoying it. If your not able to enjoy your tank, then you should get rid of it and find another hobby.

Meklo

[beez]

I think pretty much everyone on this site can relate to beginner frustrations, but there are plenty of examples of reefs here that are absolutely beautiful and still simple and economical. As for TOTMs, check out Mucho Reef's. Its very simple and yet far more beautiful than most $10,000 setups. Goes to show how far knowledge and patience can take you in this hobby. Check out the Nano threads too...lotta great tanks there that won't break your budget.

Good luck, and be patient....

[The Reefer91]

i've been dealing with beginners frustration, and i only have a 10g. the key is to just have fun. my tank is by no means large, and it's likely that i won't have anything past a 75g in the next 8-10 years, but my nano is getting better and it's just fun to have an aquarium. the whole point of this hobby is to enjoy it. i have spent maybe 350$ on the tank and it's turning out wonderfully. just take some time and do it slowly, thing will come togther if you put in the work.

[SDguy]

Originally posted by aquaman222
First off, I will start off by saying, I have a ridiculous tank. I could buy a car for what I have in it. Funny though that I see this thread today. I am in the process of tuning it down. I have seven SPS corals going to the fish store today for credit. I will unload about that number for the next couple of days and keep all my easy to maintain corals. I just realized the cost I was dropping to keep the SPS and higher demand corals and to me it is not worth it any more.

Many of the less demanding corals are just as pretty as SPS in my opinion, if not a lot more attractive.

I will lower my electric bill considerably by cutting three 250 metal halides down from 14 hours per day to six hours per day, dropping four pumps out of the system and removing chiller. I am going back to a basic softy LPS tank.

Tired of evaporation rate of 3 gallons per day, tired of running AC in winter to cool the tank room. Tired of high electric bills. All the stuff the high end tanks come with cause more involvement. Don't get me wrong, I love my tank, but my time with two young daughters is more important than doing daily fish duties, so see ya tech tank, here we go with a real easy basic setup and I promise I will enjoy it more.

Your post interests me. Other than a lower electric bill, how is running your softie tank going to be saving you THAT much money if you've already bought all the equipment for an SPS tank? Or even time for that matter.

As for the OP, I think if it is going to bother someone so much to spend money for an obviously non investment purpose, or it's going to be too much trouble to learn a little chemistry, or tinker with equipment, and learn to use PVC cement, and hook up electrical lights...then perhaps it's the wrong hobby for that person. It takes money, time, and smarts. It's not for everyone, no biggie.

I don't collect and restore classic cars..not because I don't find them beautiful, but because you couldn't pay me to get under the hood of a car.....I barely force myself to check my oil once in a while. Just my thoughts on the subject.

[Hop]

Believe me, I'm in the public service industry and I was able to get a 450 up and running with a fish room. It took a year of planning and saving, but it can be done In fact I just tore it down for several reasons, but the main one is to build it better with an additional 180 FOWLR tied into it

You really learn to budget and DIY a lot, but it's fun and if I recall, fun is part of the hobby

Good luck!

[aquaman222]

Your post interests me. Other than a lower electric bill, how is running your softie tank going to be saving you THAT much money if you've already bought all the equipment for an SPS tank? Or even time for that matter.

No way, much easier.

Water changes, much less frequent and smaller. I will not have to maintain anywhere near the pristine water quality on a soft / LPS coral tank. Other equipment goes away as well. Calcium Reactor, extra pumps, Kalk Reactor, etc...

I spent 4 years of my life owning a maintenance company. I know just about every way it can be done. Expensive, cheap, DIY, Custom, whatever. I just know the time spent on my tank is about to drop a ton. I don't know, maybe I am just bored with it now. I just want to look at it and not work on it. My time is just to strapped at this point in my life.

[Paul B]

I really don't know why people spend such huge amounts of money on this hobby. I have a 100 gallon reef that I set up in 1972 and if I add up all the money I spent on it in all those years it doesen't come to $7,000.00.
Throwing money at a tank will not make it healthier. Only knowledge can do that. Probably 90% of the stuff for sale is not needed at all. Common sense is the biggest asset here.
I think the biggest expense is light bulbs, weather MH, VHO, PC whatever and even those last almost a year.
People spend thousands on live rock when any rock becomes live rock in a few weeks, heck even an old show will become live if you put it in a tank. As for suppliments, they are not needed except for calcium and that is just driveway ice melter. Corals are expensive, but if a $50.00 coral lasts ten years then it was only
$5.00 a year. I feed my animals frozen food almost exclusively. A pound of clams is about $2.00 and they will last for a few months.
I myself build a lot of my rock because I like the way it looks better, I can afford to buy rock (I was lucky enough to collect most of it myself) but I prefer to build it. Salt is another expense but if you get it in bulk on line from one of the RC sponsors the price is cut dramatically. I Don't know what skimmers cost because I always built them but where ever you get them, they last forever. I have powerheads since they invented the things and that was about thirty years ago. Test kits, I don't have any, but for noobs it is a good idea at least until the tank is cycled which is about in a year, yes a year, not a few weeks no matter what your kit says.
Hydrometers, you can spend hundreds on ways to check salinity. There's refractometers which IMO are not needed. Salinity is an arbitrary number and as long as it is within a range it is fine. Of course you don't want a 2x4 with a piece of string on it but a swing arm or better, a hydrometer is all that is needed. That is what I have been using since Nixon was President (he was after Lincoln) Make a line on your hydrometer or swing arm and after testing it against a known factor, just keep it at that mark. I took my $5.00 swing arm to a LFS and tested their water then asked them to test the same water with their refractometer. My swing arm was off but I marked it where it should read.
I also have a large chiller that I got used. I've never used it. On those exceptionally hot days I keep a plastic gallon in the freezer filled with water and put it in the tank. Then I rotate it for the other gallon. That has also worked for many years, some of those days were over 100 degrees and there is no AC where my tank is.

Think of how many times you could just fly to ocean and dive the real reef yourself for the amount of money in these featured tanks!

With the cash I save, I do go to the ocean and dive the reefs all the time.
Have a great day.
Paul

[SDguy]

Originally posted by aquaman222
No way, much easier.

Water changes, much less frequent and smaller. I will not have to maintain anywhere near the pristine water quality on a soft / LPS coral tank. Other equipment goes away as well. Calcium Reactor, extra pumps, Kalk Reactor, etc...

I spent 4 years of my life owning a maintenance company. I know just about every way it can be done. Expensive, cheap, DIY, Custom, whatever. I just know the time spent on my tank is about to drop a ton. I don't know, maybe I am just bored with it now. I just want to look at it and not work on it. My time is just to strapped at this point in my life.

Hmm, me thinks that your own tank PLUS maintaining other tanks may have burned you out? Just a thought. Anyways, I agree, the day my tank takes even 1/10 the time to maintain as I spend just watching/enjoying it, is the day a big change will take place too.

[billm44]

One of the most stunning tanks I ever saw was a stock NC 24. It was kept by the owner of my local fish store back in California. He had a wide variety of soft corals arranged very artistically. There were no fish, and he felt that was one reason the tank looked so good.

Anyway, the key was really his hard-earned knowlegde in keeping corals. The price of the whole setup would have been well within the reach of most of us here, especially if we took our time like he did. Beauty doesn't have to cost a fortune.

Bill

[RyanM]

I enjoy working on my tank as much as looking at it. Sometime I work on it to much when I should just keep my hands off of it. Creating it is as much enjoyment as viewing it. At least to me.

[vessxpress1]

The other key is 'time'. I always tell this to people and it's been brought up a couple times here.

The tanks you see here did not appear in their living rooms over night. There's a lot of average people in the hobby that have just been doing it for years, and simply by default, you accumulate a large dollar value worth of stuff. Most people can't say I want a 10,000 dollar tank loaded with corals in my house tomorrow, or this month or this year, and have it be done! It doesn't happen like that.

I've been in the hobby about 5 years. I've had the same old 38 gallon AGA tank and stand combo the whole time (purchased with my 300 dollar tax break check from GW back in 02 ). So I did my part 'stimulating the economy' and I'm still satisfied with it. If I be honest with myself, sure, I've put over 5 grand into this setup, 'over the years'. People think I'm nuts when I tell them that but what can you do? It's just how it works.
Plus, I've traded in corals for in-store credit, sold on here and ebay, sometimes use a good portion of tax returns and a few of my corals I got with gift certificates I received as gifts. There's plenty of ways to achieve what you want to do if you're passionate enough about it. (Just don't rack up your credit card for it )

This year, I bought my Tek T-5 lights, a new (average) skimmer and a Reefkeeper 2. Now these items are out of the way. I don't know what I'll work on next year yet. But it does take at least a few hundred bucks a year to maintain. By the time you add up annually, a new bucket of salt, new T-5 bulbs, RO/DI filters, new pH and temp probes, food, media...etc... it does add up. I never try to gloss that over for anyone. It tacks some onto my electric bill but isn't nearly what people would think.

Nobody forces anyone to be in the hobby. It may be frustrating if you're just starting out but we were all there at some point in time. You can do a lot over the course of years.

[reefshadow]

Don't forget that alot of folks defray costs by growing and selling and/or trading frags!

A simple propagation system can be set up for not alot of money, or you can grow frags right along with the rest in the display.

I would have a hard time calculating how much cash this has saved me.

[FVernese]

I think the following quote from one of the members says is all:

“Does staring in my tank for 2 hours, looking at one spot in the sand bed because I saw movement, make me obsessed?”

Everyone in this hobby has to be a little obsessed but that’s what makes life so wonderful.