Tankerini

Hello sw people,

Ok after much investigation and research before setting up my first sw tank, I am happy with the knowledge I have on fish and water parameters and so on... I have finally come to the stage where I am trying to find out how much it will cost me to run this on a weekly or monthly basis...

Went to check out some items at a lfs WHOA a tub of salt is £70 ($130 dollors). However I did not get as far as seeing how long that tub would last me, so once I have worked that out I might find its not that bad.

But I am really interested to see how much you guys spend on average to maintain a happy healthy sw tank...

Martinismommy

I spend at least $100.00 a month..This includes all my distilled water salt food and the electric bill...It's worth every penny to be able to enjoy the beauty a salt tank has to offer...

Mike

I've never really sat down and figured out in detail what it costs on a monthly basis. Between the RO water changes/top offs, lights, chiller, skimmers, pumps. There is a device you can use to see how much electricity something is using: http://www.amazon.com/Energy-Meter-L...dp/B000RKVK52/.

Once you're set up, doing water changes shouldn't cost all that much. The electricity costs might bite you though...

Martinismommy

Mike...Mine bit me HARD this month but I have 9 tanks running...Does $350.00 sound like fun? lol...It' been 112 here though so that doesn't count!

Tankerini

I meant everything in general; food, supplements, salt mix etc...
Not just the water top offs lol

Slug

Salt mix can last you quite a while. Especially if you are buying the like 50lb-60lb buckets. I don't really factor that into monthly cost (Of course i have a small tank as well).

The electric bill is probably my only real monthly cost. I don't feed that much to foul the water, i have an RO Unit so i get free RO water, supplements i hardly use but i'll say $30/month just to be safe, and thats like....it.

Martinismommy

I'd have to say an RO unit would be a good investment if you are just getting started....As far as the salt it lasts a long time....I put 2 gallons of water in my sump everyday but you don't add salt to that....The only time you add salt is when you are doing water changes.....

Oil_Fan

I agree on the RO unit if you can afford it. Originally I would get my water from my LFS. They would charge me $1 per gallon of SW and 50 cents for a gallon of FW. I would buy 10 gallons of SW and another 5 of FW every week. That would cost me $12.50 plus tax plus the 45 minutes to get there and another 45 minutes to get home.

I calculated that I could make up the cost of the RO unit in about 4 months. That included taking into account the cost of the salt. And if you figure how much gas I would use in making that weekly trip, then it would probably ended up paying for itself in a bit over 2 months. Maybe less considering I usually used my wife's SUV for the trip.