How much has your aquarium hobby cost you so far?


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enough for me to not be bored out of my mind and off myself i guess. i honestly dont remember lol maybe a couple hundred bucks?. but its worth it :P i also have a $600 saltwater tank siting in my room that i never set up
 
Dude, did my mom get in touch with you?

Never tracked it, but guessing around $2,000 or so... I'm 14 BTW......
$12.67
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What kind of fish do you have? Is it plastic or stuffed? (Or is that another way of saying $12,650? XD
 

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What kind of fish do you have? Is it plastic or stuffed? (Or is that another way of saying $12,650? XD
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That was an estimate. Also, I might have dropped a digit . . . or two.
 
After initial one-time costs I would say about 200-300€ a year for everything from new fish to fish food and water/electricity bills.
 
A lot of money…. Some people travel twice a year. I have fish, lol !
 
Electricity….+/- $200 monthly
Water….+/- $70 monthly
Fish food…+/- $150 monthly
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I keep track of what I spend for livestock and items that are clearly fish-related, but it is very difficult to factor in things like electricity, water, renovations, etc. (that dehumidifier you bought for the basement, would you buy it if there weren't fish there?) I tried to separate aquarium related portion of my bills but I gave up. Maybe the hobby part is OK, but we should even account for the labor we devote to the not so fun parts of it (even at minimum wage). It adds up to a depressing number. I suppose if I can't afford it, I will downsize or quit.

But this is an informative thread, keep it coming.
 
Probably 1k cause I only have 1 tank :)
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I paid that for a new tank and stand and all that went in it once. Then fish and shrimp and plants plants plants and who knows what else. Stopped looking at receipts after that... I do what I enjoy and enjoy what I do. If my husband put you up to this.... I was just kidding Hon!
 

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Happiness and joy does not have a cost! That being said... too much with a lot more to be spent in the future...
 
Electricity….+/- $200 monthly
Water….+/- $70 monthly
Fish food…+/- $150 monthly
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Ok caviar and filet mignon are not fish food!!
 
Way way too much! My hubby stopped getting the mail... Because he would get excited for packages... Then quickly became tired of opening all the fish supplies, parts & PLANTS I order haha.
 
New to fish but not other pets and after these first couple of months this will by far surpass any other pet I have ever had! I’d say I’m around 600-700, but already wanting another tank so I’m hooked and don’t want to know where that number will be in a few years
 
I've always been afraid to add it all up so here goes my act of bravery for the day. For my 75 setup, I got the tank, stand, and lid on sale for $250 new. Plus about $25 for black diamond sand, $10 for egg crate, free soil I had for starting seeds for my garden, free rocks from my yard and cholla I collected on a hike, $75 for a better light, $60 for an on sale canister filter, $50 for an amazing craigslist deal on a 20lb CO2 setup, $25 for an of brand python siphon, about $125 for live plants (plus or minus a bit, my partner might read this someday), and fish is hard to estimate. Probably about $100-120 between Aquahuna and someone moving out of state. Food and water conditioner for the past 6 months is probably close to $50. Ackggh! That's about $700 but was spread out over several months of lock down with nothing better to do. No travel, no going to the movies in person, very little eating out, less time for online shopping because I need to do water changes...

Now let's all pretend I only have one tank, haha!
 

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Let's see. I graduated from XL pickle jars in 1967, to my first real tank.
I maintained at least one tank going until 1992. I took five years off to keep horses. Got tired of getting kicked & bit and transitioned back to fishkeeping in 1997. I've had as many as three tanks going ever since.
Not sure how to calculate the total expense of it all. What ever the amount is, it was worth it to me.
Btw, Once you've been in the hobby a while one learns how to economize.
 
How much has your aquarium hobby cost
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That's not something that I would want to put in writing....
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who would?! I wouldn’t even want to talk about it. Could you imagine showing up to an addiction meeting and having to tell people you are addicted to collecting and raising fish from The Great Rift lakes of Africa. How that Tetrastigma had such beautiful rainbow coloring or the blaze on a Z Rock had you hooked from the start
Well, lets just say that, in Januray, I actually had money.
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Same here. Saving now for a tank of Fronts! This will be a long save, cuz that’s like saying I intend to convert my basement into a 2nd fish room
 

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Fish food…+/- $150 monthly
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Wow, I don't think I'm doing that much and I'm feeding several pleco tanks. This zuchs add up.

As for how much it has cost me.. Not a clue. Through various disasters and a bout of pleco drama, I've lost more than 2K$ in teh last 12 months. So over the last 40 years more than 2K$
 
A lot of money…. Some people travel twice a year. I have fish, lol !
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This is so true! I'm like, I'll spend hundreds of dollars on fish and you can spend hundreds of dollars on clothes with a G on it.
 
Do you count the opportunity cost of all the time spent that could have been spent doing something else?
 
I refuse to keep track, plausible deniability.
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Agreed...if I try to figure it out and my wife asks the question, I can't say that I don't know it or I'm lying to her...which I definitely don't want to do!
 

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I may be the only insane person on here that will actually roughly calculate the cumulative cost of everything I have spent on the aquarium hobby so far. I have been keeping aquariums for almost 5 years now and will only count my own tanks (not my parents, that is a different story for another time). I knew much less back then so don't get upset at old me, I have learned much more since joining Fishlore on new years eve in 2020. I also have a great memory, don't ask me how I remember these things! I just do!

One thing to note before I get started. I never needed water conditioner as my water is suitable well water to use and I use US dollars with all my calculations.

3.5 gallon Betta Tank (setup in 2016)

Tank: 29.99 Tank was the Tetra half moon kit and I remember the price as it was my very first one
Heater: 9.99 One of those cheap heaters that didn't work well, silly me
Substrate: 14.99 A 5lb bag of Blue Gravel. Yup, had to start somewhere with substrate. It's like a rite of passage in the hobby!
Squidward House: 6.99 Being a kid you like to put silly things in your tank!
Mopani Wood: 9.99 A small piece of Mopani wood to go in the tank
Nat Geo Silk Plant Set: 19.99 A plant set that was safe for Betta's fins
Veiltail Betta: 3.99 (My first fish, he was awesome but was only with me for a little over a year due to my inexperience)
Thermometer: 1.99
AQ Salt: 6.99
Food: Roughly 20.00 dollars

Rough Total for this setup: $124.91 (And this was the cheapest setup too!)

10 Gallon Betta Revamp Tank (setup in 2018 after a small break in the hobby)

Tank: Aqueon 10 gallon glass aquarium 10.00 Dollar Per Gallon Sale at Petco
Heater: Zacro 50 watt heater 12.99 Bought on Amazon
Filter: Tetra Whisper 3-10i 9.99 Bought at Petsmart
Lid with light: 42.99 Bought at Petco
Rocks: Dragon Stone 10g kit 33.69 Found on Amazon.com
Wood: 2 Spiderwood Pieces 34.99 together with both prices
Substrate: 20lbs Black Gravel 24.99 A step up from the blue gravel, but still not ideal in my opinion.
Thermometer: 3.99
Plastic Plants: roughly 50 dollars for everything
Crowntail Betta: 5.99
2 Nerite Snails: 5.98
1 Mystery Snail: 2.99
Ghost Shrimp: Roughly 3 dollars for all of them over time, they were feeder shrimp
Food: Roughly 30 dollars with everything factored in
Cleaning Sponge: 15 dollars
Water Change Bucket: All Free Today!!!

Rough Total for this setup: $286.59 (Notice the steep incline in the price...)

29 Gallon Community Aquascape (Setup in late 2020 shortly before joining Fishlore!)

Tank: 29 gallon glass aquarium with wood stand Free for me, parents paid about 450.00 for the tank and stand!
Heater: 150 watt Top Fin heater 36.99
Filter: Tetra 40i 19.99
Glass Lid: 24.99
Substrate: Caribsea Eco Complete: 24.99
Substrate #2: Imagitarium Sand: 19.99
Rocks: Dragon Stone kit: 59.99 (went with my other stones I already had to create the new scape)
Wood: Set of 6 small Spiderwood Pieces: 14.99 (Went with my other Spiderwood I already had)
(Started with live plants in this setup, that is when things get really dicey!)
Ferts: Easy Green whole set: Roughly 65 dollars so far with the extra root tabs
Live Plants: About 105 dollars with all the plants I bought for this tank calculated in
Cherry Shrimp: 70 dollars total for 15 specimens
Clown Pleco: 4.99
Neon Tetras: About 30 dollars for 13 specimens (got one for free by mistake)
Lambchop Rasboras: About 38 dollars for 13 specimens (one didn't make the night, still got 12 to this day)
Nerite Snails: About 10 dollars for 4 specimens
Mystery Snails: About 6.50 for 2 specimens
API Master Kit: 24.99 (finally got one of these after all this time)
Food: 20 dollars so far (not counting the food I already had before this setup)
Seachem Equilbrium 600 gram: 19.99

Rough Total for this setup: $696.40 ($1146.40 with tank and stand counted in (...:eek:)

10 gallon aquascape (my current development in 2021 and still climbing in price)

Tank: 10 gallon Aqueon glass aquarium: 10 dollars
No Lid so far
Light: Finnex Planted 24/7 64.99
Filter: small HOB filter 17.99
Heater: Free from last 10g setup
Substrate: ADA Aquasoil 9 liters 54.99
Wood: Manzanita set 24.99
Rocks: Seiryu Stone set for 49.99
Cherry Shrimp: Free from 29 gallon, thank goodness!
Plants: 75 dollars for new plants, rest came from 29 gallon aquarium
CO2 diy kit: 40 dollars for everything
Food: Free Currently set on food
Ferts: Free Currently set on these as I have them for the 29 gallon already)
Hydra Killer: 21.99 They are certainly gone now, good riddance!

Rough Total for this setup: $359.94 (plenty of supplies I already had from the 29 gallon setup)


Rough Total for JL's Aquarium Hobby so far not counting the 29 gallon tank and stand: $1,467.84 after only 5 years!

I currently have only the new 10 gallon and 29 gallon setup right now. This cost does not inlcude most medications, electricity consumption, time wasted with cleaning or none of that stuff. The price is likely well above 2000 with everything counted in! The aquarium hobby is no joke, once you get sucked in the wormhole your money will never be able to escape, no wonder I am still single!

With these painful calculations out of the way, wishing my fellow members and their pocketbooks the best,
-JLAquatics
 
I may be the only insane person on here that will actually roughly calculate the cumulative cost of everything I have spent on the aquarium hobby so far.
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I take this as a challenge.

Note: Stolen Tupperware containers and other misc. containers were not included, as they would probably increase the price by a few hundred dollars lol.

Note: Whatever was gifted to me, I will include, because it would be a mess trying to figure it out otherwise, especially with my 1st tank. And all fish will be included in a separate list at the end. And all are based off of today's prices, most will be similar, but just a disclaimer as I'm sure everyone cares so much lol.

10g:

10g kit: 30 dollars
Gravel: 12 dollars
Dragon: 15 dollars
Air pump: 15 dollars
Ship ornament: 25 dollars
Fake plants: 10 dollars
Weird ornament (No idea): 15 dollars
Siphon: 14 dollars
Dechlorinator: 6 dollars
Flakes: 8 dollars
Master test kit: 30 dollars

Total: 180

10g revamp (Same, fish, mom didn't like the dirtiness of the old tank):

10g kit: 30 dollars
Sponge filter: 6 dollars
Sand: 3 dollars
Blood worms: 10 dollars
Light: 20 dollars
Ich med 1: 8 dollars
Ich med 2: 10 dollars

Total: 84

Technical 29g: $40, but saved me from equipment 160 (40 dollars is put in, not 160) But never set up.

Total: 40

55g:

Tank: (Manual labor, but everything that came with was worth about 500 dollars, I'll put a price including and excluding this)

Filter: 40 dollars
Light: 60 dollars
Pebbles: 15 dollars
Xtreme krill flakes: 13 dollars
Omega one: 15 dollars
Omega one: 15 dollars
API cory food: 8 dollars

Total 1 (W/out): 164
Total 2 (With): 664

55g revamp (Exploded, and grandparents felt bad, and bought me another):

55g: 100 dollars
Vacation feeder block: 5 dollars
Water pump: 15 dollars
Thrive C: 50 dollars
Plants: 70 dollars
Additional food order (A ton of foods, that I mixed together, and shrimp foods, and cichlid foods, I had a lot of petsmart gift cards lol, I bet you guys can relate): 50 dollars
Rocks: .10 dollars

Total: 290.10

3 gallon cylinder tank: 30 dollars

Plants and substrate: 25 dollars

Total: 55

5g marineland:

Tank: 63 dollars
Fluval stratum: 16 dollars
Light: 15 dollars

Total: 94

Live fish (I think I've forgotten some, which I feel horrible about now):

dwarf gourami: 5 dollars
Glo danio: 6
4 neon tetras: 10 dollars
guppy: 3
6 hatchetfish: 24
20 lemon tetras: 44
20 lemon tetras: 36
pictus cat: 12
longfin BN pleco: 9
4 angelfish: 40
5 guppies: 12
Molly: 3
Betta: 15

Total: 219



Total (W/out, manual labor tank): $946.10
Total (with manual labor tank): 1446.10



And the conclusion is, I need to stop wasting my money, jk lol. That will never stop.
 
I take this as a challenge.
...
And the conclusion is, I need to stop wasting my money, jk lol. That will never stop.
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First off, congrats on succeeding my unofficial challenge. You get a single gold shimmering star for your efforts.

Second, just accept the fact that you will never quote on quote "waste" money in the aquarium hobby (unless getting useless medications you will never use or décor that you will never use after one time). It is a hobby after all and hence that is mostly where individuals put the most of their extra funds. Plus, this is one of the coolest hobbies to have and I think every Fishlorian would agree to that. Planted tanks take that hobby to a whole new level as well. :)
 
First off, congrats on succeeding my unofficial challenge. You get a single gold shimmering star for your efforts.

Second, just accept the fact that you will never quote on quote "waste" money in the aquarium hobby (unless getting useless medications you will never use or décor that you will never use after one time). It is a hobby after all and hence that is mostly where individuals put the most of their extra funds. Plus, this is one of the coolest hobbies to have and I think every Fishlorian would agree to that. Planted tanks take that hobby to a whole new level as well. :)
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As I said in the following quote:
This is so true! I'm like, I'll spend hundreds of dollars on fish and you can spend hundreds of dollars on clothes with a G on it.
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As I said in the following quote:

I'm like, I'll spend hundreds of dollars on fish and you can spend hundreds of dollars on clothes with a G on it.
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Or an overrated iphone for 1.5 thousand dollars that just has a slightly better camera and components than a simple smartphone for 200 dollars...
Or Nike Shoes that are almost the same thing as 40 dollar Tennis Shoes...
Or super expensive Jewelry that someone may only wear a few times and then store it never to see daylight ever again...
Or collecting expensive cars that someone may only drive once in a blue moon...
Or spending thousands of dollars on a super lavish vacation that you will only spend a week or so doing...

See, now us Aquarists have some good excuses now on how much we spend in our hobby! At least many fish we keep live for a couple to several years in proper conditions!
 
Let me try:
Stand: 70$
Aquarium: 30$
Sand: 25$
Plants: I think 30$
Driftwood: 25$
Light: 35$
Lid: 20$
Filter: 22$
Heater:28$ (not really sure)
Sponge filter: 11$
Heater #2: 17$
Thermometer:2$
Fish nets: 7$
Fish food: 20$
Medications: 20$
Test kit: 20$
Fish: 50$
Bucket: 5$

Total: 425
I think that is it. That's actually pretty good
Time: 500$
Total: 1k dollars
Shoutout to my dad and uncle who helped me buy these things and went out of their way to take me to the pet stores. My uncle still says I waste my time, but it is what it is :)
 
I just discovered that is a rich people hobby but too late to backtrack... If money is an issue, keep it at 20 Gl and below.
 

Random Great Topic!

How often (or at all) do you give your fish a fast day?

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