Monthly upkeep costs for your system?

[Myka]

I agree that a 4' tank is too small for a FOWLR. The cost of a FOWLR is much less than a reef because you aren't paying so much electricity for powerful lighting. after startup costs, the costs of maintaining a FOWLR aren't very significant. You would mainly be looking at electricity, food, and salt. Keep costs down by buying things like carbon in bulk from www.bulkreefsupply.com

You can figure out electrical costs fairly accurately by using an online electrical consumption calculator. Find out what a kWh costs in your area, and then look up the wattage of the equipment you will be using. My 90-gallon reef costs me about $40/month in electricity at 11.35 cents per kWh running 250w halides, skimmer, return pump, heater, powerheads, etc.

A bucket of salt lasts me about 4 months, so that's 3 buckets per year doing 10% weekly waterchanges. IO is perfectly fine for a FOWLR and it's cheap, but you may need to do bigger waterchanges on FOWLR, although a really good skimmer would help reduce waterchanges. Heaters can cost a lot of electricity if the tank is in a cool part of the house (basement?). Pay attention to electrical usage when you're picking pumps and skimmer.

[Madreefer]

Good to see your thinking bout starting up again Tyler. Haha I knew you would be back. Anyways get a hold of me as a buddy had to suddenly take down his tank and its all stored in my basement and I have one tank setup with some really nice liverock and a couple of black clowns. I can't see him setting it back up again and there's some nice equipment sitting here.

[zum14]

Originally Posted by mattjoly85

But over all cost is roughly 35 bucks. I would say.

Thats cheap. You must have some energy efficient equipment on there. I think the 30 gal I had cost that much at least.

Originally Posted by Ryan

If you want to upgrade in the future I would set up a current tank with an upgrade in the future.

One condition on the wife letting me do this was I am to figure out what my end goal is and save up for that. If I want it bad enough I have to be patient.

Originally Posted by naesco

IMO 90 is way too small for a FOWLR because it limits you too smaller fish.
Go for a 6 footer. You can then keep tangs and other larger fish.
With LED many reefers are dumping their old lighting and 6foot tanks are frequently offered for sale at bargain prices on this board.

This is a very good point to remember. I would love to have a yellow tang finally. I know maybe there not the most fancy but have always caught my eye. I showed the wife what 6' was and she said ok.....

[zum14]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Last time I calculated total annual cost divided by 12, it was about 127.00/mo for a 150g running 400w MH lights. All costs were considered, RO membrance replacement, bulb costs, hydro, water, food, test kits, etc.

This did not take into account replacement parts for pumps (impellers), but that's minimal.
That number though, can vary greatly, depending on your setup and equipment.

I always forget the little things. RO. I saved my typhoon 3 but it probably will need a filter change when stuff starts flowing again.

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

If cost, not room, is the biggest concern, go with a 6' fowlr but with decent lighting, such as an Aqualight Pro 150w all-in-one unit. These are going for very low prices nowadays. As a fowlr, you can either run just the two side MH and not have the center light on most of the time (so 300w). Then later, if you add some hardy softies, like green sinularia and toadstools, you can turn on all three lights. If you use 14000k Phoenix bulbs, these can easily last 1.5 years or more for this application. The last few Aqualight Pros for sale on this site went for under $100.

Save up for LEDs if you eventually decide to go more reef, than fowlr. Also look at some of the DIY LED threads to light up a 6' tank without blowing your budget.

180g is a nice size since it is a full 6' long but only 2' tall, so more powerful lights are unnecessary - thus saving you some $$.

Until I switched all my lighting (tanks & even some for the home) to LED, I used the Aqualight Pro lights for years.

Anthony

I know everyones talking LED and there are some great lights but holy man some people even diy sure spend some coin on them. Im thinking t5 but I will definitely do some more research. I do like the versatility of diy led.

Originally Posted by Myka

I agree that a 4' tank is too small for a FOWLR. The cost of a FOWLR is much less than a reef because you aren't paying so much electricity for powerful lighting. after startup costs, the costs of maintaining a FOWLR aren't very significant. You would mainly be looking at electricity, food, and salt. Keep costs down by buying things like carbon in bulk from www.bulkreefsupply.com

You can figure out electrical costs fairly accurately by using an online electrical consumption calculator. Find out what a kWh costs in your area, and then look up the wattage of the equipment you will be using. My 90-gallon reef costs me about $40/month in electricity at 11.35 cents per kWh running 250w halides, skimmer, return pump, heater, powerheads, etc.

A bucket of salt lasts me about 4 months, so that's 3 buckets per year doing 10% weekly waterchanges. IO is perfectly fine for a FOWLR and it's cheap, but you may need to do bigger waterchanges on FOWLR, although a really good skimmer would help reduce waterchanges. Heaters can cost a lot of electricity if the tank is in a cool part of the house (basement?). Pay attention to electrical usage when you're picking pumps and skimmer.

This totally makes sense. Little embarrassed I didnt think of this. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I will investigate these suggestions and browse some more tank journals. Lots of good ideas in there.

[whatcaneyedo]

Its great to see you active again. Mine costs about $2000 a year and that factors in everything from power consumption to salt. So $167 a month for a 240gal system but as you know I offset that cost by selling coral frags.

If you do decide to setup again I've still got your old purple firefish and tailspot blenny.

If you remember Karen, she is trying to sell her complete 200gal system for about $2000 I think... she has a buyer lined up but its been 4 months and the tank is still sitting in her house.

I'm also going to start calling around to see if we can do a Tank Tour over the next three months. So that might be another opportunity for you to learn some new tricks.

[Madreefer]

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo

Mine costs about $2000 a year and that factors in everything from power consumption to salt. So $167 a month for a 240gal system

Wow!! I have'nt even tried figuring mine out. No smart meter yet? My smart meter was installed at the same time I switched over to LEDs and my bill went up. Should be called scam meter instead. I now have Shauns system set up in my basement so thats not helping my bills either. Karen has plans on putting her system in my basement as well until this year long sale of her tank goes through. That one I think i'm gonna have to say no to.

[Coralgurl]

This is a great thread. I try not to think about what my systems cost, ignorance is bliss but it's good information regardless!