Reagent prices going through the roof!!

[rtparty]

I actually priced out a 90g reef ready tank a couple weeks ago and it’s much cheaper than people want to believe. The issue isn’t the cost of things to run a successful tank. It’s that so many of us think we need a ton of gimmicks that do nothing for the actual health of the tank.

For real…a brand new 90g reef ready tank, stand, and sump is $1k.

Couple Tunze AC pumps will last longer than the tank and are like $200 total. You don’t need the WiFi or app control or 99 modes. Corals don’t care one bit. They just want flow.

Return pump is under $100 on Amazon.

Couple Nicrew Gen 2 lights is less than $400. An ATI Sunpower was like $1000 back in the day.

Heater is less than $100 with a backup controller. IO salt is still $40-50

Test kits…Do you really NEED more than the Hanna Phosphorous and a couple Salifert kits for nitrate, alkalinity, and calcium? TM glass hydrometer is $35.

Rock and sand is definitely personal. Dry rock with TBS live sand is a foolproof way to start a system. This is arguably the most important part so it does cost a chunk. 20 years ago we were told 1-2lbs per gallon and it was $6-12 per pound. So again, it’s not more expensive today than 20 years ago.

The real issue has become what “we” as the hobby keep promoting. So much useless junk

 

[*GAREEF*]

Yes, there was a bump up recently, but just one. There has been a bunch of sales lately with free shipping. I took advantage needless to say.

You would think with the high cost of everything in this hobby (we put out $50-75 for a single ICP test!) we wouldn’t notice a couple dollar increase on a refill. If you have a milligram scale, it is possible to run the Hanna tests at half scale, splitting the reagents for a 5 mL sample. It takes more time, but makes sense if you have more time than money.

Ah that’s an awesome idea!! Thank you

 

[Homewrecker]

Everytime I look at Hanna its creeping higher and higher. It costs a dollar to do one Nitrate high range test at home. Its kind of nuts

 

[BasementBox]

Everytime I look at Hanna its creeping higher and higher. It costs a dollar to do one Nitrate high range test at home. Its kind of nuts

Amazon product

Bulk order at least pushes it down a few cents per test.

 

[Tamberav]

You can run a successful tank on testing mostly just Alk.

The mag and calcium tests are not even very accurate. More of a ballpark.

Some tanks may need to track nitrate and po4 closely but another may test once a month, be that tank lol

 

[Koty]

Buy in bulk (this is TM elimiNP):

 

[gbroadbridge]

Has anyone else noticed that the reagent refills are getting crazy expensive lately? There seems to always be a sale going on but every week it seems like they are raising the prices. Not really a sale at that point.

Tests are not that expensive unless you buy the convenient digital 'gold class' tests.

 

[Dan_P]

Ah that’s an awesome idea!! Thank you

Forgot to mention that the vial needs to be raised 17 mm. That’s important. I use either a piece of wooden dowel or wide tubing. Since the lid doesn’t close I place a small inverted opaque medicine vial on top of the protruding bit.