What's the average reefers monthly budget?

[pwfess]

The average new car payment is $734 a month!!! Family and friends will look at me like I'm nuts when I drop hundreds, or even 1k+, on a nice coral. But these same people will pay well over $500 dollars a month for transportation. Personally, I decide not to have a car payment and I work a little extra in order to cover my hobby expensive. So I ask everyone if they have a monthly budget for the reef tank?

 

[pwfess]

Lol. So my original build has been put on hold until the room is finished, and my nano was luck winning a R2R contest. For the most part, the day to day comes out of the budget. Anything else I plan for and save separately.

Congrats on the win!

 

[Fenral]

Wow your original build budget was way too low haha. Mine was like 7k for everything. Yeah prob around 20k with livestock and all the stuff. And that’s in 1 years. But hey, I work a per diem gig that supplements us 24k a year so…if I didn’t do that job, I wouldn’t have that money! lol this helps me validate myself and spending…bc I don’t touch our regular household income

I answer this with my build thread title:”60G Cube - I can do this cheaply, right? AKA the Mars Mission”

 

[pwfess]

I answer this with my build thread title:”60G Cube - I can do this cheaply, right? AKA the Mars Mission”

Alright I’m gonna check out your thread today then

 

[Cichlid Dad]

I must be doing this wrong. I spend hardly anything. The people who spend all this money, what are you spending it on? I get the electricity and food, but unless your fish and corals are dropping dead all over the place, where is all this money going?

I'm so confused.

Morning Paul! So I'm thinking an article is needed from you. Seeing how you started when nothing much was available compared to today, you come at this with a different prospective on what is required to run a successful reef tank. Maybe a simple setup list and plan for a inexpensive reef with bare minimum expenses. We can refer new reefers to. Coming from you would have some validity. I run a very minimal reef and have been very successful so far but coming from you I think would have more impact.

Best Regards

Steve

 

[pwfess]

Morning Paul! So I'm thinking an article is needed from you. Seeing how you started when nothing much was available compared to today, you come at this with a different prospective on what is required to run a successful reef tank. Maybe a simple setup list and plan for a inexpensive reef with bare minimum expenses. We can refer new reefers to. Coming from you would have some validity. I run a very minimal reef and have been very successful so far but coming from you I think would have more impact.

Best Regards

Steve

My original intent of the question was just if you set a budget per month. I agree though, at this point in time it’s super cheap to run my tank. I only throw money away bc of buying expensive corals lol.

 

[Paul B]

Cichlid Dad, Thank you for having faith in my thoughts. But there is an enormous, unbelievable, unsurmountable amount of people that feel I am either nuts or a liar and don't know a reef tank from a field of sunflowers or goats.

I don't believe in so many things in this hobby, one of which I feel it is silly to allow your fish to get sick and many people can't grasp that idea, so I think much money is spent on trying to cure fish or quarantine or medicate them to stay healthy which I feel is counter productive to keeping them healthy.

You are correct, I have been here the day the hobby started. I think it was on a Tuesday, about 2:30 in the afternoon.

There are 2 ways to enjoy this hobby and one of those ways is very expensive. I hear how much money some people put into this and it boggles my old, senile mind.

Cichlid dad, I wrote numerous threads, posts, articles, podcasts and even wrote a book so I think people know my thoughts.

No sense re hashing it again.

 

[pwfess]

Cichlid Dad, Thank you for having faith in my thoughts. But there is an enormous, unbelievable, unsurmountable amount of people that feel I am either nuts or a liar and don't know a reef tank from a field of sunflowers or goats.

I don't believe in so many things in this hobby, one of which I feel it is silly to allow your fish to get sick and many people can't grasp that idea, so I think much money is spent on trying to cure fish or quarantine or medicate them to stay healthy which I feel is counter productive to keeping them healthy.

You are correct, I have been here the day the hobby started. I think it was on a Tuesday, about 2:30 in the afternoon.

There are 2 ways to enjoy this hobby and one of those ways is very expensive. I hear how much money some people put into this and it boggles my old, senile mind.

Cichlid dad, I wrote numerous threads, posts, articles, podcasts and even wrote a book so I think people know my thoughts.

No sense re hashing it again.

The era of instagram and social media has probably exploded this hobby for good and bad! Thanks for all your work. I’ll have to check some of it out, as I don’t know you or any of your thoughts…but I do know a bit now

 

[MugenReef95]

It varys for me lol anywhere from 100 to 1000 a month depending if i find the right coral or more rare fish that i cant say no to

 

[pwfess]

It varys for me lol anywhere from 100 to 1000 a month depending if i find the right coral or more rare fish that i cant say no to

Yup…sounds about where mine is. What are some rare fish you can’t say no too? Or some more expensive corals you like?

 

[Fenral]

Cichlid Dad, Thank you for having faith in my thoughts. But there is an enormous, unbelievable, unsurmountable amount of people that feel I am either nuts or a liar and don't know a reef tank from a field of sunflowers or goats.

I don't believe in so many things in this hobby, one of which I feel it is silly to allow your fish to get sick and many people can't grasp that idea, so I think much money is spent on trying to cure fish or quarantine or medicate them to stay healthy which I feel is counter productive to keeping them healthy.

You are correct, I have been here the day the hobby started. I think it was on a Tuesday, about 2:30 in the afternoon.

There are 2 ways to enjoy this hobby and one of those ways is very expensive. I hear how much money some people put into this and it boggles my old, senile mind.

Cichlid dad, I wrote numerous threads, posts, articles, podcasts and even wrote a book so I think people know my thoughts.

No sense re hashing it again.

I had to go to my computer for this one...
Paul, there are more than two ways to enjoy the hobby. There are a few kids on this forum who could benefit from your experience and your knowledge—having been out of the hobby (and yet in the hobby) for longer than most people on this board. There are a lot of things people disagree about, and I've gotten into some downright ugly arguments in the past IE. Nitrogen Cycle - leave it as ammonia bs.

Relink your books and articles, stitch them up together, and post something—god knows, if it doesn't show up on Google, most people can't find it anymore. What do you mean by card catalog? What's this thing? It's in the Microfiche archive? Just because most people won't listen doesn't mean it won't help a few, which is the entire point of a community.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

I had to go to my computer for this one...
Paul, there are more than two ways to enjoy the hobby. There are a few kids on this forum who could benefit from your experience and your knowledge—having been out of the hobby (and yet in the hobby) for longer than most people on this board. There are a lot of things people disagree about, and I've gotten into some downright ugly arguments in the past IE. Nitrogen Cycle - leave it as ammonia bs.

Relink your books and articles, stitch them up together, and post something—god knows, if it doesn't show up on Google, most people can't find it anymore. What do you mean by card catalog? What's this thing? It's in the Microfiche archive? Just because most people won't listen doesn't mean it won't help a few, which is the entire point of a community.

Thank you, I didn't know how to encourage Paul, you did it well

 

[pwfess]

thank you, I didn't know how to encourage Paul, you did it well

Is this Paul?

 

[Fenral]

Is this Paul?

I can't find what I want to reply with... mainly cause the movie has been unofficially banned.

“Behold the Metatron! Herald of the Almighty and voice of the one true God!”

-Metatron

 

[Knucker]

I am disabled and have to budget a lot. Sometimes it takes months for me to build a tank before I even cycle it. I get my coral from dealers on eBay, but I keep an eye on their ratings. After the tank is finished I budget enough for salt, food, and additives that I need for the tank.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Is this Paul?

I don't think so, it's been awhile since I've seen him on YouTube.

 

[Kylesreeftank]

Well, my budget per month is typically no greater than $200 and I don't consider it a budget so much as a cost until the month is up and equipment is verified to be working and nothing is needed or has changed.


If we count electrical and water then I guess it's closer to $500/month. Would be less if I sold corals instead of giving them or trading them all the time but I've gotten more from trading corals for things than buying them or selling them, Honestly.

 

[ShoreReefer]

I don’t have a budget but the one thing that surprised me was that my apex says I spend about $80/mo on electricity to run my 200 gallon tank. This year has been the most I’ve spent upgrading to a bigger tank and equipment upgrades, coral to fill the tank, and a few more fish. I’d hate to think what I’ve spent this year lol. Next year should be a lot less

 

[Paul B]

Relink your books and articles, stitch them up together, and post something—god knows,

Fenral, the link to my book is under all my posts on this forum if you are on a computer. It doesn't show up on a phone. The owner of the site generously allows me to put my book under my posts because 100% of the profits go to charity. M.S. exactly, in my wife's name. (Multiple Sclerosis)

I could put all my articles on here but that would take up much of the DataByte's on this forum and I wouldn't know where to put them. My thread is already almost 500 pages long.

My last YouTube video with ReefBum was a year ago:

 

[Fenral]

Fenral, the link to my book is under all my posts on this forum if you are on a computer. It doesn't show up on a phone. The owner of the site generously allows me to put my book under my posts because 100% of the profits go to charity. M.S. exactly, in my wife's name. (Multiple Sclerosis)

I could put all my articles on here but that would take up much of the DataByte's on this forum and I wouldn't know where to put them. My thread is already almost 500 pages long.

My last YouTube video with ReefBum was a year ago:

So it does show up on the computer, I didn't notice on the phone before. /Goes off to talk to Nasa about budgeting a few more data byes for the forum.

~~~

 

[Mkengr45]

No way in hell I’m posting that information…my wife might be lurking and find out.