ainsy
Fish Addict
Like I said - I really don't want to put you off but I found it just too expensive to keep running.
I never calculated running costs (because I could then just shrug and act dumb when SWMBO asked)
What I can tell you is that I was running a 1200 Litre, 7 foot reef tank. The costs that I found crippling were the salt and the worst of all the electricity. It was probably because I was keeping hard corals, needed lots of water changes with good quality salt and had high light demands (700w of lighting x 8hours/day!) Then there were the extra pumps for wavemaking and turnover etc. etc. - You could make a very loose comparison to a high tech trop versus a low tech.....
I would advise you to do the equivalent of starting with the 'low tech' as it were - these animals are much more sensitive than trops, and are much more expensive to buy - so loses can be costly.
The bottom line is that when we moved house I did have to calculate the cost of the electricity and found that it was costing about £1000 for about 9 months use.... and salt comes in at about £60 a bucket. Without doing the maths you will probably need about 3/4 - 1 bucket for initial setup. I was going through a bucket per month.
Again I don't want to discourage you or be a naysayer - just make sure you get good advice and start slowly.
I never calculated running costs (because I could then just shrug and act dumb when SWMBO asked)
What I can tell you is that I was running a 1200 Litre, 7 foot reef tank. The costs that I found crippling were the salt and the worst of all the electricity. It was probably because I was keeping hard corals, needed lots of water changes with good quality salt and had high light demands (700w of lighting x 8hours/day!) Then there were the extra pumps for wavemaking and turnover etc. etc. - You could make a very loose comparison to a high tech trop versus a low tech.....
I would advise you to do the equivalent of starting with the 'low tech' as it were - these animals are much more sensitive than trops, and are much more expensive to buy - so loses can be costly.
The bottom line is that when we moved house I did have to calculate the cost of the electricity and found that it was costing about £1000 for about 9 months use.... and salt comes in at about £60 a bucket. Without doing the maths you will probably need about 3/4 - 1 bucket for initial setup. I was going through a bucket per month.
Again I don't want to discourage you or be a naysayer - just make sure you get good advice and start slowly.
