How much did……

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#1
After having an interesting conversation with a buddy yesterday it got my gears spinning.

I’m wondering what people spend on there setups.

So how much did you spend on your setup?



So I’ll start, I’ll first say I am scumbag cheap. I shop for great prices but if I don’t like someone’s prices I don’t low ball I just move on.




The tank/stand I bought used for $300 but it had bad seams so I rebuilt the tank. I dropped another $1000 in rebuilding the tank and stand. I modified the tank from internal overflow to external and changed the eurobrace from 4” to 2”. I used the original skin from the stand but had a metal stand built as the tank support. Other then welding the stand I did all the custom work.
The lighting is 3 gen1 radions and diy rails, in total cost me around $600 to build.
I bought all my apex gear used, some damaged and I repaired. In total I spent around $1000 on the apex gear.
Calcium reactor was diy built. For reactor, regulator/solenoid, and C02 tank $500
Skimmer I bought 15y ago for $400 and $75 to upgrade to DC pump.
Return pump came with old 150g system.
Maxspent ethereal was free from when I was a beta tester for maxspect.
2 sets of used gyres $250ish
Sump I traded for an old mp40 I bought for $300

So in all I spent a little over 4K on my 187g system.
 

Jimbo327

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#2
To survive that wrath of the wife, one must have short memories and keep no proof of the amount spend on the money pit. :cool:

And most people don't have your DIY skills or patience. If you spent $4k on your system with rebuilt tank and used equipment, I figure you easily double or triple that amount for other people.

Example: New Redsea 160g tank starts at $4.3k at BRS.
 
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#3
To survive that wrath of the wife, one must have short memories and keep no proof of the amount spend on the money pit. :cool:

And most people don't have your DIY skills or patience. If you spent $4k on your system with rebuilt tank and used equipment, I figure you easily double or triple that amount for other people.

Example: New Redsea 160g tank starts at $4.3k at BRS.
Yea my buddy was telling that a new Rea Sea 90g is close to 4k or something along that line.

But my lady has no room to speak she has her purse collection and shoes. Holly eff I just found out a month or so ago she owns 5 pairs of Yeezy‘s. Then don’t get me started on how she has 20K in bolt-ons, after two surgeries cause the first set wasn’t big enough for her liking.
That B—— can’t say shhhh about my hobby if she knows what’s good for her.
 
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#4
50 gallon (I wrote 50g at first but was worried people would think I meant I spent 50 G's LOL)

Stand- $250 (made myself)
Tank- $200
Light- $600
Skimmer- $300
Return Pump- $350
Apex system- $2800
Powerheads- $350
Vortech back up- $200
Autofeeder $40
ATO $200
Skimmer neck cleaner- $225
C02 filter $100
RODI system $300

So about 6k before coral/fish.

I just picked up a used Waterbox 220. I budgeted for 8 grand before livestock. I had some equipment left over from my last system to help with that.


March FTS for Web.JPG
 

Smite

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#5
Hard to say because I've accumulated gear over years. If I had to pull a number out my ass 10k range.
 
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#7
Hard to say because I've accumulated gear over years. If I had to pull a number out my ass 10k range.
If I am going "over the years", all 22 of them now I am probably over 50k easy, but I have also made more than that selling fish/coral so... Not sure how that plays out.
 

Smite

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#8
If I am going "over the years", all 22 of them now I am probably over 50k easy, but I have also made more than that selling fish/coral so... Not sure how that plays out.
I've gone through an absurd amount of systems in my time keeping reef tanks. I really try not to think what I've dropped in the last 10 years, haha.
 
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#9
I got lucky and bought a setup off my friend that only added water and sand to the tank so basically new

Waterbox 180.5 with 2 xr30 g5, nyos quantum 160, sicce sdc 9.0, xp aqua ato, inkbird w/ 300w heater all for $3700

I bought other stuff on top so

xr30 g5 - $660
red sea lid - $60
neptune gro - $140 (probably didnt need)
filters cups - $30
rms rail/ hanging bracket $80
wall mount bracket $40
jebao wavemakers (2) $170

Pretty sure im missing some other stuff but probably $5000 just for dry goods lol

i dont even wanna get started with corals
 
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#10
For just under 40 gallons. Hovering around $800 all in with nothing of brand. Good brand anyway. 8 fish and just as many coral.
Crazy as it sounds, my last 90 gallon setup I think was maybe $1000 total and had a tank full of more coral to count and fish I’d need two sets of hands to count and maybe a foot along with clams.
Tank before that, 120 gallon even less money also chuck-full of coral, fish, Tunze pumps and clams.
Sold both for more than I had in. Yes corals grew and became worth more but got more than I had in and to me that’s all that counts. Breaking even is good enough, extra is better.
I don’t think that can be done today.
 

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#11
Original glass Tank and stand, skimmer and return pump: 500
Replaced with an AA tank due to a cracked panel: 500
Reef Saavy ghost overflow: 300 (or so)
Mp40qd x2: 500 (used)
Mitra: $700
Rocks: 200

total: $3300 + cost of coral and fish
 
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#12
-Elos 70 with stand bought used
-all other equipments bought brand new
-1/10hp jbj artica
-(2) G5 XR15 Blue with RMS mount
-Neptume Apex wifi
-Neptune Trident
-Neptune AFS
-cor15
-Neptune DOS
-Neptune V2 ATO
-(2) Vortech MP10 with battery back up
-BK Mini 160
-tunze refug light
My wife read post on here sometimes, so my total is no more than $1,200


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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#13
-Elos 70 with stand bought used
-1/10hp JBJ Artica chiller
all other equipments bought brand new
-(2) G5 XR15 Blue with RMS mount
-Neptume Apex wifi
-Neptune Trident
-Neptune AFS
-cor15
-Neptune DOS
-Neptune V2 ATO
-(2) Vortech MP10 with battery back up
-BK Mini 160
-tunze refug light
My wife read post on here sometimes, so my total is no more than $1,200


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
12 on just the BK
 

Jimbo327

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#14
I think most people underestimate how much they really spent on their tanks and gear. I'm not even talking about fish/corals yet. If they truly track all the purchases in a spreadsheet, things add up really fast. So whatever anyone says how much it cost them, you just double it, and that's about the true cost of their tank. LOL. And cost goes up exponentially with size of tank. I think anything 90g-150g, you are looking at $2k-$5k. I think for a ~180g tank with nice gear, a typical owner should probably budget for $5k-$10k. For a ~250g, I would estimate $10k-$15k budget. People will think these numbers are crazy, but reef stuff is super expensive when you need the big stuff. All of this range can change drastically if you can get used systems from people getting out of hobby, and unloading their whole system for cheap. But many reefers buy their big tanks new or custom, and get a majority of new equipment.

For example, new CADE 2100 (280g) is ~$8k at algaebarn or Redsea Reefer 3XL 900 (240g) is $7k at BRS. Add in a few Radion XR30 G6 lights, and that's ~$2k-$3k. Then some powerheads, skimmer, return pump, and controller...the basics to run the tank...and the cost goes higher and higher.

I would say 90% of my stuff is purchased used on my 250g build. But I'm patient and wait for used high-end gear to be available, and I do quite a bit of DIY. Maybe that is why it takes so long for me to get my tank up. I don't low ball people...so it's pretty tough to keep it on budget. Like damn, I can buy an used car with this budget. LOL. It's an expensive hobby, that's for sure.
 

Jimbo327

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#16
I feel much better after watching how much this guy spent on this dream tank. Wow, he blew away all reasonable budget. Now I know how much someone can spent if you buy everything new, top of the line, and custom.

 

Smite

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Tell me that drum roll amount was in AUD...but even then, jeeesh. I gotta say I chuckled when that pricey auto canopy didn't work first try.
Hopefully that turns into a killer tank for him. Those insane sumps just seem daunting to me, I'm too lazy of a reefer for all that.
 
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#18
yeah i think it was aussie bucks, and their dry goods are stupid expensive i think?

the tradeoff being they can buy literal colonies of acros for like $20 :ROFLMAO:. whenever he does store tours i'm so jelly of their general livestock prices
 

Smite

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yeah i think it was aussie bucks, and their dry goods are stupid expensive i think?

the tradeoff being they can buy literal colonies of acros for like $20 :ROFLMAO:. whenever he does store tours i'm so jelly of their general livestock prices
damn, so it all evens out then, ha! Man coral costs, specifically losses, is a bill I don't want to see.
 

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