# How much does it cost you per month?



## Twitch (Jan 17, 2008)

How much does it cost you per month to run your salt water tank. You can answer if you have a fish-only tank, FOWLR, or a mini reef. Please state what size tank (in gallons), its inhabitants, and what you normally spend this upkeep money on? (food, saltwater, testing supplies, ect) And then state how much you spend per month as well as voting in the poll.


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## MattD (Apr 25, 2007)

after the initial investment, cost is minimal. RO water for topoffs is all i purchase for my nano reef.

the food input is minimal, salt mix is plentiful (bought a bag with 50 gallons worth of mix), the tank gets stocked at your own pace.


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## SKAustin (Aug 1, 2006)

Yep, even for a 55g, I spend about $10-15/month on R/O for top-off depending on the tme of year. Maybe $10-15/month on food. Depending on how often you test and what you test for, the testing kits last about a year or two, so if you purchase all of the necessary API test kits, thats about $50 total, Figure thats about $4 per month at the most. The chemical additives should last about 6 months so figure another $10 per month on that (depending highly on what is being kept. I add Strontium & Molybdenum, Iodine, Essential Elements, B-ionic two-part, and Kalkwasser to the top-off). Add in another $10 per month for R/O for water changes. Finally, I buy Reef crystals 160g mix, I keep my SG at 1.026 so I figure I probably get about 150g out of it, that takes care of 6 months of water changes at $30 per bucket (dfs price), thats another $5 per month.

So I figure $50-$60 per month to operate a 55g softies dominated mixed reef tank with a 30g sump. 

10 small fish, 2 mithrix crabs, yellow coral banded shrimp, peppermint shrimp, about 10 blue leg hermits, 5 zebra reef hermits, 1 red-legged hermit, and a multitude of snails, LPS corals, and soft corals.

And if you want to get technical, Based on the equipment I run, I believe I figured the tank to be $14-$20 per month on the electric bill.

hope that helps


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