How much money is invested in a reef tank?
I have 50 gal freshwater tank and switching over to reef just would want to know estimated money spend on it excluding fish…
Thanks
- A protein skimmer could be well under $100 to several hundred depending on what you are getting. Although I personally reccomend you get a good, large protein skimmer
- Live rock… could be around $18AUD per kilogram.
- If you plan on adding a sump that would be more $$
- Lights… if you plan on keeping stony corals, metal halide lights would be one of the more expensive pieces of equipment. You can get away with compact flurosants (sp?) for many soft corals.
- You will need a hydrometer… although if you can get a much better refractometer (these can be as much as over $100 though.. you can sometimes get them much cheaper on eBay)
- Unless you have incredible tap water and no copper pipes, you should use reverse osmosis water. You could buy a reverse osmosis unit or buy RO water from an aquarium store. You can even buy mixed salt RO water or just mix the salt yourself. The aquarium near me charges 0.70 cents AUD per litre.
- Substrate for the bottom, perhaps coral sand which is a little more expensive than normal gravel.
- Wavemakers for the corals. Cost can vary. A cheaper alternative is to use powerheads.
All in all, lots of money but probably well worth it if you get the equipment right in the first place. 
Good luck!
$1,500 – cheaper equipment
$2,000 + – good quality equipment
All this depends on many factors including which corals, how much live rock, live sand etc
November 5th, 2009 at 3:29 pmReferences :
- A protein skimmer could be well under $100 to several hundred depending on what you are getting. Although I personally reccomend you get a good, large protein skimmer
- Live rock… could be around $18AUD per kilogram.
- If you plan on adding a sump that would be more $$
- Lights… if you plan on keeping stony corals, metal halide lights would be one of the more expensive pieces of equipment. You can get away with compact flurosants (sp?) for many soft corals.
- You will need a hydrometer… although if you can get a much better refractometer (these can be as much as over $100 though.. you can sometimes get them much cheaper on eBay)
- Unless you have incredible tap water and no copper pipes, you should use reverse osmosis water. You could buy a reverse osmosis unit or buy RO water from an aquarium store. You can even buy mixed salt RO water or just mix the salt yourself. The aquarium near me charges 0.70 cents AUD per litre.
- Substrate for the bottom, perhaps coral sand which is a little more expensive than normal gravel.
- Wavemakers for the corals. Cost can vary. A cheaper alternative is to use powerheads.
All in all, lots of money but probably well worth it if you get the equipment right in the first place.
Good luck!
November 5th, 2009 at 4:12 pmReferences :
all depends upon type of equipmet you buy.
November 5th, 2009 at 4:31 pmremeber a reef tank ios a living organizm and there is no limit in spending.
do your homwork and buget everything And shop about
References :
as the previous answers have stated its a fairly dynamic question, if you HAVE to have itt right now, it can cost you easily $2000.00, but if you have time and patience you can knock that figure down dramatically
first off go to this link and find your local reef club
http://reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=80
join as many as you can within driving distance, this is where the deals are, live rock can retail in a store for $6.00 per lb, in my local reef club it sells for $2.00 lb, since you will want 50-75 lbs this is the difference between $450.00 max to $100.00 at the lowest, same goes for lighting, skimmers, and any other equipment you might need,
once you get the equipment established the cost goes down but the fish and corals are still pretty expensive
November 5th, 2009 at 4:41 pmReferences :