45 Gallon Reef Cost….?
Im keeping tropical fish at the moment and I want to start reading up on reef aquariums and how to keep saltwater fish. My parents agreed that when I finish college ( year 11 and 12 in AU) they will help me buy a set up for a salt water aquarium, we are planing to use our 45 gallon. So what are some of the cost involved?
Cost is going to depend entirely on the set-up you wish and your ethics/budgeting. Prior answer has outlined several possibilities to cost, so I’m not going to bother addressing that. I’ll head right to the ethics/budgeting part of this answer.
See, some people don’t want to stock an entire tank with all liverock. Why? Several reasons. Worry about encouraging over harvest. Concerns about potentially introducing tons of undesirable hitchhikers. Overall cost. The cycling associated with new liverock (*oh….. liverock that has not been fully cycled smells like the Meadowlands at low tide) People who have these concerns do one of two things. They either use a large proportion of baserock (*dry rock) and seeding it with a few pieces of live rock. Base rock will eventually acquire the same micro and macro fauna as liverock in this manner. Either that, or they will use all baserock and ask a friend if they can leave a piece of baserock in either their tank or sump to pick up the kinds of beneficial micro and macra fauna that makes liverock "live."
The other area of debate about cost and ethics is in the actual coral. See, there’s a debate going on as to whether wild collection of coral and fish has a positive or negative effect on world reefs. On the plus side, wild collection encourages island nations to recognize the large economic value of their reefs and protect them from runoff, toxic contaminants, etc. On the negative side, wild collection may encourage unethical and damaging collection practices (dynamite, cyanide, etc.). Anywho, many hobbyists are turning to frag swaps as both an ethical choice to decrease the demands of wild collection and as a way to acquire cheap, healthy pieces of live coral. The downside to this is that the pieces may be much smaller than you would otherwise purchase. The upside is that you can get great deals at frag swaps with your local reef clubs.
Expect to pay upwards of 1k.
Your biggest expenses will be-
-Live rock (expect to pay 4-8$ a pound…you need roughly 60 pounds for a 45 gallon)
-Protein skimmer expect to pay a minimum of 200
-Lighting, depending on if you wanna grow corals or not you can spend a lot for a good lighting fixture.
-powerheads
-heater
-salt
-sand
-the fish themselves
-If you choose you can get a sump/refugium which can run you for at least 300 dollars more.
It’s expensive no doubt, but in my opinion worth every dollar.
February 17th, 2010 at 12:18 pmReferences :
Cost is going to depend entirely on the set-up you wish and your ethics/budgeting. Prior answer has outlined several possibilities to cost, so I’m not going to bother addressing that. I’ll head right to the ethics/budgeting part of this answer.
See, some people don’t want to stock an entire tank with all liverock. Why? Several reasons. Worry about encouraging over harvest. Concerns about potentially introducing tons of undesirable hitchhikers. Overall cost. The cycling associated with new liverock (*oh….. liverock that has not been fully cycled smells like the Meadowlands at low tide) People who have these concerns do one of two things. They either use a large proportion of baserock (*dry rock) and seeding it with a few pieces of live rock. Base rock will eventually acquire the same micro and macro fauna as liverock in this manner. Either that, or they will use all baserock and ask a friend if they can leave a piece of baserock in either their tank or sump to pick up the kinds of beneficial micro and macra fauna that makes liverock "live."
The other area of debate about cost and ethics is in the actual coral. See, there’s a debate going on as to whether wild collection of coral and fish has a positive or negative effect on world reefs. On the plus side, wild collection encourages island nations to recognize the large economic value of their reefs and protect them from runoff, toxic contaminants, etc. On the negative side, wild collection may encourage unethical and damaging collection practices (dynamite, cyanide, etc.). Anywho, many hobbyists are turning to frag swaps as both an ethical choice to decrease the demands of wild collection and as a way to acquire cheap, healthy pieces of live coral. The downside to this is that the pieces may be much smaller than you would otherwise purchase. The upside is that you can get great deals at frag swaps with your local reef clubs.
February 17th, 2010 at 12:24 pmReferences :