Help me on diciding

[monkeyboy9589]

I have always wanted a reef tank ever since a saw my cousins fish store on long island and how cool looking the reef tanks were. But they were big so i was wondering how much would it cost to have like a 15 gallon reef tank, ballpark figure if you can?

[yardboy]

I built a 19 gallon system for a buildoff contest. Constructed the tank, the stand, the skimmer, modified a 10 gallon tank into a sump/refugium, built canopy and retrofitted a 2-36W PC and 175W MH light, bought a little rock, but had most of it. Got frags from my main tank, but also bought a $100 worth of frags. Cost? Nearly $600.

Can it be done cheaper? Yes. I could have made the stand out of pine instead of hardwood.
Lighting. If I'd decided to go softies instead of sps I wouldn't have needed a metal halide light (though over the long run a metal halide (MH) is cheaper to operate)
Frag corals or gimmees from friends instead of dropping $100
Maybe $400 total cost

Could I have done it more expensively?
Oh Lord yes. Buy a skimmer, buy a tank(custom and starfire glass), stand and canopy with lights. Buy all your corals (expensive ones like Acans, A. tortuosa, Micromussa) you could end up spending thousands.

[Shorty5198]

The best thing you can do is READ READ READ. then you will know how much ur talkin about as well as what your getting yourself into

[Loverotties]

My guess $500?Best to go price it out with everything with fish & Coral.

[Casey]

Monkey Welcome to TRT

[reef_noob]

I second shorty5198. Read everything you can. Decide on the types of corals/fish you want to keep, ask others if your choices make sense, then figure out what equipment you need to meet the fish/coral requirements.

Then you can make a timeline of purchases based on your budget and the necessity of the item. Realistically, you are probably always going to be looking at over $500 for a complete setup, but that doesn't have to be the initial investment.

[the_colonel]

Welcome MonkeyBoy!!!!

Don't assume smaller is cheaper. Do your research and look for used tanks, lights, stands, skimmers, etc... You might find a used 29 gallon, or larger for less $$$ then setting up a new 15 gallon nano.

[wharyat]

Welcome to TRT!!


Total cost for my 20 today (almost about 20 months after setup) is prolly reaching towards $1200 (salt, light replacement, DI resin, inhabitants).

Setup is pretty cheap, $600 will get you lots of good stuff (including your first fish and corals). Just be careful, you'll want to go bigger as you gain more experience!

Read, read, and read; ask questions. We are all pleased to help you start on a good note.