[Robert Hart]

CashCall

Hi I'm Robert. I work at CashCall. We were thinking of getting a reef tank at our work place. Everyone thinks that having a reef tank here at work would be a great stress reliever. Does anyone know what the start up cost would be for a small reef tank with the works and what we should start out with?

Thanks,
R H

 

[quader94]

Welcome to TRT!

well start up cost can vary, do you know what you plan on keeping in the tank, any certain type of coral you want?

 

[Reeftanker3295]

Welcome to TRT! :wavey:

It very much depends on what you plan on keeping coral wise, if you want all kinds of corals you can get metal halides, if you want things like mushrooms and soft corals you can get something like T5 lighting or PC lighting. In my opinion and most others opinions, bigger tanks are less maintenance and dont have as many problems so id reccomend you dont go any smaller then like a 55 gallon.

 

[Jadinop]

I suggest finding a local fish store or aquarium installation/maintenance company to get you pointed in the right direction. You won't find many home aquariasts familiar with the setup of simple to run public display tank as it goes against some of the rules that we follow for our own tanks. If nobody that works at your business is an experienced hobbyist, you are going to want a very easy to care for system. The maintenace and costs of a full blown reef tank are something that most business aren't willing to take on for a stress reliever.

A fish only tank with a faux coral display is the most common type of setup used in your situation. The system that will work best for you is a larger sized tank with a good variety of fish and a colorful faux rock/coral display. A oversized bioball filter and just enough lighting to make the fish look good is the way to go. The only real work that will need to be done on a system like this is filter cleaning and routine water changes. You can do this yourself or hire a company to do it for you.

 

[Fat Tony]

I agree with Jadinop here, you may want to look into some companies that do work for public aquariums...

What size tank are we talking?

 

[fihsboy]

Even if you just go with a 75, 125 or 210. your going to want someone to hook it up. And if you let them put there name on it you might even get a discount. And its a tax write off for a business expense. Keep your reciept.

 

[tdwyatt]

Just as a generalized Rule-of-Thumb: Larry Jackson did some research on this subject and averaged costs of an averaged list of the items associated with setting up a new reef tank for the hobby and came up with a $50-$60 USD/USGallon to set up, then around $2-$3/month to maintain it (salts,RO/DI, electric, etc.). This study was done in 1998, so you may need to adjust for inflation since then.

 

[fchidsey]

Tom those numbers are Crazy when you break it down like that. Then I did the math and realized you were right on. Not very funny

 

[Loverotties]

I suggest finding a local fish store or aquarium installation/maintenance company to get you pointed in the right direction. You won't find many home aquariasts familiar with the setup of simple to run public display tank as it goes against some of the rules that we follow for our own tanks. If nobody that works at your business is an experienced hobbyist, you are going to want a very easy to care for system. The maintenace and costs of a full blown reef tank are something that most business aren't willing to take on for a stress reliever.

A fish only tank with a faux coral display is the most common type of setup used in your situation. The system that will work best for you is a larger sized tank with a good variety of fish and a colorful faux rock/coral display. A oversized bioball filter and just enough lighting to make the fish look good is the way to go. The only real work that will need to be done on a system like this is filter cleaning and routine water changes. You can do this yourself or hire a company to do it for you.

+1