# cost



## Bymer (Aug 22, 2008)

guys, i want to start a salt water tank in the near future.
its going to be a 100gallon tank.

my question is does anyone know what the rough grand total for this project of mine is going to cost(excluding the tank, lights and stand).

Just a rough idea.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

reef tank about $5000-10000
FOWLR about $2500-5000
Fishonly about $1000-2500


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## Bymer (Aug 22, 2008)

what does FOWLR stand for?


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## trashion (Aug 24, 2007)

fish only with live rock


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## Bymer (Aug 22, 2008)

but why is reef tank so much more expensive?


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## jdm free (Feb 13, 2009)

reef is expensive to buy?


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## Cacatuoides (Feb 2, 2009)

corals i believe are what is going to cost, its just with reef you can do so much more.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

It's the equipment that gets you. For a reef tank you need some seriously major lighting, ad the correct lighting for a 100 gallon reef tank, and then a chiller to get rid of all the heat generated by those lights, will cost you a bundle. The live rocks are about 7 bucks a pound, and for a tank that big you'll need nearly $1000 bucks' worth.

Just a regular fish tank would be MUCH cheaper, with the only real additional costs over those of a freshwater tank being the salt, a skimmer, a hydrometer, and the fish themselves which cost a lot more than freshwater ones. 
If you stay away from petshops and shop more carefully, you can do a 100 gallon fish-only salt tank for around $600. It'll take you longer to do that, though, since looking around for great deals on things takes time. Buying things in a hurry for full price will cost you.


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## s13 (Aug 17, 2007)

It can be done for a fraction of that cost if you know how to be thrifty. You can find hundreds of pounds of live rock for sale for way cheap all the time in the paper or craigslist. I've seen 300lbs go for $50. Lights can be found cheap and so can everything else. If I were to set up a 100 gallon reef, it would maybe cost me $500 but that is because I'm a jew when it comes to spending money


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## Bymer (Aug 22, 2008)

well thats what im getting at,
i dont want to buy new equipment, only used ones.
I got my 50 gallon, compressor, fluval canister, heater, lights, stand, submersible filter, 30 lb of crushed corals, all used from my customer for 250$.

so i feel the difference compared to buying new, for me used only sir! lol...


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## Ice (Sep 25, 2006)

You're going with crushed coral over live sand? I don't know ... you'd be better off going with sand instead for your sandbase.


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## aspects (Feb 1, 2009)

s13 said:


> It can be done for a fraction of that cost if you know how to be thrifty. You can find hundreds of pounds of live rock for sale for way cheap all the time in the paper or craigslist. I've seen 300lbs go for $50. Lights can be found cheap and so can everything else. If I were to set up a 100 gallon reef, it would maybe cost me $500 but that is because I'm a jew when it comes to spending money


agreed 100%

not to mention the option of seeding fiji or some other rock using only a few LB's of live rock. it will be more then enough to get your tank running.
but also as TOS said, the lights are really going to hurt you. you can probably pick up a set online, (possibly even second hand) for a good price, but in the case that the lights put out too much heat into your tank, a chiller will be necessary and extremely expensive


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

In short... estimating cost is highly variable and extremely different depending on the situation you are in.


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