Just a reminder: Budget saltwater tanks don't exist

[William Chiavetta]

I'll see you "don't exist" and raise you a "does exist"!

15G tank
Maxpsect Jump L165 LED
Tunze 6020

Complete manual water changes and dosing with AFR, the later bought in powder form, for best price.

Every single coral in the tank was dirt cheap. Paid only 20 Euro for an tennis ball sized acro colony. The rest all started out as cheap frags, with several being sourced at frag swaps. All the shrooms in the tank are also hitchhikers, so didn't pay a single cent extra for those.

I guess I was wrong. This is very impressive.

 

[William Chiavetta]

Depends on what you consider “budget”. My used setup all-in was about 50% the cost of a comparable new setup. While not inexpensive, half the cost of new is “budget” in my opinion.

I mean like saving money over having a comfortable home for fish

 

[William Chiavetta]

40 breeder - 40$ on sale
Sand 40lbs - 50$
Live rocks - start with 10lbs add more later - 75$
Stand - optional - 80$
Salt 200g - 70$
LED lighting - 2x viparspectra - $280
Ext skimmer - 100-150$
Test kits - 150$
Heater 200w - 50$

That’s about all you need to get started with a nice setup, under 800$. Good size and footprint. Will allow several fish and a nice aquascape. And all my pricing was for name brand gear when proven history. The lighting is generic but nobody will question viparspectra capabilities. They can grow anything.

This is true but some people are looking for like so inexpensive that they are more interested in saving money than having a comfortable living area for fish

 

[William Chiavetta]

Just the way the OP is worded is just wrong.

Every tank is built on a budget, just depends on how big, or small your budget is.

After reading these replies I definitely did word this wrong lol

 

[William Chiavetta]

Oh yes budget set ups do exist… go used and you can score a great deal on setups. I got a deal on a 300 planet aquarium with so many bells and whistles with not even a fraction of the cost!

by budget i meant caring more about money than fish

 

[William Chiavetta]

Aquatop aio’s are cheap and amazon has cheap box lights with adjustable arms, cheap heather, etc. It’d still cost a couple hundred though. I think If i really shopped i could do it for 200 all brand new equipment, rock, sand, aio tank(pump included) lights, wave maker, heater, poly fill… possibly other goodies like tools, testing kits, etc. stocking is up to the person.. fb market place, live sales, deal watching, lfs, trimming donations.. (as if those reefers exist anymore). Thing is though, what’s considered expensive? Everybody has a different budget based on their situation…

by budget i meant caring more about money than fish

 

[William Chiavetta]

Agree. The statement “can’t be done on a budget” is not really valid without more detail. Everyone has a budget. Polo reef has a budget. Might be millions but it’s a budget. My budget could be 1000 or 10,000

If people give me a realistic budget of 500+ I can get them a system built

People do the same thing with audio systems, car and home. Give me a budget and I’ll build something great

I worded this wrong lol. by budget i meant caring more about money than fish

 

[William Chiavetta]

I find this a little off putting and gatekeeping mentality and not what a hobby should be about.

We should be pushing there is a "budget" entry to the hobby to get more people interested in it.

By that logic because I drive a 1994 Miata and a 1987 Suzuki samurai with less than 100k miles on the chassis maintained by these two hands make. Cost less than 10k to buy at the time, makes me less of a car guy than the tool who has a 100k z01 in the garage that doesn't turn a wrench? Partake in track days, shows or the community, and he considers my cars are "less nice".
Never would I tell the youngin with the $1500 Subaru that puts in the effort to keep it running and looking as best as possible he's not a car guy or has a solid start to a nice ride.

Same for motorcycles, same for computers, welders, 3d printers, wood working, ECT ECT

All hobbies have a cost, some a higher entry point then others, and all can be taken to an over the top extreme.

To tell someone there's no "budget" entry and your stuff isnt nice because it's cheap is gate keepers mentality.

Everyone has budget, and has to be reasonable with themselves. Can you have a reef for $100 no. But if you save $100 no for 12-18 months and follow the following.
-used aio $150-$200 probably has some equipment you can use but we'll assume not.
20lb rock used - $50-75
Sand-$25
Light- go new and decent $150-$200
Heater with ink bird-$75
2 jebao wave makers-$60
Single head kameor doser-$100
Container-$5-10$(or recycled)
Good Ato-$100-$200
Ro/Di $200
2 20-32 gal trash cans- $60
2 5gal buckets-$10
Bucket of salt -$80
All for reef -$40

$1285 on the high side in equipment to have you cycling and ready for 6 months or more of maintenance/dosing on a 20 gallon aio.
Can go manual top of or gravity. Go manual dosing. Buy water from store to get started.

Live stock
Clean up crew $50-75
Fish $50-$100
Coral 10 frags @ $20-$50

$675 on the high end.

So tanks running stocked for under 2k and will cost $20-$50 bucks a month in maintenance and potentially run for 5-10 years allowing me to enjoy something that brings me joy everyday.

Can do in waves, by month 6 of saving rock is cycling, by month 10 rock in tank, month 12 clean up crew, month 14 fish, and month 16-18 coral.
And this sets you up to grow in the hobby as you grow financial means.


Can potentially be done for $500-750 if you take some more saving steps,trade, delay making your own water, go kalk, and stick to coral/fish sale for stocking. Where there's a will there's a way


Cheap soft coral, mushrooms, basic sps (think bird next, moni, cyphastrea),

Not meant to be a rant or come off anyway. More people we get into the hobby the better. And cost is often associated as being a driving factor in why people steer away.


Just late night ramble

I definitely worded the post wrong by budget i meant caring more about money than fish. I very much appreciate this viewpoint though

 

[William Chiavetta]

The amount of money you spend does not reflect the quality especially if it’s a Red Sea tank! A budget is different for everyone though and there are ways to do it cheaper. But I do agree that for most people who love the hobby a budget is often broken because if you love the hobby enough you will be willing to spend way more than you thought and I don’t think people realize just how expensive the hobby is until they’ve been in it for a bit.

This is the point I was trying to get across. I didnt do a great job so thank you so much for clarifying

 

[William Chiavetta]

Your entire scenario is only viable as a build for a experienced reefer. A newbie has no clue how to build a cheap system like this.

They will do what is realistic, look at red sea's website and price out a kit they know is designed to work together.

Pricing out a hodgepodge of low cost parts only makes sense for those of us who know exactly what we need in advance.

I really like this viewpoint

 

[William Chiavetta]

it’s perfectly viable and if a new person to the hobby is on the forum they can simply ask for a budget build, give their goals and budget, and we can steer them in the right direction. Nobody is going to tell them they need to go spend 3k to get a Red Sea system + 1k in extras if they want to get started.

If you join any hobby and start buying random stuff without any research or asking for advice, then you aren’t starting off on a good path

Im not talking for everyone but I splurged on a tank before I knew communities like this one.

 

[William Chiavetta]

As others are saying, it can be done on a cheaper budget for sure. A big factor can also be how much you are willing to DIY.

Not my current tank but my build in 2012. Tank was a bare clear seal one for £50. I did the acrylic back filtration setup, with dual pumps etc.
Lighting was a mix of cool white, 440nm and 470nm LEDs. 27 of them which I got made at the time by a Chinese manufacturer for about £3 each. Prior to livestock the entire setup was around £500 (90L aquarium)

This time I started with a stock Fluval Evo which around £250 starting point. I only added a wave maker £20 on a timer in the 1st year.

This hobby can be as expensive as you want it to be, but there are many ways to do things on a budget.

- Paul

I really like this way of thinking

 

[William Chiavetta]

Just the way the OP is worded is just wrong.

Every tank is built on a budget, just depends on how big, or small your budget is.

I worded this very wrong lol. by budget i meant caring more about money than fish

 

[William Chiavetta]

The only way to get a great deal might be to have a sugar daddy or a government contract so you don’t spend your own money?

Otherwise, buying used can significantly reduce the startup costs but the cost of keeping a tank running is still high ime.

Exactly the way I was thinking

 

[doubleshot00]

Budget means different things to different people. My tank is 100% my budget.

Tank $200
Stand $200
Lights AI32 $200 x3 have a spare and Quanta 32" light bar $150
Apex el $300 x2 have spare
Red sea reefwave $200
AI nero5 $250 x2 have a spare
Red sea skimmer new $200
Homemade sump $50
Jebao pumps $80 and $65
Bought a 15watt uv traded a guy for a 25 watt $200
Corals (lots) but most were cheap frags and or bought from local reefers. Probably $1000 in all.
Salt always on sale never paid more than $8 a bag IO.
Red sea dosing amazon $86 for gallons each last forever.
Never spent more than $150 (flame angel) on a fish. Most of my fish were sub $100.

I try to keep my tank spending down. I rarely add new corals now and whenever i see salt on sale i buy it.


I also have two nanos.

One is a IM15 $100
Jebao pump $50
Jebao WM $50
Reefbreeders light $200

WB20
$400 for the entire used setup from a local reefer.
AI prime
Mightymax pump
Nero3 $150 onsale

 

[doodledreads]

The equipment is the cheap part, isn’t it?

 

[PotatoPig]

Reefing on a budget is only possible if you already know exactly what you are doing.

If you have to ask how to reef on a small budget then the answer is probably no.

Agree on this. Starting out from scratch, including no experience, it’d be fairly risky to buy second hand as there’s just so much to know about the equipment, what you need, and what to look out for. Particularly as a lot of second hand gear seems to go for (IMO) quite a bit relative to its original price unless you’re buying a full setup from someone quitting, but then you need to want that setup…

 

[kynan]

Yep. My view is to buy new. Look for sales. And NEVER get a used tank. I did that. And paid.

Bought used tanks for close to 20 years. Never a serious problem. Bought new AGA 300DD half a dozen years ago, to downsize from 700g,. Tank split a front upper seam overnight, lost 1/3 of water and one third of two decades of SPS. Replaced under warranty. Several months later catastrophic blow out of rear bottom seam left the tank dry. 99.5 % of all livestock perished and drove me from the hobby for 4 years. YMMV.

 

[danimal1211]

There are plenty of “ high end systems” in the for sale forums and FB from people who had the mindset that I can just throw money at the problem. You can’t buy patience, time or willingness to ask for help. A healthy system with healthy inhabitants stems from dedication to maintain it long term.
Turn key systems have been around for a while, but weren’t the mainstay until the past few years. As someone who’s been around the hobby for a long time, they are tempting. But for the new reefer who doesn’t take the time to research what components are necessary to maintain a reef, let alone, what are the care requirements for each species in the tank no amount of money will yield success (unless that money goes to pay someone to maintain it).

 

[748S911]

I see people too often asking "I need help setting up a budget fish tank" but the best you can do is try to get sales or used things. the amount of money you spend reflects the quality of the tank. If you have a different opinion I'm open to hearing different viewpoints.

I disagree, there are plenty of budget reef tanks out there that look better than some high end tanks.

Water quality, stability and regular maintenance are keys to success in this hobby.

Budget lights, budget tank, budget corals, budget salt…with stable water parameters and good maintenance you can grow healthy and happy corals that will fill out and look amazing in any glass box.

The amount of money you spend is irrelevant to quality. I think that is true in everything we do, not only in reef keeping.

New & old reefers: the R2R marketplace you can find great pre owned reef gear at a lower cost than brand new. I would also take advantage of the forums that have tons of information about this hobby that is absolutely free.