# How much does your tank cost per month?



## GreenyFunkyMonkey (Nov 27, 2012)

I am curious as to how much people pay to maintain their aquarium per month.

Lately, I have been trying to keep track of how much I spend on just regular maintenance on my freshwater planted aquarium. Not including the cost of buying new fish or plants, it looks as if I spend around $25 each month for my 50 gallon aquarium. That doesn't include electricity.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

That is something I wouldn't attempt to answer since I run 43 tanks. Most are on sponge filters driven by one pump.


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## GreenyFunkyMonkey (Nov 27, 2012)

HAHA! Yeah, I am sure your monthly bill is a quite a bit more than mine!


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## Auban (Aug 8, 2010)

i don't pay for electricity... so my monthly bill comes out to about 8 dollars a month. i don't even buy fish food anymore. i grow live foods, which are very simple to produce. moinas are grown in a tub full of green water, grindal worms are grown in a tupperware. the grindals get fed dog food and the moinas get fed the foul liquid that a soil less culture of grindals produces(promotes the green water). the grindals are the big producers though. they are impressive.

we usually spend more than that, but not on maintenance. the only thing we buy is sugar for the DIY CO2. i could save money if i switched to a pressurized system, but im not done playing with DIY approaches yet.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I think cost is fairly negligible in the months that don't require a heater. Depending on how cool you keep your home affects how long your heaters stay on.

Any kind of heating element, even just a simple coffee maker, will suck electricity pretty fast. I keep my house at 64-65F during the Winter but my tanks are all at 75F with the exception of my Angel tank that I keep at 81F. The cooler I go in my house, the more my electric bill goes up - to a point. The filters and lighting are fairly efficient pieces to your tank.


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## FishFlow (Sep 13, 2011)

Electricity is my biggest cost. Everything else (if we are excluding new fish and plants..) are negligible.

My electricty is high. But that may be due mostly to my wonderful state. I hit tier three every month now with 4 tanks. Tier 3 = MCE (Maximum cash extraction)


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

I pay about $20 per month for my tank. $10-$15 per month in power, the remainder in filter media, food, and/or chemicals. I would like to note that I do not buy each of these things every month; I change my filter media once every 2-3 months, don't use carbon, and I buy in bulk. I change to new chemicals when my existing chems (liquid fertz for my plants, iodine for my shrimp, dry chem fertz as needed, and dechlorinator) run out or expire. The bulk of my costs come from running my light, filter, and heater. 5 Watts of LED light, 50 Watts of heater, and I'm not sure the power draw on my AquaClear 50 filter. Eventually, when I get my pressurized CO2 setup running again, my power bill will go up because of the Red Sea Max 500 reactor, but that will only be $1-$2/month.


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