Calculating costs for a fish tank

[tlindsey]

I was looking at a potential 125 to 180 if I could convince my wife haha. Was looking at one of a few set ups

Large cichlid/pair (oscars, red devils, haitians, umbees, or something similar)
african set up (knife fish, bichirs, african butterfly fish, similar things like that)
a large pufferfish
potentially a jardini arowana (if it stays under 2 feet, maybe it could work in a 180)
a kelberi if I could get my hands on one
or any other idea I might get

large pufferfish

The large Puffer would be the most expensive to feed.

 

[AaronKWolfe]

The large Puffer would be the most expensive to feed.

I know he would be, but I could get crayfish near me pretty easily. I was leaning more towards the large cichlid/cichlids.

 

[TwoHedWlf]

I mostly meant electric more than anything. In my area it was something like $0.15 per kilowatt per hour. This math is too complicated for me to do as I haven't done this level of math in well over 20 years haha.

Ah, with electricity being that cheap at least that helps with the power cost.

It's fairly easy, to look at the labels of most equipment and add up the power draw. Most labels will show the peak power draw, but that's good, better to estimate on the high side.
So anything that will be on 24 hours, like pumps, filters multiply that power usage by 24 to get watt hours per day.
Lights, multiply by 8, 12 or however many hours you'll have the lights on.
Heaters you can plug it into a heating calculator, or I just estimate half a watt per liter times 24 hours per day.

Add that all up and you get approximately how many Kilowatt hours/day you'll use.

For my tank that would be
2 cannister filters at about 50 watts each+2 wavemakers at about 8 each. So 116*24 = 2784 watt hours per day
200w lighting for 16 hours = 3200 watt hours
Heating about 220 for 24 hours = 5280 watt hours

Total about 11,264 watt hours/day We're about $.30 per kwh so that's $3.37 per day.

 

[MicroMonster]

In my town, we can check out a Kill-a-Watt meter from the library that you can use to calculate actual electrical power usage. You can buy a "real" one on Amazon for $40 (or $20-$30 for a knockoff). I realize that's a post-planning exercise, but it can prove very helpful.

 

[johnny potatoes]

So did you want the real price of these things? Or the one we married guys tell our wives?

 

[Ruturaj]

I was looking at a potential 125 to 180 if I could convince my wife haha. Was looking at one of a few set ups

Large cichlid/pair (oscars, red devils, haitians, umbees, or something similar)
african set up (knife fish, bichirs, african butterfly fish, similar things like that)
a large pufferfish
potentially a jardini arowana (if it stays under 2 feet, maybe it could work in a 180)
a kelberi if I could get my hands on one
or any other idea I might get

125 gallon, you can get at PetSmart. It comes with stand, lights and hood. It's usually on sale for 500 down from 650. Put a 25% off coupon on it and get it for 375.

For sand, use pool filter sand from home Depot.

For background, get a vinyl.

For filter, PetSmart has fx6 for sale at 250, apply 25% coupon on it. Throw red trays, put more bio media in it with some denser sponges. May be additional hob would be good if possible.

For food, buy 6 months worth of food at time. It should be under $50. Order northfin pellets through Amazon, larger packs are pretty cheap per gm.

I am really not sure about electricity, but you got some good feedback already.