New Reef Build
- Thread starter Lepisosteus
- Start date
It doesnt have to be that expensive. My first 75g I did for way less then that. I got the tank stand and canopy used for $500 super nice stand and canopy. You could do it cheeper. Sump overflow and return pump were $300. Lights t5ho 6 bulbs icecap 430 and 660 ballasts end caps and bulbs $300. Get a good skimmer I wasted alot of money here. But for a 75g you could find a decent one for $200. Id say after rock and corals depending on what you want around $2000 for something real nice but not over the top. With all the new stuff out there you could easily go way over that and or find some great deals and be under. Get on a local reefer forum people upgrade equipment and get out of the hobby all the time you can find great deals on equipment. Buying frags from locals keeps costs down too. I used to make enough money monthly from frags to cover my electric and water bills once id been doing it a while anyway.
Wow thats pretty good on the selling end! Most dont get what we paid for it back out once we sell it. I sold my entire system to one person and I had super highend stuff 6mp40s a bashsea custom skimmer (since hes near by and at the time wasnt as big as he is now he used to do some custom stuff for people he knew) that thing was like $2000 with the red dragon pump. Plus tanks lights breeding racks. Corals, fish I sold it all for $9000. But thats how I got alot of it too, big system shut down. I guess it matters where you are. There are alot of people in say a 200 mile radius of me that are into/getting out of saltwater so that drives prices common easy to grow corals and fish are cheep, rare corals and fish stay higher and used good equipment is plentiful so its cheaper.Hahaa. If you insist. My last reef I can tell you I set up with top of the line equipment for $2500. It was 80 gallon bowfront, radion lights, mp pumps etc. I hunted down deals to piece it together, always swapped for better equipment. I sold that reef for $6000 which allowed me to purchase this setup. Price in CDN$$, “*” indicates I already owned it so it carried over to the new build. So far:
Red Sea reefer 650 deluxe system: $6500
3 Ecotech mp40 WQD: $1650*
Ecotech Vectra m1: $550*
Apex 2016 with WAV wavemakers: $1750
Vertex omega 200I skimmer: $1000*
Rock: $500*
RODI water unit: $200*
Coral: I estimate my total will be around $2000
Salt: $150 initial
Refractometer: $30
Total as of today:
Oh! Btw lol nice set up, love the rock structure. Thats going to look killer with some nice sps.
I already like how you have the rock landscape it's going to look nice. I like peninsula tanks...but Im bias hehe.
Rock scape is not done just yet, I like where it’s heading though. I still need to add another 20-30lbs if live rock
I used to have one of the early model Bashsea sumps with reactor and twisted skimmer as well. They are not cheap but their work is absolutely amazing. If this tank didn’t come with a sump I’d likely go with them again.
Yeah man I wish I could access photobucket and get some of my reef pics back. The skimmer he made me was 5.5' tall and I think 18" diameter. It was a "twisted" design also. So it had the baffling in the intake tubes. Quality manufacturing for sure. Got a factory walk thru when I went to talk to him about my needs, Steve is a great guy to deal with. If I ever go back to salt I'll buy my skimmer from him again and any reactors too. I had his calcium reactor too.
Its like anything else you can make it as expensive as you want, but there's no denying the higher up front cost of a salt tank.
If your more thrifty look into Florida reef rock for dry rock and try to buy quality used equip.
I'm doing a 210 more beginner-ish lps/soft tank. Its about as budget and user friendly as you can get without cutting corners. I don't want to derail his thread so if you're interested in prices shoot me a pm.
His red sea is a really nice setup if you have the cash
