Shark cost of ownership?

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Yoimbrian

Yoimbrian

Dovii
MFK Member
Feb 11, 2013
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It seems people in general are very shy of posting $$s on forums, but I'm hoping to find the information.

I'm planning a new tank and leaning towards FW and told my wife the main reason is the cost to operate a saltwater, though I couldn't give a number.

What id build is a FOWLR shark aquarium 8x4x2 for coral catshark / epaulette shark. From what I can tell initial cost for a new system is in the range of $10,000-$15,000 depending how you go (and there are used parts or systems for cheaper that id go with) but I can't get a good feel for operating cost.

For your system of this general size, what do you pay per month?
-electricity (pump, heater / chiller)
-chemicals (salt mostly)
-food
-others?

I don't really want an answer of "depends" as I know the variables (tank temp, shark size, etc), and that doesn't help. What I'm looking for is "I have a (insert) aquarium with (insert) fish and it costs me (insert)".

Ill give an example from my current tank.

For my current 100 gallon goldfish tank I estimate a cost of $30 / month. A 100 watt pump is about $10 month, I keep the temperature low so heaters are barely on (calling this $5 / month) and goldfish food is cheap if you buy in bulk ($10 / month), My lights are about 100 watts total and on half the time so about $5 per month. Water I'm calling free (tap water with a splash of dechlorinator, maybe $0.50 month). This is for 7 goldfish body length 4" or so.


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When I added my 180 gallon freshwater tank, I noticed about a $40 per month increase in my electric bill. I'm running a 300 watt heater, and an fx5. Hard for me to put a dollar amount on food, because I feed 3 other tanks as well.


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Right out of the box, the 8x4x2 is too small for an adult epaulette shark. Coral cats would be fine.

The cost will vary with a few things. I know it's not what you want to hear, but it's the reality of it.
The biggest difference is going to be cost to set up. You'll need to figure out your plan. What pump set up do you want? One big one, several small ones? Pump set up might be enough thermal gain to avoid a heater - depending on what temp you keep your house at. Using a pt skimmer or not? What kind of filter are you planning on? What lights and how many are you going to use? T5s? LEDs? All of those things will tell you where your electric bill will end up. After you figure out the life support (filter set up), that will dictate how often you will be doing water changes - so that will tell you how much salt mix you'll be burning through.
Food cost will depend on what number of sharks and what you decide to feed. Food cost won't be much when they are young, buut will go up with age.
 
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