Saltwater Tank Running Costs (FULL Breakdown)

How much does it cost to run a saltwater fish tank? In this video, I give you the full ongoing monthly and yearly cost of running a saltwater tank, by going through all the costs I spend on my 10 gallon nano tank and my 100 gallon reef tank.

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0:00 How much does a saltwater aquarium cost to run?
1:09 Water
2:35 Filtration
3:37 Dosing
4:39 Testing
6:03 Electricity
7:36 Food
8:06 Grand totals
9:18 Livestock & equipment costs
9:55 Full breakdown

[jasonbrock]

Love the video, But I think I will hide it from my wife🤣

[michaelhans]

Loved the video and would love to see the livestock and equipment costs as well. Very informative.

[letsgobrandon]

Nice summary. I had a 180 total gallon reef tank very similar to yours for about 15 years until I recently moved and got rid of it all. Tank was antiquated and a little scratched so didn’t make anything on it just the livestock. Many of my main coral colonies had died back from neglect, system entropy and years of over fragging. But my fish were huge and highly sought after. Also had about 200 lbs of nice live rock. So I made a little money in the breakdown. At the height though yeah I’d say it cost me about $3-4, 000 a year to run here in the southern US. Insane when you think about it….$60, 000 potentially….wow. Glad I got a different hobby lol.😂

[devinm]

You finally gave me a piece of information that I have been scouring the internet for lol. An honest answer about how much in frozen cubes you feed a day to a fish population about the same size as mine! And from a source I trust with beautiful tanks! Thank you sir!

[UnderTheTideSOS]

amazing how it adds up lol.... really gives the whole insight to the running costs.. especially for a beginner, great info to share man. thanks for the content

[IndoorReef]

Good job condensing that down so concisely! I think this info will be quite helpful to a lot of people. I started to record mine but not good any helpful info yet. Started taking energy measurements last week. Very interesting to see that the cost scaled almost entirely linearly with the water volume between your two tanks.

[saratchawallberg]

Thank you so much! But ... I will just keep continuing enjoy my freshwater tank. 😅

[Jzzo]

Great video, thanks! One point I would like to make on energy consumption/heating as I live in the 10% of the countries that are even colder than UK (Nordics). Depending on how you heat your apartment (do you have to pay heating on your own or if it is part of your condominium fee) most of the heating energy that you use on your tank will be transferred to you apartment. This will (in very small part, I admit) reduce the energy you have to use to heat your home. So part of that monthly energy usage is not actually truly "wasted" but used to keep you and your loved ones warm. I recommend using these exact lines when your spouse opens the electricity bill next time.

[Ilostmyschmungus]

I have been watching your reef videos along with others reef videos for around 2 years now and I don't even have a reef tank yet! But that's about to change in the next couple weeks. I'm setting up a 40 gallon soft coral/macro algae reef. I can't wait!

[jungfraujoch]

A very pertinent feature in these costly times for energy reef dork, I’ve closed down my 100 gallon and my ‘leccy bill has breathed a huge sigh of relief. Already planning the nano though 😊

[mitchstew]

You got my like for adding all the freedom units

[Richs_reef]

Really useful video which I will not be sharing with the missus… also don’t throw the remaining frozen mysis cube away for the nano - use a knife to chop off and defrost what you need and keep the rest in the pack for the next day

[artistic_spaz]

Wow. Can't believe how expensive your energy costs are there! But what an eye opening video- people don't talk much about ongoing costs-focus is usually just on set up.

[nimal_r]

Great topic and very timely. Just worked out my numbers and I am coming around £165 per month with not much stock at all (gulp!).

[ReefDudes]

Interesting video! i have always been to scared to add it up! 🤣

[petermckibben]

My son and I have just got into our first marine tank after years of keeping fresh water fish. We decided to start with a nano and I think we'll just keep it that way for a while 😳 The difference in running costs is crazy. Great video as always - you've helped my son and I build our knowledge massively these past couple months!

[kyletavares]

Curious why you throw out the unused cube when feeding your nano ?

[marcuskinnard]

Learned a lot from these videos and am now a few weeks into my years anticipated 29g reef (the largest my Mrs. allowed), partially inspired by Reef Dork! A little cross-the-pond translation, the hobby seems to cost about the same in the North-East US. With the closest stores supporting Saltwater in my area about a 1 hour round trip in directions I do not regularly go, shipping/fuel were significant for startup. Hopefully, it is negligible for an established tank.

[JT-mgif]

What happened to the royal gramma, in the nano tank Alex?.

Was going to get one for my fluval evo too, as I'm not the biggest fan of clown fish.
(Dark red ones are nice!).

[sherwood]

Ouch that is painful on the 100 gal Alex! Great video though! Exactly why this year i have the lid on the tank and the living room shut up at night and during work, means my home heating holds the tank steady withouth relying on the tank heater so much! Even noticed my dd sump fans on this evening while unpacking my new corals and fish🤣😳