Generally, how much would it cost to keep a 125-gallon tank functionable?
My dad bought a 125-gallon fish tank years ago, but after he left everything in it kind of died and broke. Right now, there’s no water in the tank and I’m not sure what works and what doesn’t. He’s very knowledgeable when it comes to fish care, but he left this tank with me and my mom after the divorce. We know little about fish care, but still want to get it back up and running. It would be VERY awkward having my dad come back to the house to set it up, especially if WE are the ones taking care of it.
I’m sure we can do research on our own, but we aren’t THAT financially stable to be spending hundreds of dollars a month taking care of a fish tank. It already has a filter and other stuff, all it’s missing is the fish and lights. How much do you think it will cost initially and per month to take care of this 125 gallon tank with at least 5 fish in the tank:
-with freshwater fish
or
-with saltwater fish
Actually, I don’t know what works and what doesn’t. So when you guesstimate how much it will cost initially, take into consideration the filter, heater, plants, thermometer, and decorations.
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Saltwater is out of the question, it would cost approximately 10 dollars every time you changed the water, and that is only the beginning. Your main problem won’t be startup, but electricity. Fish tanks, even the most efficient of them, use a LOT of juice! Pumps have to be powerful enough to push that water out at a rate many times that of the volume of the tank. When I set up my 220, my electrical bill went up about 100 dollars. That will be your main concern.
Simple option, if you have a large tank and a working filter, just get some goldfish.
All you will need is some water condtioner and fish food, maybe $10 a month to run. Feed them, change some water each week, thats all the care they really need. Any old light will do for goldfish, a flouro fitting from a hardware store. Fancy lights are needed for live plants or marine tanks.
OK it’s only godlfish, but they will grow huge and should live for many many years.
Tropical fish need a heater, but if you stick to the simple ones then their care is the same.
Salt water. much more technical and expensive. Dont go there unless you are an expert fish keeper AND have plenty of $$.
Ian
Edit: A marine tank, especially a reef one will use a bit of power, but a standard freshwater tank, especially a coldwater one uses about as much as a light bulb.
This question has SO many variables…
The tank is quite large, so most of the equipment needed is above standard size. If you wanted to keep coldwater fish (goldfish, etc) in the tank, the only important thing would be a filter and lighting. I imagine that this isn’t what you want.
Saltwater is unrealistic if you don’t have some big bucks to start it up. Saltwater tanks require all that freshwater does, and more – protein skimmers, live rock… and without experience in keeping an aquarium, you’re likely to lose a lot of fish on your first few tries.
Which leaves us with Freshwater…
If you do need to buy a new filter, it may cost a couple hundred dollars for a good canister filter, which you would need for a tank that size. However, the filter you have probably still works (you may have some difficulty figuring it out, depending what type it is, though). I use Rena canister filters. Love them.
Thermometer – You don’t need anything fancy. Just a regular cheap one that hangs on the side of the tank. Couple bucks at most.
Heat – I would look online for heaters. For a tank that size, you will need more than one strong heater. You can probably heat the tank for under $75, especially if you can find used equipment.
Lighting – This one’s probably the one that’ll get ya… especially if you want to keep live plants. One hood for my 25gal small plant tank ran me about $250. With that said… again: used equipment. Try craigslist. A larger tank requires quite a lot more light, as the required amount is usually measured in watts-per-gallon. Try to avoid red-leaved plants for your aquarium, and you shouldn’t need super-duper-strong lighting.
In order to spread out the cost over months (which is a smart idea for lots of reasons), I would start off with only the above equipment in the tank, set it up, and let it run with about 10 “feeder” goldfish (might cost you $5 total) for at least a month, to get the tank cycling. Could add some “cycle” fluid, which helps the growth of good bacteria.
Have to head home from work, I’ll finish editing this post when I get home…. Alright. Home now.
I forgot gravel. Do you have gravel? You need it. Get the plain brown kind…. with pieces a little smaller than pea-sized. It can cost a bit, but at least you can buy that kind in big bags, which you’ll need for a tank of that size.
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Alright. Once the tank’s running:
I would start with a budget of $50 for the first month (after the tank’s been running with the feeder goldfish). Give the feeder fish back to the pet store. You probably won’t get any money back for them, but trust me, it was worth having them.
So, with your $50, I would buy fish food, and some small schooling fish. You’ll want them once the tank’s set up, because they’re pretty and flashy and they stay in a close-knit happy little group. Neon tetras are great… actually, most kinds of tetras are great. Tetras can be a bit sensitive, so again, you might lose some since you’re just starting out… but if you can get a deal by buying, say, 10 of them at a time, then it’s worth it. If you have some money left over, get a live plant. Anything with with nice broad green leaves should be good. Nothing too expensive just yet
Ask the pet store if they have any sample packets of fish food they can give you to start with. They usually have some around, and they’ll actually last you quite a long time.
The tank will take months to start looking really pretty, but if you set a budget every month, it WILL get prettier and prettier as the months go on. I’d suggest at least $30 a month to see actual changes. Sometimes you may want to wait for the second month, to spend $60 all at once on a school of small fish, or on a fancier fish once your tank is well-established. Plants run in the same cost range as fish, so it will also take a while to make the tank greener.
One nice thing: The larger a tank is, the easier it is to keep your fish alive and happy. The temperature will stay steadier, as will the pH and ammonia levels once it reaches stability.
I think it would be a lot of fun, as a family, to watch and participate in the growth of an aquarium this way. Everyone could take part, and help pick out “this month’s fish” for the aquarium.
-Fai
I just happen to own a 125 gallon saltwater tank with fish and live rock, no invertebrates other than whatever got in on the live rock. The basic setup cost me just over $2,000. This included the tank, stand, florescent lighting, 120 lbs of sand, wet/dry sump system, salt, pump, protein skimmer, lid, heater, and maybe some other stuff I”m forgetting. I later added live rock, which is usually about $4-$7 per pound. Dry rock is maybe $2/pound and if you mix live and dry rock it’ll all blend and become “live” and you save money that way.
Let’s see. How badly do you want fish? If you are like me and just HAVE to own a saltwater tank, regardless of cost…well, I’m a Ph. D student whose income is a stipend from the university and a part-time church music director position.
What kind of filter(s) do you have? I’m running a protein skimmer and a wet/dry trickle sump system, which lets water overflow from the tank itself down underneath the tank where it gets aerated and filtered and perhaps heated if necessary before getting pumped back up. Expensive and complicated to set up, but easy to maintain. If you have a system like this you know what I mean…hardly anything has to be replaced.
If you have a canister filter or some kind of hang-on-back or external filter, then you’ll be replacing carbon and filter media…but we’re not looking at that great a cost. I don’t know what kind of filter you have, but I can’t imagine the carbon cost being super high.
Your electricity bill will rise if you’ve got a saltwater tank with fancy filtration and powerful metal halide lights. I have two such aquariums and my power bill is double what my energy company says is average…I’m literally at the top of the chart, paying just over $100/mo. for a one bedroom apartment. Still, the amount of money I’m paying for electricity for my 125 is probably a dollar a day, tops.
Okay, back to initial setup cost. Look up what a wet/dry sump system would cost for your system, as there are different options ranging from prefabricated (expensive but what I got) to homemade. You can also just get a 30 or 40 gallon fish tank for a sump and fool around with it. If your tank isn’t drilled for the overflow pipes, though, that might be too much work. Up to you.
Canister filter…another option. Also you can get a hang-on-back protein skimmer, which might range from $150-300. If you don’t have a working filter, expect to spend a few hundred dollars on filtration.
Decorations…can be added slowly. I could imagine that a satisfying amount of rock could cost anywhere from $200-500 depending on how much you get and what type. Don’t let the price of rock sway you…see what’s out there and you can always add more as time goes along.
Most people recommend getting a reverse osmosis filter for saltwater aquariums. This isn’t something that goes in the tank but rather is attached to your faucet and you use it to further filter new water change water. You can get a good one for under $200. Maybe you can do without it…
One more optional thing…powerheads. I really like them, they create currents in the tank and if you point them up at the surface they keep the surface clear and improve gas exchange. Don’t pay full price on them…get them on eBay. Stores charge a lot for those things but you can get them for maybe $30 each on eBay with shipping.
So…monthly costs…maybe a dollar a day for electricity, then salt for water changes. Probably about $10/month for salt. Fish food…maybe $10-15 per month? Doesn’t seem like too much, but I guess it just costs a lot to get started and then there’s always little things like adding more rock, doing little tank improvements, and getting fish. Saltwater fish are expensive but awesome!