How much has the hobby cost you this month?

[Lauren]

My boyfriend was currious, asked me to add it up. Seeing that it is almost the end of the month, lets see your numbers. (going to spend another 10 bucks today on water and some neon tetras)

$20 dollars on plants
$30 dollars on misc supplies (lucky me, needed salt, dechorinator AND nitrate)
$10 dollars on new gravel for the 20g
$15 dollars on fish (1 pearl gourami, 1 veil tail angel, 4 female platies)
$15 dollars on water (RO @ 37 cents a gallon, 10 gallons every week)
$130 dollars for supplies for the 80 gallon I'm picking up next week (fulval 404 and 300w heater)
+ the estimated 10 dollars for this afternoon

so this month has cost me 230 bucks. Ouch, it burns!

[Kasakato]

I havent got anything much this month other than a can of flake. But anyways here is what Iv got so far:

20g tank:
20g set-up - $130
Filter- $130
Gravel - $100
Auto feeder - $100
Test kit - $100
Fish - $75
Food - $50
Plants- $50
Python- $75
Alage Magnet- $30
Others- $75

5.5g tank:
5.5g tank - $11
Heater - $30
Filter - $20
Air Pumps and Tubing- $75
Food - $50

Gand Total: $1001- I know Im missing other stuff because my total bill is about $1200.

[Harlock]

I do not keep track on purpose. I don't want to know what I spend.

[cohazard]

This hasn't been a typical month, but here it is:

$600 for the 180 (the $200 deposit was last month)

$54 on a piece or driftwood, 5 small angels, an albino gibby, can of flake food, pouch of algae tablets, live worms

$50 on my 7 clown loaches, 4 balas, 2 blue rams, more live worms, new siphon, can of freeze dried tubifex worms

$24 on 5 harlequin rasboras, 3 platies, 3 black phantom tetras, 1 red ludwigia

So I guess my total is $798 for this month; I think I'm forgeting twenty bucks somewhere in there..................and all of a sudden, it makes sense why my family thinks I'm crazy.


Serg

[sublime1184]

It was a sad sad moment when I realized how much I spent on my 29g..It's best not to know...anyway, I think from Oct '04 to now, maybe 500-600 on food, filter media, filters, powerheads and the 29g. :sad But I don't regret it, I love my RBP's!!!


*edit* When I get my next check, I will be buying 2 Penguin 660R Powerheads... 17.99 each and will be reversing the flow of my 29g UGF.

[hcgirl80]

lol, This month? $3 for vacation feeders.

However, I only own one tank... :D

[Leopardess]

The aquarium is one of those high startup cost, low maintenance cost type of hobby.

This month I only spent whatever it costs to run for electricity. I believe it is around 18$ for all of the tanks...could be a little more though.

I will *not* add up the amounts of what everything was bought at because I don't want to know - I'd start feeling guilty!

[Raskolnikov]

I started keeping track of my aquarium-related purchases over time, and it became so frightening that I had to stop. ;)




.

[NikkO]

Excluding electricity,water, etc... nothing. :D lol. I haven't been to the LFS lately.. I should since I need another fish to fill my tank and keep me interested which equals the bi-weekly or monthly 50%+ water change, cleaning and other maintenence for me.

[JosephMCorbett]

According to Microsoft Money:
Fish - General $202.46
Fish - 125 Setup $472.87
Total: $675.33

That's to the penny. Yamma Hamma.

[Slappy*McFish]

Nothing this month...except water and electricity. My tank is fully stocked and I have plenty of supplies for now. I might need more water conditioner in another couple of months....food in about 4 months. :rolleyes:

[Tuolumne]

However you look at it, fish are still cheaper to keep than children!

[sublime1184]

However you look at it, fish are still cheaper to keep than children!


Hahaha...LOL.... :soda:

[Lauren]

Aquariums is one of those high startup cost, low maintenance cost type of hobby.

This month I only spent whatever it costs to run for electricity. I believe it is around 18$ for all of the tanks...could be a little more though.

I will *not* add up the amounts of what everything was bought at because I don't want to know - I'd start feeling guilty!

Yeah, thats what I was telling my boyfriend. Right now I'm redoing the 20 gallon, finishing setting up the 45 gallon, and preparing to set up the 80 gallon. So its more than normal. An average month for me is 20 bucks.

I figured out that I couldn't afford to sell my car, so some of what was to be my down payment of my "new" car is going to the hobby, a little will go to make my current car a bit better, and most of it will be retained, for continued savings, so maybe I can get a townhouse after college.

[SnakeIce]

I am at a positive cash flow for this month. At least I think the 10 bucks I got for some fish more than covers the electricity and water bills for the tanks. No purchases though.

[Blinky]

Do I really want to know?
Let's see... this month wasn't typical, I spent much more than I normally would. In Canadian dollars, here are the approximate amounts (some are guesses):

$35.00 for 3 Singapore shrimp
$7.50 for a package of foam filter covers (for covering HOB intakes)
$12.00 for a large bottle of AquaSafe
$10.00 for iodide
$6.00 for filter media
$15.00 for Flourish Excel
$35.00 for 1g cube vase
$7.00 for substrate (for 1g)
$8.00 for decor (for 1g)
$12.00 for Anubias nana & Bacopa australis (for 1g)
$12.00 for Red Sea nano filter (for 1g)
$10.00 for 4 Amano shrimp
$12.00 for NO3 test kit
$13.00 for 2 types of food
$5.00 for sugar & yeast

TOTAL: $~200.00

Considering I set up a pico and a 10g shrimp tank as well as buying misc. supplies, I'm not too unhappy with this. Most months I'd say I probably need to spend less than $25.00 on supplies, plants, fish etc.

[Harlock]

However you look at it, fish are still cheaper to keep than children!Oooh, I think once our nearly eight month old is out of diapers and my wife starts having baby-itis again I may use this one...

"But honey, why have a third child when we can get a 200 gallon or more tank full of lots of little ones to take care of for much much less? Honey? Why are you putting my pillow on the living room couch?"

[StreetCypher]

LOL ^ funnyyy


I keep a rough idea of what i spend on fish.

[Mike Rathnow]

Which come's to about $18.00 a month extra. Food, I didn't have to buy any this month. But I sold 3 breeding pair of discus, and 2 breeding pair of black veil angels. Plus around 300 young angels, and 45 young discus. I actually made money this month. But that money will go to what ever I need for the rest of my fish, equipment maintance ect. for next month. ;)

[NikkO]

Lol, Harlock, one day you will get a 200+. They say raising just ONE child can take out hundreds of thousands of your wallet until they grow up.... so I don't see the harm of getting a tank that can hold 20+. Luckily for me, I have parents who love aquariums and got the 240 but then I'm the one who has to take care of it and had to handle getting the filters and setting them up. Altogether my dad and I have spent about 4 to 5 g's on it and its money well spent :) . Another reason for you to get the tank would be this, "It'll be educational for the kids!" ;)

[flyingfish]

I think I've spent about $8.00 on water, then whatever it comes to for electricity on a 15gal. :cool: Not bad

[Kasakato]

I dont like the way Big Als works. Compare their US to CAn prices.

[shadrac]

after reading all this i belive its way better thinking how much you spent on fish and fish related stuff than how much you have lost do to fish dying or getting eaten when you did not intend for that to happen like when my 75 got hit with ich real bad i took two and a hlaf of the bigg bottles to get rid of it not to mention lot of gravle vaccuming and water changes we lost about seven fish and most of them were not very cheap.
there was:
green phantom pl*co-$50
3x roseline sharks- $35(each)
2x loaches (no idea what they were wasnt there when were bought) came to about 30 for bloth of them
bala cat-cant remember
and a huge kissing gourami- dont know (but i didnt like that fish anyways)
he was my tanks D student (he only beat out the snail)

[clayt101]

Instead of just this month, I will start from the beginning of the year. First, I traded a pair of albino bristlenose plecos for a 4 inch gold nugget (small dots). A few days later, a saw a beautiful, small gold nugget pleco that was very active. I bought it and 7 glass catfish for $35. A few weeks later, I decided to get some better looking discus, so I traded 3 poorly marked golden dragon discus for $45 in store credit. I bought 2 large, beautiful Red Dragon Discus for $110 from an importer. When I got them home, what I feared would happen occured, the new discus were so beautiful that they made my other discus look poor. At this point I realized something needed to be done. I worked out a trade with the LFS, my $45 in credit + 2 small blue diamond discus, + the first small spot gold nugget pleco (which I wanted to get rid of now that I had the better looking one) for 2 large wild green discus.

So in summary:
I added 2 large beautiful red dragon discus, 2 large wild green discus, 7 glass catfish, and 1 gold nugget pleco
I subtracted 2 albino bristlenose catfish, 1 gold nugget pleco, 2 small blue diamond discus, 3 poorly marked golden dragon discus, and $145.

I am now very happy and I think I am finished :)

[Lauren]

I dont like the way Big Als works. Compare their US to CAn prices.

its expensive and a hastle to ship stuff to Canada. Sometimes, people order my mom's videos, which only cost about 1.28 to send via US Post Service, plus price of the padded envalope. For Canada, I have to go to the post office, fill out a customs form, wait in line, and pay 7 dollars to ship the same package.

Keep that in mind.

[clayt101]

Sometimes, people order my mom's videos,

So what kind of videos are we talking about?
:o :o

[Timmain42]

So what kind of videos are we talking about?
"You've been a bad boy, Mr. Mackey, now you'll have to drink from this cup..."

[Ems]

Well this is the month that the 90 Gallon broke ;)
Should I really add it up?

[normd]

29 gallon fresh with all the fixin's has been about $300.00+ but it's money well spent as far as I'm concerned!

[Debra Mark]

I quit keeping track after we broke the $15,000.00 mark with this tank.....

[Blinky]

I can't think of any possible better use for $15 000.00 - you have what many of us dream about: a tank so big you can swim with your fish. I think you must be the only person I know of who can keep two pacu and genuinely say they're not overstocked!

[Dragon Queen]

170 for shipping, lighting, new filter system and some test kits
8 for plants
20 for ornaments
10 for fish

Next comes redoing the 10 gal :dance