Monthly cost to run salt water tank?

[hoamskilet]

I recently picked up a 125 gallon tank. I've thought about possibly setting up a salt tank. On average, how much do you guys think it would cost to run a reef tank, and how much to run a fish only tank on a monthly basis (including extra cost on the electric bill, costs of additives, etc....). It's going to be set up in my basement when I finish it, so I've got plenty of time to learn/spread out the cost of initial setup. I'm just lookin for a rough ballpark figure on what it would cost per month after setup.
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[Mahlhavoc]

$100 monthly I would guess or so

$20 for salt for water changes
$10-$25 for food
$30-$70 for lighting and pumps
$25 for trace elements or planktonic foods (trace element additions usually last more than a month)
2hrs a week for labor

This is all for an established tank and not including anything in for stuff like new stock, live rock, lightbulbs, or pumps and the initial testing of water perameters.

Lighting and power for pumps could vary depending on types and watts, this is for an average tank, reef or fish only.

 

[dolfans1]

The major hidden cost that I've found is with the electric bill. This will depend largely on how much lighting you need. If you have a reef tank, I would strongly recommend metal halide lighting to get the intensity that you need for a lot of the corals. For fish only, you can get by with fluorescents and less intensity.

As an example, I have a 120 g tank that is currently FOWLR but to which I am going to start adding corals early next year. I have 2 x 400 W MH lights + 2 96 W VHO actinic lights - almost 1000 W of total lighting. The MH lights put out so much heat that I had to invest in a chiller - which uses electricity. I also have cooling fans in the hood that use electricity, and a clamp on fan on the sump.

All in all, my electric bill has gone up almost $100/month since I've set up the tank. It should drop in the winter since I won't be running the AC (I live in Florida), and the tank itself should actually help warm the house.

If I was not planning on getting corals, I would have gone with only fluorescents (maybe 400 W total), and would not have needed a chiller, and either reduced or eliminated the cooling fans. This would have saved considerably on my electric bill.