Where are y'all getting your money from?

cancun

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I'm sure that there are many doctors, lawyers and engineers that have big beautiful tanks. I would bet they also have maintenance contracts. To me half the pleasure of owning a reef tank is building it up and watching it grow and thrive, you don't need a huge budget for that.
Build it gradually, save for what you want and buy during sales.
Try not to buy on credit, what you save on finance charges can go to purchase what you really need. We all need to have charge cards even if we pay them off at the end of the month, get a rewards card that gives you cash back, you'll be surprised how quickly that can add up.
I recently read, "social comparison is the thief of happiness. You could spend a lifetime worrying about what others have, but it wouldn't get you anything". Make whatever you have beautiful for you.
Well said!!!!!!!! Totally true! :D
 

Fishingandreefing

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It’s a bit off topic but I mentioned in other threats, and I am saying it again. The costs of reefing is like child play compare to some of the hobbies. At least reefing is somewhat healthier.
 

Deezill

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I personally had some disposable income to do automation and buy some products and i know how blessed i am to be able to do that but i saved multiple years and planned for several years before starting, but I still plumbed, wired, fix and do day to day things as that is what this hobby is all about in my eyes. anyone can do what i did and even opt to DYI a lot of it and save a ton of money with the same or close to the same outcome. I am so proud of what i built that most of the time i show people the back of my tank in the fish room before showing the front (display). not that i would admit this out loud but i look for reasons to make my system work better or more efficient to the point i will cause myself issues tearing apart things and sometimes causes more harm than good but no matter what i learn and have fun doing it. as you can see in picture i need to redo all of my wiring....huge task that i keep avoiding
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If the back looks that good I bet the front looks immaculate. I am truly blessed to have a nice sized tank. Even If I have to save and purchase bit by bit the fact that I have a wife who does not mind and support my habit. I know I am blessed.
 

Fakegolfnews

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I made a deal with myself if i got sober i would be able to both afford reefing and be able to save money. Its been almost 2 years and the plan worked. The baggies I buy now have endless joy in them if cared for properly and sourced from the right place. The bottles I buy last more than a night and I dont ever regret anything I did after buying them. Its a great trade off. Im also healthier than Ive ever been. I drive a 15 year old car, but it is the nicest car ever made and will go 500k miles if I treat it right. Its a 2005 Lexus LS430 for anyone wondering. (Lexus told the Japanese design team to simply make the nicest car ever made, no budget on research and development and no time requirement, I believe it took 5 years)
 

3D Reefin'

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DIY as much as you can. The vast majority of reefers aren’t wealthy with tons of money laying around. You can do a great deal in the hobby with planning and patience. Budget for everything in advance and go slow.

Couldn't agree more. Built this 5 gallon nano for less than $100 total. 3D printed the filter, stand, etc. Patience and going slow pays off. Buy only what you need in steps to avoid overbuying/purchasing the incorrect gear.

Here is the build thread if anyone is interested:


IMG_20190709_184850247 (1).jpg
 

ReefGoddesss

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I retired for the second time March of this year. Still don’t make 6 figures. I had $$$ set aside, and we are comfortable day to day. Pay the bills and put the extra aside. This hobby is not cheap, and I have a couple more. Plus the wife has an expensive hobby, but all the sewing equipment is paid for. I won a 20 gal, got a new 65 gal, and then the wife got me an anniversary gift, 180 gal she saved for from her quilts. Like others have said do what makes you happy.

I can certainly relate to you as a reef hobbyist and your wife’s hobby: I also sew and embroider as a hobby and it is equally exciting, but far more expensive. Good thing my sewing and embroidery machines are all paid off too. I usually get excellent deals when the new models come out and others Trade their nice machines in at the sewing dealers for the latest model. That’s when I make my move to upgrade too by purchasing their used model. It’s new to me and many times the dealer warranties them too. I save at least 50-75% which is quite a bit considering sewing and embroidery machines easily sell for $20k new.

I also purchase my reef equipment when on sale or used, if possible. I’ve learned to be patient and I plan for everything. My RedSea 350 was a sweet deal/birthday gift purchased at my LFS. Someone decided they didn’t have enough time for the hobby as planned. They’d purchased the RedSea system but later decided to sell. They never hooked it up nor used It So they asked our LFS to sell it for them. Hubby knew I had been eyeing this same system and saving for it. He went to my Lfs, saw the sweet deal on the RedSea they were selling for the previous owner- in the color I always wanted at a great price. He ended up getting it for me as a gift for my birthday.
 
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SaltISlife

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Im 34. Have no kids. Not married. And no girlfriend. So thats where i get all my money from.

Also my tank is 135 gallons built in 1982.. i bought it for 100$ i just resealed it. I use T5 lights with those white chinese grow fixtures. I use hob filters.

My tank stand and lights costed me maybe 500$ combined. The corals and fish i have probably 4000$ in stuff. But thats over 2-3 years of accumulating 20-30$ frags and so forth. And now ive been selling frags. And trading colonies of LPS for store credit so i havent paid for corals in probly 6 months now.

Just yesturday i traded a favia and 30 heads of a trumpet for 200$ in store credit and i walked out with 6 new corals i dont have. Spent 1$.

My other hobby is my Jeep. Its an 89 Jeep Grand Wagoneer i just finished reparing alot of stuff.. lifting it. Tires. Off road lighting and other stuff too much to list.. Between my tank and Jeep i have about 15,000$ invested in it. Then my computer i built 3 years ago for 4500$ from scratch. So in 4 years ive spent about 20k$ on my hobbies.

But you also gatta remember. No kids. No wife. I drive old cars so no carpayments. No high insurance. No high taxes.

I also just do landscaping for work so i mow grass and cut trees and blow leafs. And sell car parts on ebay.

I am not educated in a book and degree sense.
 
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Reef Tanker

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I’m 36, not married and no kids. I work as a route sales rep/delivery driver full time and drive Lyft part time. The full time job pays $44k a year and I probably make another 10-15k with Lyft. So I’m not broke but certainly not rich. I do have 2 cars but both are paid for. 2010 Prius for Lyft/daily use and 2010 Tacoma for mostly fun activities.

I just bought a condo recently here in Colorado and setting up a 40 gallon reef. This is my second real attempt at a reef tank. My first one was back in high school and it was a lot harder than it is now. I had a job bagging groceries at $5.60-6.40 per hour back then. That tank was a 70 gallon, oops. Lol I probably should have gone with a 30-40 instead.

I have other hobbies too. Probably $7-8k or more in guns, optics, and hunting and reloading gear. Although I haven’t loaded a round in 2 years. Only been to a pistol range once in that time, not even any rifle shooting. I have a few grand in audio stuff, mostly audiophile headphone gear. Then I have also done some upgrades on my truck. Guns, pickups, and audio can be as expensive or more than reefing.

Back to the 40 I’m working on. I suppose I will have maybe $2k in it before I buy one fish or one coral.
 

Mjhatley

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I make decent money but don’t spend it on livestock. If there is a high end coral I want, Like a hellfire or Aussie gold, I’ll buy a colony of 8 heads on a credit card, frag one head off and then sell the rest at a price that will pay off my one head. Takes some time and effort but almost all the corals I have, have been at no cost. Speaking of which, I’m looking for a colony of Aussie golds. Lmk if anyone has one! This doesn’t really help with tanks or equipment though.
 

Dr. Dendrostein

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I’ll tell you a big difference from when I started reefing. There is very little DIY anymore. There were virtually no commercial calcium reactors. I made my own. Buy a toilet flange with the knockout still installed, some 3” acrylic tube, a flange for the top, some egg crate for a media platform... Drill some holes for hose barb fittings, epoxy them in and voila. Instant media reactor. There were no premade acrylic sumps. If you had one, you made it. Most of us used storage totes as sumps. And they work just as well, for 1/10 the cost. So there are lots of lost ways to go about reefing on the cheap, without compromising functionality. Most of my equipment is home made, except for my skimmer, and it all works very well.

I just showed your posting, I showed it to some millennials and they told me they remember reading about that in their history books. Oh yeah they said..... :p
 
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Dr. Dendrostein

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I make decent money but don’t spend it on livestock. If there is a high end coral I want, Like a hellfire or Aussie gold, I’ll buy a colony of 8 heads on a credit card, frag one head off and then sell the rest at a price that will pay off my one head. Takes some time and effort but almost all the corals I have, have been at no cost. Speaking of which, I’m looking for a colony of Aussie golds. Lmk if anyone has one! This doesn’t really help with tanks or equipment though.
What I do is when I see a torch that is $800 a head, I get together with seven other buddies and each chip in a hundred bucks and now we have an $800 torch and we take turns each one gets to keep it for one month and then the next buddy gets to keep it for the next month and so on and so on. that way I can say I have an $800 torch that cost me $100. What a deal
 

joe berkman

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Sobriety hobby,.Lots of weekend side work,lots of diy (it is a hobbie), a little at a time and bonus's and presint's often come in the form of reefing geer ect
 

Vette67

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I just showed your posting, I showed it to some boomers and they told me they remember reading about that in their history books. Oh yeah they said..... :p
Ha. I’m not a boomer. I’m old but not THAT old...

I actually have a coil denitrator that I built using the toilet flange, still sitting in my “bone yard”. Very easy to build, and still could be done today, and plenty effective. I stopped using this thing only probably a year or so ago. Pretty, isn’t it?
23F73758-337E-4DA2-8627-DECEEFB5BD89.jpeg
 

Dr. Dendrostein

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Ha. I’m not a boomer. I’m old but not THAT old...

I actually have a coil denitrator that I built using the toilet flange, still sitting in my “bone yard”. Very easy to build, and still could be done today, and plenty effective. I stopped using this thing only probably a year or so ago. Pretty, isn’t it?
23F73758-337E-4DA2-8627-DECEEFB5BD89.jpeg
I like sulfur denitrators. I changed my posting it's supposed to be millennials. one time at a job site one of the workers was bragging about being in the 60s wearing the leather coats with those leather strings hanging from the arms of the coat and I let him talk and when he finish. I said, oh yeah I remember reading about that in my history books. Heeer
 

mattdg

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When I was a kid I asked my dad how he had so many tools? His answer was, a lifetime of collecting.

You can start very small in this hobby and add slowly, coral, livestock, equipment. If you are purchasing new and used, high quality equipment, it won't be long until you are asking yourself, where all of this came from.

Don't get me wrong. Anyone that tells you this hobby is cheap, doesn't have a clue how to monitor their expenditures. It is not cheap and not a necessity, by any means. With that said, you can fit it into almost any budget with time, intelligent well informed decisions and a burning passion to be successful reef keeper.
 

DaddyNature

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Ok, I get it. Be a doctor/lawyer/engineer/software engineer, and make the big bucks to be able to send your kids to Ivy Leagues, have a nice car, AND get an awesome fish tank or 10 out of it.

But for the all of the 5 figure and under people (let's say the cutoff is 85K), how are you doing it? Do you just like...not have kids or something? Is there a trick to all the splurging you're able to do? Are there a bunch of low cost of living areas that I'm just not aware of/don't want to move to?

I keep seeing "I just bought this 200/300/1600 gallon [RedSea/Waterbox/expensive brand] aquarium and what do I do with it" posts, and I'm just...confused...do you just have this money lying around??

I guess I'm mostly just asking because my estimated yearly earnings is currently somewhere at around 40K in a high cost of living area once the job hiring starts again. Which means very little disposable income (bye bye avocado toast, I'll miss you, but aquariums gotta aquarium).
I once sat down with an employee of mine and showed her she was spending $3500 a year on Red Bull and cigarettes. End of story.
 

reefiniteasy

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I’m a teacher, my tank started in the classroom pre-Covid. Basic equipment like my BioCube, heater, rock, sand salt to start was donated. Since, I can imagine I’ve spent a couple thousand. Two light upgrades, skimmers, chemicals, etc. I didn’t think long term when I started the tank. I’m at the point now where the only recurring cost is my salt (2 boxes per year) dosing chemicals (2 gallons per year) fish food, and test kits. I think the most expensive and most often purchased is the Hanna Alk reagents. I test a lot. For corals, I made an awesome friend through this forum and he has started me out with plenty of frags. Actually, the only frag I’ve bought, died. All birthday and holiday gifts are tank related. I also dropped $500 on a WaterBox Cube and stand that I’ve since given up on because this school year sucks and I have no time. That’s a sore subject with my wife. Anyway I think the size of the tank is key to making it fit your budget.
 

Gorgar

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Ok, I get it. Be a doctor/lawyer/engineer/software engineer, and make the big bucks to be able to send your kids to Ivy Leagues, have a nice car, AND get an awesome fish tank or 10 out of it.

But for the all of the 5 figure and under people (let's say the cutoff is 85K), how are you doing it? Do you just like...not have kids or something? Is there a trick to all the splurging you're able to do? Are there a bunch of low cost of living areas that I'm just not aware of/don't want to move to?

I keep seeing "I just bought this 200/300/1600 gallon [RedSea/Waterbox/expensive brand] aquarium and what do I do with it" posts, and I'm just...confused...do you just have this money lying around??

I guess I'm mostly just asking because my estimated yearly earnings is currently somewhere at around 40K in a high cost of living area once the job hiring starts again. Which means very little disposable income (bye bye avocado toast, I'll miss you, but aquariums gotta aquarium).
I'm in the military (lower enlisted E-4) so im definitely not making anywhere near 6 figures, I've been building my system for well over a year and only just started it 4 months ago, saved little by little getting piece by piece. Definitely took lots of patience but I think well worth it in the end. Anybody can do it!
 
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