Monthly cost to run a saltwater 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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[wayne]

If you're smart not that much. As you're going fish only you're avoiding the principal cost of buying and running 300 watts or so of lighting (+ the equally heavy use ballasts) and getting fluroescents instead. Cist of a heater is xxx watts. You can save more money by buying , for circulation a couple of Tunze/Seio style powerheads that push far more water for equal or lower electricity use.
The other cost will be salt for water changes so 10% every week or two will be 30 to 50 gallons approx a month, and I don't know how much salt is where you live, but you know 50 lb buckets are barely any pricier than 10 lb bags, so you just get a couple of those a year.

I have found that if you accept a large upfront cost for a bunch of live rock and a decent skimmer your long term costs are much less than you imagine. If you try to do it cheap and are constantly buying new kit it works out pricey.

 

[KahluaZzZ]

On a 55g i am using a 49$ CDN ( should be much less in the states ) 150g bucket for 6 months. I buy additives yearly, for about 100 $ only except buffer and calcium, 6 months approx each. Some big purigen bottle yearly (15 USD$).
I used to get polyfilters ( 8 USD $ max ) every 2 weeks but a good skimmer changed that.
Pretty cheap. Food is bought every 2-3 months and it doesn't cost much.
Seriously, it doesn't cost a lot once you have the hardware + livestock.
But my electricity bill is much much cheaper than everywhere else (0,0615 CDN $/KW/h )

 

[wayne]

I would personally account for salt, carbon, phosphate remover and if you want to get fancy alk buffer and kalk. All of these things get far cheaper per dose if you get a years supply at a time except phosphate remover which, for what is effectively balls of rust, quite pricey.