How Expensive is Water for a Reef Tank or Saltwater Aqaurium?
- Feb 13, 2022
- Anshika Mishra
- 254 0 0
How many gallons of water does it you to run your saltwater aquarium for an entire year?
Many enthusiasts looking forward to setting up their own reef tank wonder how much it costs to keep up the utilities every year. So, let's start with water:
How are You Billed?
It will help if you start by understanding. It is different everywhere. Are you billed at a flat rate? Is there a tiered system? Are you billed based on volume?
Let's take an example. A typical home allocated up to 8ccf of water every month, just under six thousand gallons of water a month.
- CCF= Centum Cubic Feet
- 1CCF=100 Cubic Feet
- 100 Cubic Feet Water= 743 Gallons of water
Suppose for the first 8CCF of water you are charged $0.94 per CCF. For the second 8 CCF of water, you are charged $1.17 per CCF.
So, to get this started, let's break down two of the systems and see how much water they use every year?
20-gallon Innovative Marine Lagoon Tank
If we are trying to figure out the first-year cost, then:
- Tank=20 gallons to fill
- 2 gallons weekly water change (10% water change)
- 1/4 gallon evaporation per day
All this together brings in the rand total of 215 Gallons a year.
Furthermore, for every one gallon of the RO/DI water, RO/DI water also wastes a gallon, so it is not 215 gallons a year, but 430 Gallons.
- 430 Gallons- 0.57 CCF
- 0.57 CCF x $1.17= $0.67/year
Way less than you expected. Right?
70-gallon Clownfish Anemone Tank
Starting with the first-year cost:
- 70 Gallons of water to fill the tank
- 7 Gallons weekly water change (10% water change)
- 3/4 Gallons evaporation per day
This brings us to a total of 2,144 gallons a year. Now doing the maths:
- 2,144 gallons= 2.87 CCF
- 2.87 x $1.17= $3.36/year
So, to answer how much the aquarium water costs to run a reef tank or multiple saltwater aquariums is pretty cheap. It will cost you less than $5 of water all year long to run a successful reef tank.
How Much will Your Tank Cost?
If you are willing to get started and wondering how much it will cost you to set up the tank. Choose one of the two 20-gallons or 70-gallons and use the above numbers as a baseline.
Remember 20-gallon tank uses approximately 430-gallons a year which is 0.57 CCF/year. In contrast, the 70-gallons tank uses about 2,144-gallons a year, which comes out to be 2.87/CCF.
Suppose you don't want to spend time looking at your water bill or looking it up. For example, checking king, the average water bill per 1000 gallons in the US is $1.50 per 1000 gallons.
But, of course, it will wildly depend on where you live. And the above number does not include any water treatment or sewer fees adn in some locales, that can be expensive.
So, to get the right idea of cost, take up the above figures as a baseline, add your rates, do a little multiplication, and you should have your answer.
The trick to Safe Money on Water
Buy an RO/DI system. It is going to save you tons of money.
Let's see the maths. Starting with the 70-gallons aqaurium:
- 1,072 gallons/year
- LFS charge=$0.50/gallon
Which comes out to be $536/year in RO/DI cost a year along.
But if you purchase a $200 RO/DI system, you will be using 2,144 gallons of water a year for a total cost of less than $3.50/year. So, the total for your water usage of the year would be $203.50 for the year.
Which one looks better?
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