What do you spend the most money on?

[Art]

With ink printers, you spend the most money on ink cartridges. How about on our planted aquariums?

What do you end up spending the most money on?

 

[*Ci*]

Definitely electricity! Including my pond pumps, my “hobby” use of electricity bumps me up to higher and more expensive tier with my provider. Thankfully, hydro-electricity here in British Columbia is relatively cheap and it is a price I am certainly willing to pay for the enjoyment I receive : )

 

[BigWave]

@Ci I know its probably a pain in the ass but switching your lighiting times from day to night is pretty substantial. Now that im working nights the lights are on about 10pm to 6am and its saved me a ton alreay. Something about being in different energy demand thing.

 

[BigWave]

Its most def CO2 for me. Filling up a 5lb bottle here is just as expensive as a 10lb bottle, about $35. The central welding supply is the only suppler around and knows it.

 

[RickyV]

For me probably CO2. I use about 20lbs a month which costs me $30 to refill.

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

For me probably CO2. I use about 20lbs a month which costs me $30 to refill.

Holy crap. I upgraded to a 15lb cylinder for my 40 breeder with a 20 gallon sump so it could last me half the year lol

 

[Art]

I'm CO2 as well. Sadly, the only place near me for refills is about a 25 minute drive. So, not only are they gauging a bit because they are the few places in town but I also need to factor in the drive and time costs.

 

[Pepere]

Electricity in Maine is currently 28 1/2cents per killowatt hour..

I spend roughly $50.00 a month on 2, 29 gallon tanks and a 20 high… very expensive…. The only saving grace is that my tanks are in my well insulated bedroom and with keeping the door closed, I can keep the bedroom temps between 68 and 72 with the heat shut off in the rest of the living space except for an hour in the morning and another in the evening…. Rest of living space hovers between 55 and 65 depending on how cold it is outside..

on the plus side, electric rates are dropping to 22 cents a killowatt hour on January 1..

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

My children

 

[GreggZ]

One thing I have learned about this hobby and several other hobbies of mine............never, never, ever add up all the money spent on it! It might shock you.

I look at this way. I get great enjoyment from my hobbies, so it's worth it to me, whatever the cost.

Now as to what is the most expensive part of this hobby, once the infrastructure is in place it's relatively cheap as far as hobbies go. I fill a #10 CO2 for $20.00 about every 10 weeks. Ferts are cheap. Fish food is cheap.

But if I started to add up all that infrastructure over the years......oh yeah.....forgot.....never, never, ever do that!

 

[Joel Armstrong]

I'd have to say time.... time is money, right?

 

[Count Krunk]

Mine will be fish. 20# co2 is $66.

 

[Trey]

I voted for CO2 but that's only because I'm not really sure how much I'm spending in electricity.

 

[riioKen]

I voted electricity because I have an heater h24 on in the Winter at 22° (shouldn't be on all day but idk), I use RO water (30w, 2-4h per week), 150L reservoir for WC, and another 2-4h 300w heater on. 130w light on for 6-7h, 2 filters 36w each.

Idk CO2, but every refill cost me 20€ every 2-3 months

 

[Yugang]

I have been evaluating if I could save on CO2 costs, when using a yeast plus sugar bio CO2 generator.

I really liked the idea, because with CO2 Spray bar or the Horizontal CO2 Reactor - Yugang 鱼缸 Reactor in overflow mode we could have a nice constant injection, independent of the CO2 production rate (which is not constant over time in bio generators as the yeast activity ramps up first and then goes down). This would make the yeast bio generator with overflow injection far better performing on CO2 ppm stability in the tank than as usual with a in-tank diffuser.

Sadly I concluded that for my tank this project is a no go, at least from a cost savings perspective.

We will get roughly 50% CO2 by weight from every gram of sugar (the other 50% being alcohol), so that would seem to give a nice price advantage for the cheap sugar compared to what I pay for my CO2 refills.
However I can't turn off the yeast production when lights are off, so I would end up consuming sugar for the 2 thirds of the day that my pressurised CO2 system would stand idle. When I would multiply my daily sugar consumption by 3, the costs benefit compared to pressurised CO2 is nearly gone.

 

[Pepere]

When I would multiply my daily sugar consumption by 3, the costs benefit compared to pressurised CO2 is nearly gone.

I started out with a 5 pound tank ($100.00 purchase price for the tank itself)for co2, and found it only lasted about 5-6 weeks. A 20 pound tank (cost 200.00 for the tank itself). The kicker though is that a 5 pound tank refill costs me $38.00 and a 20 pound tank refill cost me $46.00….

Local supply store sells you the tank, but on a refill they are swapping it for another filled tank, and the do all of the pressure testing and certification of the tanks. The refill cost of the tank covers both the actual cost of the co2 you are buying as well as the tank testing, maintenace and the labor to fill and handle the tank….

The refill cost covers the increased cost of the tank itself in about a year…

The company credited the full cost of the 5 pound tank towards the upgrade to the 20 pound tank..
Had any of this been explained to me the first time I would have gone straight to the 20 pound tank. Swapping out a tank every 5 weeks was also a pain in the neck…