Those of us that have been doing this for years know this, but until you decide to upgrade and buy all new holy****
I know many of you have gone higher and lower;
I'm in the process of upgrading my complete system, my situation is not typical, currently two homes so I'm putting a system in the new house before breaking down the old system and selling the other house.
I thought no big deal get a tank stand and tranfer everything..........yeah right. can't take skimmer, old tank needs it, can't take sump, still in use, can't take LR to cycle.....................So.......... here are the costs so far, this is really only to get people to realize, what you're getting into and start with the size you want, the upgrade costs.
custom tank 3300
re-inforcing flooring 500 ( did myself)
stand 650 (built my own, would have been 3000)
tunze w/controller 700
plumbing dosing pump 500 (could have gone cheaper but a remote setup)
Tanks for fish room 700 (anal want it functional and pretty
)
Rocks 300
Skimmer 400
misc 400
Lights 1000, (not purchased) could be more if I go LED
Total 8450.00 with no water no corals ................. and not finished could probably drop an easy 2k more if I went with some of the equipment I see people use on here.
I'm just lucky the wife is fine with all this, but every night I think what the .....it's a fish tank why are you doing this, then I go home and see the other tank or see peoples on here and go, why aren't you done yet.
Anyway, do it right it's gonna cost............... It's an Expensive hobby
Oh, my old system probably cost more w/out a custom tank because I went cheap and had to spend two or three times to get the best setup, so don't cheap out it will cost your more in the long run.
I know many of you have gone higher and lower;
I'm in the process of upgrading my complete system, my situation is not typical, currently two homes so I'm putting a system in the new house before breaking down the old system and selling the other house.
I thought no big deal get a tank stand and tranfer everything..........yeah right. can't take skimmer, old tank needs it, can't take sump, still in use, can't take LR to cycle.....................So.......... here are the costs so far, this is really only to get people to realize, what you're getting into and start with the size you want, the upgrade costs.
custom tank 3300
re-inforcing flooring 500 ( did myself)
stand 650 (built my own, would have been 3000)
tunze w/controller 700
plumbing dosing pump 500 (could have gone cheaper but a remote setup)
Tanks for fish room 700 (anal want it functional and pretty
)Rocks 300
Skimmer 400
misc 400
Lights 1000, (not purchased) could be more if I go LED
Total 8450.00 with no water no corals ................. and not finished could probably drop an easy 2k more if I went with some of the equipment I see people use on here.
I'm just lucky the wife is fine with all this, but every night I think what the .....it's a fish tank why are you doing this, then I go home and see the other tank or see peoples on here and go, why aren't you done yet.
Anyway, do it right it's gonna cost............... It's an Expensive hobby
Oh, my old system probably cost more w/out a custom tank because I went cheap and had to spend two or three times to get the best setup, so don't cheap out it will cost your more in the long run.
I figure I will never make money on this, but trade wise, I will be sitting on something in the end hopefully. 
So yes I'm going to have to agree. This hobby is very,very expensive. Beginners beware..lol.
