some people told me, if you want to keep some coral and fish, you have to have a suitable tank, some lights, and food, and this and that, you have to spend at least $500,lol, for me , It's really not cheap, should work harder~~~~

I've been hearing a lot of "$ cha-ching $" lately too.

Believe me, if you get deep enough into freshwater you can end up spending a fair amount of cash as well. Plants, lights, Co2 systems, better filtration setups honestly I am surprised my wife hasn't murdered me yet!

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75g Blackwater Oscar tank, 55g rescued Koi tank, 55g Native tank, 55g Community tank, 29g Community tank, 25g Bolivian Ram tank, 20H GBR tank, 20L Black Convict, 20L in progress, 10g Fry tank, 10g Dragonscale betta tank, 3g Crowntail betta tank.

No such thing as a cheap hobby. the more you get into any hobby the more you are gonna spend.

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if it works you must be doing something right!

It's easy to spend way more than $500 on salt water tanks. That said, I helped my brother set one up for a bit less than that. He has a 10 gal tank which you can pick up for less than $20, a set of t5 lights from an odysea light for less than $60, a Finex 360 (you might consider an aquaclear and macro algae as a hang on refugium) filter for less than $40, and some sand for $20. A hydrometer for $8. $20 for a Milwaukee PH600.

$20 for a bag of reef salt, reef buffer for less than $6, phytoplex for $13, marine food for $10, $2 for calibration fluid for the Milwaukee ph600.

Fish, you can get some damsel fish for $4 or $6 each. They are aggressive and will try to kill new fish. Just buy them all at once and only get a few. Make sure they are about the same size.--5 for $25. 4 coral frags for $100.

Rocks, you can add rocks a bit at a time but to start you will probably want one live rock $20 and some dry rock $25 to start. If you were buying more than frags for the coral, you could buy all dry rock. Larger coral would come on live rocks.



So that's,

$168 in equipment and sand.
$111 for consumable stuff
$45 for rocks
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$324 spent within about a month or two to get you started.

There are probably a few things i forgot. The $500 seems pretty realistic for a minimalist tank but that is an expenditure over about 3 months. His 10 gal tank looks quite nice too. He hasn't even put coral in it yet. He set it up like 3 months ago.

Another thing to consider. These are prices for all new equipment. There are often deals on craigslist for cheap used stuff. I recommend you stay 30 gal or less though because a larger tank will be more costly to maintain and to stock.

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Live Coral and Care Instructions at aquaticcastle.com

i bought a little two gallon a while ago. a little live rock rubble, a couple different kinds of algae, and a few frags later and i have a mini "reef" tank for under 100. ;)
it even has its own reverse photo chamber.

havent found a fish small enough to put in there yet. so far, its just a couple sexy shrimp.

The mony for me is second to the health of my aquariums inhabitants. All i have is time. So i get to save up here and there for a long time while i research the equipment i need to have a healthy tank.

Believe me, ive spent some money- but i also enjoy my hobby.

i get to preserve up here and there for years while i research the devices i need to have a normal and balanced container.