Salt water aqaurium a costly hobby?

I agree. If you start with something simple like a Biocube, just to get your feet wet, you'll be all right. I personally started with an old 10gal tank I had. After a light, sand, salt, tests, lr, and a first fish, I spent probably $200-$300. Granted the smaller the tank, the harder it is to keep your params stable. Biocubes are good because the come with decent lights that can keep some corals, built in filtration, and are relatively cheap depending on where you get one. I upgraded to a Biocube 29 gallon and spent about $550 on that upgrade which included the tank, more sand, more rock, and a new bigger light fixture. I don't run a sump or anything like that, mainly bc of lack of space, but there are really nice to do and make things a lot easier.

 

everything costs money it just depends on how you want to spend it in the long run.

 

heck no. people have 5's....10's.... if you have a medium-large sized tank it is just more stable due to larger water volume. im oding my first reef tank it is a 55 with a 10 refugium. it is not a small tank i can do plenty with it. i just couldnt imagine the price for salt doing huge water changes in large tanks.

 

Yea its costly and can be challenging. If it wasnt everybody would have one in their house.