- It's BRS 360 Thursday, episode 4
and it's time to talk cost.
How much does all this cost?
is likely the number one question people ask me.
Reef tanks are expensive but today
we're going to hone in on what expensive even means
at this scale.
Maybe even more interesting,
why would any sane person make an investment like this
and in today's talk in 360,
speaking with David Hammontree,
the founder of Reef2Reef
and what he put into his dream tank,
all that's coming up.
(upbeat music)
Hey I'm Ryan, your host at BRStv.
BRStv's all about fun, successful past at
and reef tanks you can be proud of.
This is the BRS360 a full circle journey of
taking everything that we've learned about reefing,
transforming those experiences into a 360 gallon reef tank.
One of the biggest challenges with equipment intensive
hobbies is the seemingly bottomless pit of cash that can
be dumped into them.
Reefing can be an even bigger challenge because soon
as you get all this equipment things down,
there's no end to the amount of cash to be spent
on corals and fish.
No point in beating around the bush,
over the next few years this build is likely going
to cost tens of thousands of dollars,
hopefully producing a really awesome tank
that's fun to watch progress together.
Today we're going to see how a bill like that can be racked
up with an aquarium, why an sane person would do this,
and how I'm going to manage a budget for this tank.
Not only that, but achieve a dream tank for the tenth
of the cost as well.
As to why any sane person would do this I can't claim to be
100% sane, nor can I speak for anyone else
but reef tanks simply fulfill my own personal need
for innovation, creativity and change
in a manner that pets and other hobbies don't.
A place to put productive energy,
watch it flourish in creations that I'm proud to share
with those in my life.
While I didn't understand it in real time,
the investments I've made in my tanks have really been
investments in what I call personal joy.
And why those that care about me have always been supportive
about, what from the outside looks like a pretty darn
expensive hobby and frankly is, but worth it.
Because once I identify the passions which bring joy into my
life I'm willing to invest in them.
People invest in joy in all kinds of areas,
fancier cars, bigger houses, boats
and even other 20 year pets.
Reef tanks and pet ownership in general is rarely
a financial decision, it's a decision of passion for
the animal and you just make it work as time goes on.
For instance, almost no one would add this up
but the AKC estimates that the lifetime cost of
dog ownership is fifteen-grand with the first year
approaching two-grand.
Pets in general are just not the cheapest things we bring
into our homes and families,
but they bring all kinds of different value.
Hopefully that provides a bit of vision into why
I love reef tanks and willing to invest in them,
I wouldn't be surprised if many of you find
yourselves on similar paths.
Outside that simple passion for creation,
knowledge, challenges and successes,
I've spoken to thousands of reefers where reef tanks
have done anything from helping them kick addictions,
like alcohol or even heroin.
A young kid who made it through recovery of
a lung transplant planning his tank.
Teachers who share chemistry or biology with their class
through reef tanks,
people who treat anxiety.
All kinds of different value into people's lives.
But if I had to describe it as one single word,
I'd say joy.
At this point you're either nodding your head and saying
I'm with him, or saying this guy's crazy
it's just a fish tank.
Where you fall on that spectrum probably dictates the budget
you have for the hobby and how much you're willing
to invest in it when you inevitably go grossly over budget.
In close relation to that, where you fall on that spectrum
has a direct causation to the size of the dream
and related budget for achieving it.
So all that said, it doesn't have to be a 360 gallon tank
or cost a fortune to be a dream tank,
I've been realizing my dream since my very first tank
15 years ago.
Basically every tank I've set up since then has been
a dream at the time.
The nature of dreams is they evolve.
People invest in success and often have more flexible
resources as time goes on.
When I set that first 90 gallon tank at age 27
it actually exceeded my dreams and ended up being way
cooler than I anticipated.
And even though it was actually smaller,
the same could be said of the 70 gallon reef 70 tank
that came years later.
And where form started to match function, where the outside
of the tank itself started to match the inside of the tank.
The clown-harem tank community of a single species
watching them grow up together, develop a natural hierarchy
within the tank packed with bubble tips
was something that I dreamed about.
Obviously the BRS160 was a dream where form
matched function again.
And even three different coral themed tanks
independent but run next to each other in my office
was something that I've been dreaming about
since I saw something similar with three huge coral type
specific tanks lining the walls of a local club member's
basement, which was his dream.
So there will be a big investment in the 360 I think it's
valuable to note that my first dream tank budget was less
one tenth of that with two-grand.
That said I didn't keep an exact tab on this
but I would expect that I spent somewhere between
two to three times that in the first two years.
Just to give you context, I was 27 years old
and had a good job as a career server at a local steakhouse
but a two-grand budget was not a trivial amount of money.
Having it double, or triple that budget was not planned for
but again I believe we all invest in things that bring
us joy, fun challenges or accomplishments
that we can be proud of.
Okay so before I get to how I'm actually going to fund this,
which I think many of you actually may identify with,
what's gonna make this cost so much.
I think I'll break this up into infrastructure.
Equipment, and livestock, and fish,
or coral and pets themselves.
So this isn't my first rodeo I'm not in a hurry
and some of this I'm just going to try to do right
from the the beginning this time.
This time I'm going to take out the carpet around
the tank and replace it with tile.
Spills are inevitable for me,
I'm just going to own it from the beginning.
This means the fish room plumbing, the floor drain,
as well as coating the cement to protect the cement.
Also means power solutions, meaning having an electrician
put in enough circuits to power a large tank like this.
Related to that the tank also needs a power outage solution.
I'm also going to have to do some structural work to the
wall as well as move some HVAC around to accommodate
where the tank is going.
There's probably going to be a slew of other surprises
as well just getting the area ready.
There's also of course the tank itself,
stand, hood, lighting, sump, pumps, heater, rock works,
skimmer, flow and other elements of filtration.
And lastly this is a big tank and there will be
a lot of coral and fish.
This time I'm going to take it a bit slower and treat
the tank more like a collection of coral and fish.
I mean I don't need an insta-tank, I'm looking forward
to collecting the right corals the peak my interest
over many years.
They don't have to be expensive,
just the things that I'm excited about caring for
and watching grow over many years.
So how's a tank like this going to be funded?
Well I think some of you might find this interesting,
many of the tanks you've watched here were actually
funded by BRS.
However in this case the tank is going in my home
and while I know that he wouldn't have an issue with it,
I don't think it's fair to have my business partner pay
for a dream tank and infrastructure that's
going into my house.
So it's gonna come out of my family's pocket.
As you might expect that's not what my wife would call
good news because I tend to get carried away with things
when I have no predetermined boundaries.
In the end I came up with a compromise which is
the tank can be funded with my side hustle,
something I think is both fair for our family,
keeps me in check a bit,
and honestly something I'm excited about
because that's how almost all the tanks in my house
were funded from the beginning.
Side hustles in reefing are pretty common
and that may mean growing out coral and trading them
so you don't have to buy them,
selling coral frags to a local fish store, on Ebay,
or forums like Reef2Reef.
This is a hobby that after a while can fund itself.
In my case making homemade fish food for the local club
was a big part of what funded that first 90 gallon tank.
Ultimately you expanded to Ebay and what would
become Reef Chili.
If you watched last week shortly after that I spent
thousands of dollars building out a series of coral and fish
propagation systems in my basement just a couple years
after starting my first tank.
It amounted to half a year's salary for me and not something
I just had laying around, it was completely funded
by the success of the various side hustles.
You can call it a side hustle but really those things
were just fun extensions of the hobby and ways
to interact with the larger reefing community for me.
So I'm gonna stick to my roots and agreed with my wife
to live within that box of the constraints of what
funded my very first tank, is also what's gonna be funds
my dream tank 15 years later with Reef Chili.
This is a good time to thank everyone whose been
using Reef Chili for the last decade plus,
Reef Chili is not just something that I'm proud to
offer the community all these years
but also obviously an intrical component in
my reefing journey in so many ways.
That side gig combined with hopefully some timely
donations from various vendors will hopefully allow
me to put together something really cool
for all of you to follow along with.
So that leads us right into what's next
and in just a few minutes David Hammontree,
aka The Rev, or founder of the best reefing forum
out there with Reef2Reef will be with us.
I invited him because recently he set up his dream tank,
I thought it would be great to hear about his dream,
some insight into what it cost him,
and how he managed those costs as well.
So that's coming up here in just 30 minutes
at 12:30 central today.
So click this link here to join us for that live,
raw, in-depth conversation if you want to see
what inspires a leader of one of the most influential
communities in reefing this is your chance.
Click this link and we'll see you there.