How much would you pay for monthly tank maintenance??

[dnorton1978]

I am thinking of doing tank maintenance and I am trying to gather information on fair charges. This pole is very general, and does not take into consideration tank size or anything. Thanks for the help

Again we would all like to pay the least amount possible, but be as honest as possible to help gauge a fee. Thanks

You can chime in with your tank size and all if you like.

Maintenance would include water changes, adding nutrients checking levels, cleaning filters and pumps power heads. Basically all the nasty stuff we do...

 

[Anonymous]

I would pay $25/week if I didn't enjoy doing it myself.

 

[Anonymous]

I charge a dollar per gallon per month, with a minimum of $100. If someone wants to pay me $100 a month to do their nanocube I'm more than willing.

A few bits of advice:
1) Find a good wholesaler(s). Maintain good relationships with them.
2) Don't even attempt it unless you know what you're doing. Been keeping a reef for 6 months? Keep your day job. I don't mean to sound harsh but you could end up losing a lot of money if you mess something up. One plumbing or electrical mistake and you can imagine the liability.

Otherwise, best of luck!

 

[Anonymous]

I would pay 25$ a month.

All they would have to do is clean scrape and vacuum the main tank, vacuum the bottom tank, clean out the skimmer body and add the already made water.


that is about all the stuff I hate doing..

I can handle the rest.


You want to start on mine next saturday?

:lol:

 

[Anonymous]

What Matt W. said. I think you should hold off until you get a little more experience in maintaining your own system before you even think about trying to do upkeep on other people's tanks.

Cripes, making a mistake that screws up your own tank is bad enough, but in today's lawsuit happy society I'd worry about getting sued over some stupid mistake.

 

[dnorton1978]

Thanks for the info guys.

Matt,

How long have you been doing maintenance and how did you get started?

Any other advice to give, anything you recomend avoiding maintenance wise?

Thanks guys and keep the feedback coming

 

[Anonymous]

Oh, by the way, my tank is a 55gal with a 55 gal sump.

What time saturday should I expect you? :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info guys.

Matt,

How long have you been doing maintenance and how did you get started?

Any other advice to give, anything you recomend avoiding maintenance wise?

Thanks guys and keep the feedback coming

I've been doing it around 4 years now. I took care of my own tanks for 3 years before that. Even then I felt a little unsure of myself at first.

For me, every opportunity has been a case of it falling into my lap or people literally begging me to take care of their tank, so I'm not really sure what ways are best to build your business. The first one was a tank at a place I work, and the most recent one is a hotel that wants bettas in every room. Every customer I have was through word of mouth. I imagine it helps a lot to know your local aquarium club. Obviously you should be on good terms with every fish store in town, and give them your card to give to their customers. Get a yellow page ad! I know a guy in Sacramento that says almost all his customers found him via the phone book.

Tank stuff--get a quarantine tank. Or two. Or three. Keep any tools you use isolated from other tanks, either by sterilizing or keeping each tool with its own tank. I do the latter. Don't ever let a customer add their own fish/coral/etc. You can imagine why. Install GFCIs on EVERYTHING. The rest should be fairly intuitive if you know what you're doing.

 

[Anonymous]

I would pay $7. Not a penny more.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

I would pay $7. Not a penny more.

Louey

Your tank would cost more than that just in salt.

 

[Anonymous]

How about $7.25, Louey?

 

[Anonymous]

Matt wrote:

Your tank would cost more than that just in salt.

Okay, I'll provide the salt.

And you are certainly not wrong. I use 2/3rd's of a 160 gallon bucket of IO every month.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Chris P:

How about $7.25, Louey?

I am lowering my offer to $6.75. That is my final offer.

See how that worked?

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

:lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Matt wrote:

Your tank would cost more than that just in salt.

Okay, I'll provide the salt.

And you are certainly not wrong. I use 2/3rd's of a 160 gallon bucket of IO every month.

Louey

You do a 100 gallon change monthly? Or 50 g biweekly? That seems like a lot.

 

[Anonymous]

I do a 120G WC every month. My system holds 475 gallons, so that's about 25%.

Sounds about right to me.

I may lower the float valve in my 130G water change vessel so that the WC's are cut back a little. For now I think I will leave it just the way it is. My tank has never really had any algea to speak of, so I must be doing something right. (knock on wood)

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Ah, that's right, you've got a huge sump. I was doing the calculation for 300g.

 

[Anonymous]

Some people say the sump volume shouldn't count in the WC equation.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Some people say the sump volume shouldn't count in the WC equation.

Louey

Those people might be on goofballs. 475 gallons is 475 gallons. :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

FWIW, a poll of reefkeepers will not give you an accurate idea of what you can charge to maintain a fish tank (see above). You're asking people who actually enjoy doing this for free.

What people pay for is peace of mind. It's not like it's hard physical labor. It's all knowledge based. You have to understand exactly why you're doing everything you do; most people do not want to do all the research to accomplish this. Same with doctors and lawyers and plumbers and auto mechanics. Thus, you can charge a boatload and people will pay it.