Calculation tool aquarium: You quickly find yourself in the new hobby of aquaristics fell, but the disillusionment comes very quickly. Aquaristics is not only one of the most beautiful hobbies, but also one of the most expensive. In this article you will learn how the Upkeep of an aquarium can be calculated and what needs to be considered. We don't go to them acquisition cost, but only on the Care and running costs, i.e. the maintenance costs.
What are maintenance costs anyway?
In contrast to the acquisition cost maintenance costs arise regularly. An aquarium is usually only purchased once every 10 years, but electricity, water, care products and wearing parts are always needed. These parts and costs are called maintenance costs. Most of these are variable and can also change. Nevertheless, many items are quite fixed and therefore these are also considered fixed costs.
So maintenance costs are regular and recurring costs. Usually you can calculate this monthly and should also be included in the calculation be observed in an aquarium.
What are all the maintenance costs in the hobby of aquaristics?
Usually one assumes consumption costs here. These include, among other things Water aber auch Electricity and care products like fertilizer, Co2 and Co. In addition, maintenance costs can also include vet bills, new fish and plants and repair materials and expenses. We present the costs with the respective calculation in detail.
Water costs at an aquarium
The beginner in aquaristics will certainly ask himself why one has to calculate the water costs. After all, you only fill the aquarium once and therefore no longer have any running costs. This is of course wrong, because you have to carry out a water change again and again at a certain interval. How to do this, what needs to be considered and what quantity should be exchanged, we will explain in another article.
This is only about the costs for the water calculation.
You need the following information for the calculation:
- Water price per cubic meter (1000 liters) in your region (depends very much on where you live)
- Contents of the aquarium in liters
- Exchange cycles of the water change (how often is exchanged in days)
- What amount is exchanged in percent (guide value could be 50 percent)
If you have the following data at hand, the calculation looks like this:
Content of the aquarium / 100 * percentage value = water consumption per water change
Water consumption per water change * 365 / exchange cycle in days = water consumption per year
Annual consumption in liters / 1000 * cubic price of water = annual water costs
But now, of course, we have our calculation tool to calculate everything automatically.
Electricity costs for an aquarium
The electricity costs have a much greater impact on the maintenance costs. There are various factors depending on the model and equipment. Below that is always the Heating and also the Filter be. The lighting also requires a lot of electricity. Here, too, we want to make the calculation available to you. You will need a lot of information.
We will only go into the essential and necessary electrical consumers here. We do not consider devices such as Co2 systems, UV clarifiers, solenoid valves or flow pumps. Here you have to use the power consumption of the respective device / manufacturer.
You need the following information for the calculation:
- Power in watts of the lighting
- lighting duration
- performance of the filter
- Power of the heating element / floodlight
- Duration of use of the heating per day in hours
- Cost per KW/H of electricity
Now let's do the calculation:
performance of Lighting in watts * duty cycle per day = electricity consumption lighting per day * 365 days = electricity consumption per year
performance of Filters in watts * 24 hours = power consumption filter per day * 365 days = power consumption per year
Output of the entire heating in watts * duty cycle per day in hours (usually only a maximum of 2 hours as a guideline) * 365 days = electricity consumption per year
Electricity filter + electricity heating + electricity lighting / 100 * KW/h electricity price = total electricity costs per year
It's faster with the calculation tool 😉
Calculation tool for power consumption in an aquarium
Consumption costs for fertilizer, water treatment, feed and miscellaneous
In addition to the consumption costs for electricity and water already recorded above, there are now additional things such as food for the fish, water conditioner, fertilizer and other care products. It is rather difficult to calculate these values. Here you have to use certain guidelines. Nevertheless, we want to list what else could come together here:
- Always add fertilizer when changing the water
- Water treatment as well as when changing the water
- Medication for sick fish, catfish or shrimp
- fodder for the animals
- Wear parts such as hoses, filter material, ...
Guide value for an aquarium with 200 liters
- Water costs from the costs determined above (50% assumption every 14 days) = around 10-15 euros depending on the cubic meter price of the water
- Electricity costs from the costs determined above (filter 20 watts / lighting 70 watts a 12 hours per day / heating 100 watts, 2 hours per day) = around 165 euros at 30 cents per Kw/h
- Consumption costs estimate of around 70 euros per year - These can vary greatly. A guide value per liter of aquarium is often assumed. In other words, for a 200 liter tank there are additional costs of 200 euros.
- sum around 250 euros a year or around 20 euros a month for a 200 liter aquarium
These values are rather low. Here they should rather make a surcharge so that they are not overwhelmed by the maintenance costs later.
Think also of fish and plants
One of them has not yet found a place in the previous calculation. fish and plants also only have a limited lifetime, so money has to be factored in again and again for this. After all, stocking shouldn't go to zero because of a lack of money.