My first reef added up to 5000$. Its a 37g. Heres what everything cost me-
Tank,stand off craigslist-250$
Live Rock-700$ as i over did it and got 80lbs over time)
Live Sand-20lbs for 20$
Lights-400$ (4 coralife T5s)
Test kits,refractometer,ect...- 130$
RODI unit-250$ (5 stage BRS chloramine unit +)
Powerheads-120$ (2 koralia 1150s)
Additional things-250$
Salt (560g worth IO reef crystals)- 180$
And all the mistakes ive made with fish and coral, ect...-400$
Filtration-100$ (marine land c-222 cansiter filter)
Skimmer-190$ (CPR bak pak HOB skimmer)
Heater-50$ (ehiem jager 150W)
And then i wont add the cost of the fish and coral ive got as you will most likley not get the same stuff.
Also alot more small things that add up over time (QT tank,foods, filters,carbon,GFO, ect...)
EDIT: just saw you wanted to learn about all the costs so here is my stock of corals and fish and invertabrates-
Flame angel- 60$
2 Oc.clowns-40$
2 purple fire fish-50$
Starry blenny-30$
Valentini puffer-35$
Corals-
Torch-45$
All my zoas and pallys-180$
Polyps-50$
SPS-80$
GSP-60$
Ricordeas-130$
Monti's-50$
Chalices-30$
Brains-80$
Frags, and other small corals-200$
CUC-
10 dwarf zebra hermits- 2$ each
10 red leg hermits-2$ each
8 blue leg hermits-2$ each
3 red bandit snails-3$ each
2 mexican turbo snails-3$ each
1 caribbean porcelian crab-11$ each
3 emerald crabs-7$ each
1 cleaner shrimp-30$ each
A bunch of hitch hikers i got on my rock for free (snails,crabs, and other little critters)
Its a very time consuming and addicting hobby, i am now full SW after converting my 20 long into a reef a few weeks ago. I have the 37g mix reef, a 60g cube mix reef, and the 20 long SPS tank. Not to mention a 10g QT. its not too hard just takes alot of time and money!!!