250 Gallon Starphire SPS tank

[Flatlander]

My goal is to be tank of the month by the year 2010. I have no idea if it is attainable, but my goal non-the-less. [/B]

:thumbsup:

 

[LittleBlueGT]

Doug, I need you to come over and give me some suggestions from all your experience.

Don't forget a couple of frags.

 

[APorter]

Do you have a pic of how you have your drains? If I understand correctly you have one normal drain pipe and one durso. The regular pipe is lower than the durso and doing most of the work.

 

[LittleBlueGT]

Do you have a pic of how you have your drains? If I understand correctly you have one normal drain pipe and one durso. The regular pipe is lower than the durso and doing most of the work.

That is correct.

No pic though, it is too hard to take one.

I have about 800 gph going through the normal drain, and about 5 gph going through the Durso.

 

[APorter]

Do you have a pic of how you have your drains? If I understand correctly you have one normal drain pipe and one durso. The regular pipe is lower than the durso and doing most of the work.

 

[LittleBlueGT]

Do you have a pic of how you have your drains? If I understand correctly you have one normal drain pipe and one durso. The regular pipe is lower than the durso and doing most of the work.

Am I seeing double?

 

[APorter]

That's really wierd how theirs a double post but 11 minutes apart.

 

[LittleBlueGT]

Here is my tank electrical usage. It is not 100% accurate yet, but most of it is there. I found a few areas surprising and enlightening.

Tank electrical usage

 

[LittleBlueGT]

The parts I found most interesting were the electrical usages for the Gen-x pumps. The 50 uses a lot of power, yet it performs better then advertised. The 40 uses surprisingly little power only 73 watts! Yet the 30 uses more even though it is a smaller pump!

I also can now see how much power the big pumps use, the far by most of anything. I especially found the relationship of how much the pumps used in a month compared to how much money was spent on lighting.

 

[Lunchbucket]

what kind of pipe/tube are you using coming out of your pumps in back of the panworld/blue line? i looks weird

Lunchbucket

 

[LittleBlueGT]

what kind of pipe/tube are you using coming out of your pumps in back of the panworld/blue line? i looks weird

Lunchbucket

Are you talking about the two pumps I am using as sump return?

If so I am using 1.5 inch spa-flex. The spa-flex is available in white (most commomn) or white/clear. I have some of both.

 

[LittleBlueGT]

I am also surprised that the Icecap electronic ballasts use only 195 watts vs 293 for the magnetic.

I would definitely say that the Icecaps use power more efficiently. The magnetic is about 30% brighter but uses 50% more power. The extra 20% is wasted in heat. Not that I don't like the magnetic ballast, but it does create heat.

 

[NHMarine]

I wish I had your electric rates!!! $6.40 to run 750 watts of MH for 5hrs a day is sweet!!

Thanks for posting your findings.

 

[LittleBlueGT]

Our electricity in Manitoba costs 5.4 cents/kWh plus 14% tax to come to 6.16 cents. I cannot imagine living in some places where the rates are 3 times what they are where! BTW the rates are in Canadian dollars, so it would be about 4.8 cents USD.

 

[LittleBlueGT]

The other thing that really perplexes me is that my URI actinic VHOs use way less power then advertised. They are suppose to use 160 watts each for a total of 320 watts. But, they only use 194 total. They are run off of an Icecap 660. That is 40% less then rated!

 

[LittleBlueGT]

My Hammerhead pump is using 10W more then rated, my Blueline HD 100 is using 10W less then advertised, very close IMO.

 

[LittleBlueGT]

An update on how the tank is affecting the house for the summer:

My house is about 1450 square feet. I originally had a 1.5 ton a/c on the house (from the builder). Even with no tank that a/c proved to be too small for hot summer days. Last year with a 90 gallon tank with moderate flow and only pc lighting the a/c could not keep up. It would be 28C or 82F outside and the inside temp could not get below 24C (75F) It was really annoying! Now I have a 2.5 ton unit. I hope this will work for those hot summer days. Sometimes the temp here in Canada actually gets to 38C or 100F!

 

[tgunn]

Our electricity in Manitoba costs 5.4 cents/kWh plus 14% tax to come to 6.16 cents. I cannot imagine living in some places where the rates are 3 times what they are where! BTW the rates are in Canadian dollars, so it would be about 4.8 cents USD.

The other thing to note is that the electricty here gets CHEAPER as you use more, not more expensive like in some places.

Tyler

 

[tgunn]

My Hammerhead pump is using 10W more then rated, my Blueline HD 100 is using 10W less then advertised, very close IMO.

I wonder if this has to do with the loads on the pump. According to MDM in their forum, if you dial back the output on one of their pumps, the pump uses less power. I imagine this would probably account for the difference.

Later,
Tyler

 

[LittleBlueGT]

The other thing to note is that the electricty here gets CHEAPER as you use more, not more expensive like in some places.

Tyler

It starts at 5.7 then goes to 5.4 plus taxes.