450 Gallon Peninsula Display

Not much new happening on my tank. I did shorten most of the closed loop return lines but they still need some more adjusting. My nitrates are still holding steady at 7 even though the denitrator is producing 0 ppm nitrate water. I am not happy with my sand anymore. It constantly has some slime algae on it even though the rest of the tank is clean. I can rake the top layer of sand daily but it still seems to thrive. I stopped racking for now and will resort to vacuuming the sand biweekly. The next time I vacuum and have nice looking sand I will post some update pictures.
 
Thanks jwedehase..

Our electricity rates are expected to climb in a year or two when the deregulation goes through. It’s a shame when our local electrical companies are having record breaking profits they still want to raise the rates. It would be nice if one day that average American wouldn’t be stepped on by big business and our government.

Solar panels would be great but I don’t have that much extra cash lying around. I should still look into it maybe the costs have come down.
 
"It would be nice if one day that average American wouldn’t be stepped on by big business and our government. "

Preach brother!


Amazing tank. Love the tang pair.
 
Just to qualify, that's also the Tier 3 rate, which everyone with a reef tank hits. To stay in base rate costs ($.12/KwH) is impossible, at something like 300 total KwH for the whole month. My house is extremely well insulated (it's new), small (1300sq/ft), and when it was just me and my wife, we still shot way past base rate, even when we were almost never home.

Many of our local club members are used to seeing $400-700 month to the power company. One of them once saw $1100 for one month! On my sumpless/chillerless 38g during the summer, I once saw $250. The new 120g hasn't seen summer yet.

And sorry for the hijack, mcrist. :)
 
I don't mine the hijack, makes me feel good on what I am paying for electricity. It sucks when you see the charts the power company has showing and average house and your house is way in the red.
 
I checked their prices and at todayââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s electricity costs it would take 5 years to break even. That doesn't include any installation costs and assuming I get the rated peak power from the panels. I don't know enough about solar energy but generally anytime I see peak anything you are usually lucky if you get half the stated value. If I go with the logic it will take 10 years to break even. Way to expensive yet, the price of electricity would need to triple before I would consider it.

Thanks for the info...
 
I thought it was in this thread, but I can't find it. However, SOMEWHERE very recently, I read about someone who wasn't using batteries. During the day, when he was producing more power than he could use, his meter ran backwards. During the night, he pulled power off the grid. In the end, it was almost a zero net difference, and his power bill was literally $1/month, or so. The power company would "credit" his over production during the day when it fed back into the grid.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11526548#post11526548 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mcrist
I checked their prices and at todayââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s electricity costs it would take 5 years to break even. That doesn't include any installation costs and assuming I get the rated peak power from the panels. I don't know enough about solar energy but generally anytime I see peak anything you are usually lucky if you get half the stated value. If I go with the logic it will take 10 years to break even. Way to expensive yet, the price of electricity would need to triple before I would consider it.

Thanks for the info...
Click to expand...

I just did some rapid calcs of my so cal edison bill. winter month = 19.23 cents/kWh (13 dec 2007) 1040 kWh $200.08
and high month = 26.65 cents/kWh (july 14, 2006) 2682 kWh/$714.82.

you may want to check the link and your state rebates to see if it may help you. this week i'll be starting the refi process and one of the main purposes is to pull $$ out to do solar.

http://www.dsireusa.org/index.cfm?EE=0&RE=1
this may help you find those rebates. also check with your local utility provider to see if they offer something.
 
Hey mcrist,

I am designing a similar tank to yours and was hoping to get some input from you. I based a lot of my tank design on yours. I am really focusing on the plumbing right now and getting the tank drilled etc... Would you change anything about the plumbing (overflows, standpipes, etc...)? I'm considering changing my setup from an overflow with bottom drilled standpipes to a slimmer overflow with back drilled pipes. My biggest issue is the overflow box sitting out 6 inches in to the tank. I do plan to cover this area with cabinetry but I'm still not crazy about the idea. If your curious what my design looks like please click on my red house.

Thanks,
Opah!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11731057#post11731057 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Opah
Hey mcrist,

I am designing a similar tank to yours and was hoping to get some input from you. I based a lot of my tank design on yours. I am really focusing on the plumbing right now and getting the tank drilled etc... Would you change anything about the plumbing (overflows, standpipes, etc...)? I'm considering changing my setup from an overflow with bottom drilled standpipes to a slimmer overflow with back drilled pipes. My biggest issue is the overflow box sitting out 6 inches in to the tank. I do plan to cover this area with cabinetry but I'm still not crazy about the idea. If your curious what my design looks like please click on my red house.

Thanks,
Opah!
Click to expand...
I love having an external overflow so I wouldn’t change that but I probably would reduce the depth and width of the overflow box. I ordered one CJStandPipe to see how I like it but if they work out I could have definitely made my overflow box smaller.

I am not 100 percent sure how much I like my closed loop system but only time will tell on that one.
 
Updated photos from this past weekend.

2008-02-04_19-19-47.jpg


2008-02-04_19-33-06.jpg


2008-02-04_19-21-11.jpg


2008-02-04_19-32-17.jpg
 
great shots, i seen you lowered the loc line. i had to removed the wide spread pcs on mine since the sand was blowing all over the place.
 
:D sorry, no for real at one point i was bout to give it all up and then my wife told me, you never give up that easy why start now. then there was light
 
When my 90 gallon leaked and I lost everything I almost gave up too. My wife told me to suck it up, so I went bigger. I guess I showed her.
 
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