Any ideas on how to save energy on a reef tank system.

[maroun.c]

What I could never really understand in DIY (and even in ready made) LED fixtures is how people used to blame a small shift in the color of a MH or T5 bulb to cause HA or Cyano or browning of coral colors, only to start using lights that were not made for tanks to start with. Yes they don't shift colours but are they really the spectrum we need/want? The bluies are definilty nicer looking than any 20K halide can get but I'm more worried about the whites???
Another thing about comparing savings on chilling is to take into considerations where people are located. While for some cooling a tank is the main expense for others heating it or the house is the most expensive part? so it's not always true that the reduced heatload of LED means any savings.
Anotehr thing I consider each time I look at an LED lit tank is color rendition. the worst between MH T5 and LED is showing off the true color are the LEDs and the technology is still making huge jumps before it is considered as the method of choice for tanklighting.
A fixture that costs you 7-800 today is worht less than half after few months or weeks while MH or T5 are holding their price.
Would love to see a fair comparision for LEDs and MH like running two connected tanks one with LEDs and another with MH and get a clear comparison of growth and coloration under both?
Add to that most of us are not willing nor are they knowledgeable enough to DIY LEDs.
another variable is tank width, where some tanks like my 34" (front to back) deep tank will require LED fixtures in twos or positions from front to back for optimal coverage leading to 6 fixtures to give you good coverage of what 3 halides can give. Bulbs will cost you in yearly replacement but loosing a driver or other part of an LED fixture will be more expensive tro replace than those as you're counting on those to go unchanged for 2-3 years for a ROI...

 

[fauxjargon]

Nice tank!

On the purely speculative side, what if you obtained pieces of the low E glass used in energy efficient windows and filtered your MH through that? It blocks radiation just below the visible spectrum, AKA radiant heat. Your MHs as well as every other hot surface in your canopy throw off tons of radiant heat, which does your tank absolutely no good.

If the radiant heat instead heated up a pane of glass then the fans moving air in and out of the canopy would have the opportunity to extract that heat rather than it hitting the water and ending up heating the water that way.

Also, you could consider only running your skimmer intermittently. Such an approach would definitely save energy and will not necessarily cause problems. Just be careful with it.

 

[nuclearheli]

What I could never really understand in DIY (and even in ready made) LED fixtures is how people used to blame a small shift in the color of a MH or T5 bulb to cause HA or Cyano or browning of coral colors, only to start using lights that were not made for tanks to start with. Yes they don't shift colours but are they really the spectrum we need/want? The bluies are definilty nicer looking than any 20K halide can get but I'm more worried about the whites???
Another thing about comparing savings on chilling is to take into considerations where people are located. While for some cooling a tank is the main expense for others heating it or the house is the most expensive part? so it's not always true that the reduced heatload of LED means any savings.
Anotehr thing I consider each time I look at an LED lit tank is color rendition. the worst between MH T5 and LED is showing off the true color are the LEDs and the technology is still making huge jumps before it is considered as the method of choice for tanklighting.
A fixture that costs you 7-800 today is worht less than half after few months or weeks while MH or T5 are holding their price.
Would love to see a fair comparision for LEDs and MH like running two connected tanks one with LEDs and another with MH and get a clear comparison of growth and coloration under both?
Add to that most of us are not willing nor are they knowledgeable enough to DIY LEDs.
another variable is tank width, where some tanks like my 34" (front to back) deep tank will require LED fixtures in twos or positions from front to back for optimal coverage leading to 6 fixtures to give you good coverage of what 3 halides can give. Bulbs will cost you in yearly replacement but loosing a driver or other part of an LED fixture will be more expensive tro replace than those as you're counting on those to go unchanged for 2-3 years for a ROI...

Ok, I guess I can qualify to comment on that. I ran a 90 Gallon 48" tank up to this past March. I now run a 210 Gallon 72" tank.

The 90 Gallon tank had an IceCap fixture, two 250w MH, two t5's and two LED moonlights.

The 210 Gallon tank has a 72" DIY LED fixture with 160 LED's, in a 50/50 ratio of royal blue and cool white. My DIY build is here: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1975251

First the 90 Gallon Tank: My MH were 15k. I kept SPS and LPS successfully. My lighting cycle was dawn to dusk, my MH's came on around 9:00 and went off at 2000.

The 210. My LED's are powered by two high voltage LED drivers (against the norm of course). The system is managed by my apex controller so my blue's come on at sunrise according to the apex table for sunrise and go off at 11:00PM. My whites come on one hour after sunrise, ramp up along with the blues to high noon, then ramp down to sunset. I also run an Apex moonlight assembly in my light.

Lighting Observations: My 210 has a nicer light quality and look based on the LED's. I can manage the intensity of the blues and whites to get almost any look I want. Plus the shimmer is back in the water which is very attractive. The 90 had one setting on the lights. Full on or full off. Not natural by any sense of the word. Could not even attempt to imitate the natural sun cycle.

Power consumption. I will let the following graph speak for itself. Remember the difference in the tank sizes, I am lighting a 210 vs. a 90 and take a look at the power consumption difference.

The left scale is amps and the blue line is my IceCap fixture, red is the LED fixture. Both tanks were running for almost 2 months. That's some cost savings right there.

Cooling: I have a chiller. On my 90 gallon chiller it ran approximately 7 to 8 hours/day on a 12 hour lighting cycle. The MH were very hot, there is no disputing that. There is no heat from the LED's and my chiller runs on the average of 30 to 90 minutes a day when it's very hot outside and the AC is no on in the house. Chilling is not even an issue.

Replacements: I had the 90 gallon tank running for 1 year. I replaced 5 T5's and 3 MH's. Can't compare to the LED yet because its only been running since March but have not replaced any yet. Even if I have to they are about $6 each compared to about $100 on the MH.

Cost: I paid a bit over $1,000 for the fixture. My DIY build for my 210 was twice that but if I were to do a DIY for the 90 it probably would cost half that of the IceCap.

Ability: My son who doesn't have the room in his apartment to do a DIY purchased a beautiful fixture for $485. Controls cycles and is programmable. He decided on LED's because of the cost to run, maintain, and cool his 40 gallon cube. He doesn't have a chiller and so far has not needed one.

Reliabliity: My LED drivers have a 400,000 hour MTBF and are built for external use. Aside from the drivers, there is nothing likely to go wrong. I have already changed a ballast and two fans in my IceCap inside of one year.

Stock and Corals: No change that I can really see. My SPS are doing fine an so are my fish and other corals. If there is a difference, I can't tell.

Although it may seem I am bias really I am not. I loved the IceCap fixture when I purchased it and it was beautiful on the tank. But now I believe the LED's have saved me money, continue to save me money monthly, and really look beautiful.

Conventional lighting or LED's to each his own.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

My one question for you on the electric bill is this, is the total cost of all electric used just .10 per Kwh? Or do you have a tier level where the first tier is .10 per Kwh and as you go up in tiers, it's up to aorund .25 per Kwh in tier 5?

If so then you are not paying the .10 per Kwh to run your lights as sugested, but more like the .25 per Kwh in the upper tier which is where you would be lowering your bill.

I just recently replaced my 2 X 400 DE Mh lights with Solar tubes to light the tank. I got my bill yesterday and it has alreadyd ropped by $20 for just a little over a weeks usage. So at a full 30 days of no lights, I'm looking at a $50 savings per month. By changing my skimmer and pumps, I'm looking at knocking another 75 dollars or so off my bill which will get me down below 200 a month, closer to 150.

 

[A Reef Scene]

Put up a small wind turbine some, can generate up to 400 kilowatts a month.

 

[maroun.c]

Thanks for the detailed reply.
one last question,
how about the increased cost of the heaters running in colder days? Would't that offset the savings your making in the hot season and make it take much longer to break even on the cost of the investment one will make.
Not arguing for the sake of argument but I'm also upgrading to a 390G tank and have been thinking about trying to bring electrical costs as low as possible.

 

[reefslugs]

Well a freind of mine let me use a 250 MH set up. That's not going to work. Not enough light in my opinion and if I was to add a third bulb. I would be almost useing the same energy as sticking with the 400's. Plus I would have another bulb to buy every year. Think I'm going to ditch the T5's and just run the to 400's. I need to find a good reflector that fits in my canapy. I have the mini Lumenmax Elite's and I don't like them. They give off the spot light effect. Anyone know of a good reflector?

 

[dlp211]

Thanks for the detailed reply.
one last question,
how about the increased cost of the heaters running in colder days? Would't that offset the savings your making in the hot season and make it take much longer to break even on the cost of the investment one will make.
Not arguing for the sake of argument but I'm also upgrading to a 390G tank and have been thinking about trying to bring electrical costs as low as possible.

MH as well as any type of lighting is a poor way to make heat. I keep seeing this pop up as a reason to use MH. Some people say well it keeps my room and water warm in the winter.

Well guess what, your tank heaters and your house heaters should be more efficient at creating heat. There are probably a few exceptions where you have a ridiculously old way of heating your house where my statement doesn't hold true, but I would say that for most people it does.

And if you think LEDs are a fad, well that is fine, I can tell you that they aren't, they are here for the long haul. But even if they were, you'd still get 10 years or more out of them. If you plan on having your tank for more then a minute then they make sense.

As someone who is building his own, I can say that I had to buy almost everything and I got my 108 LED build in around 1100 and I spent 110 on the soldering iron alone. If you shop around, you can find some really good deals on LEDs.