Funny, I was thinking of starting a thread just like this, as I
have recently been through this very exercise with my
180 gallon reef.
I was actually thinking of shutting it down, or maybe converting
it to a guppy tank :eek2: , because given a recent job loss in
our household I didn't see how I could justify jacking up the
electric bill an extra ~$100 / month.
Here are my suggestions:
1 - Lighting: I replaced my hot running MH spotlights and VHO
actinics with 4, 39W T5 HO lamps. This saved 534 W when
the lights were on. And before someone chimes in with that
useless rule of thumb to tell me that 156W of lighting divided
by 180 gal of tank is only 0.866 W/gal and you can't keep
corals with that, I say, tell that to my Crocea clams!
The trick is to also rearrange the live rock. My rock is piled up
in the center of the aquarium, to within 8" of the surface of the
water, directly under the fluorescent tubes. High light loving
corals go up top, and medium light tolerant corals go on the
sides. So, you can think of this tank as a 60 gallon reef tank,
surrounded by two 60 gallon fish-only tanks on each side.
2 - Pumps: Try to get by with one, energy efficient, main pump.
Pumps run 24x7. so they can really add up (return pump, skimmer
pump, pump for the refugium, etc.). I had one of the original
ETS downdraft skimmers from the late 80's. It was 6 feet tall,
and required a powerful, high flow, high pressure pump to
operate. I was driving it with a 390W Blueline HD70 pump.
I ditched the skimmer and bought a Bermuda Aquatics 5C, which
needs a high flow but not high pressure pump. What I did was
raise it up so the skimmer drains directly back into the
display tank (through a filter sock to keep the bubbles
out).
So now I have just one, less than 100W pump. My tank drains
to the sump, and the pump pumps water up to a 'Y'. Most of
the water continues up to the skimmer and then to the main
tank. A small amount of water (100 - 200 gph) takes the other
path to the refugium, and the 'fuge drains back to the sump.
3 - Chiller: Follow 1 and 2, and you'll find your chiller comes on
a lot less frequently. My tank is in a finished basement, and the
chiller rarely comes on now. I may try removing it.
4 - Power Heads: Ditch the multiple, traditional power heads
for water circulation and go with a smaller number of propeller
pumps. The Koralia 4's are only like 11W each.
That's all I can think of right now. By making these changes I was
able to save ~$75 - $80 off the monthly electric bill while still
being able to stay in the hobby.
Hope this helps.
