Monthly cost

[jciotti]

I was just wondering what majority of the SPS keepers on this forum pay out monthly in tank expenses.

Include to your best estimate electricity, supplies including salt, Ca media blah blah blah and what not. And give your tank size what equipment your using for circulation and lighting heating and chilling.

Im in hopes that this might help some people gauge what they are going to be spending monthly after initial setup costs..

Thanks
John

 

[organism]

depends on how big the tank is, but by far the largest costs are going to be lighting and, if necessary, cooling

 

[KIDiCARUS]

check this out :thumbsup:

 

[Ti]

skimmer and return pumps can be a major cost factor if they are wattage hungry pumps that run 24hrs a day.

 

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7752773#post7752773 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by organism
depends on how big the tank is, but by far the largest costs are going to be lighting and, if necessary, cooling

Completely not true. Pumps cost much more to run than lights.

 

[RichConley]

250w HQI mh pendant
300w*8hrs*30days*.17/kwh = $12.24 /month

Return pump
100w * 24hrs *30 days *.17/kwh =$12.24/month

 

[jciotti]

RichConley thank you this is somewhat the type of response I am looking for.

I already know its going to very greatley depending on tank size and lighting. I am looking for comparison and what not.

Please include tank size and lighting types of pumps and filtraion. I belive we can setup much more cost effective aquariums then we have. I want to know what people spend on there aquariums alltogether monthly..

 

[RichConley]

T5s are a little bit of a cut in electricity, but the biggest place to save is on pumps.

You can run a tunze 6100, or a sequence dart closed loop. The tunze will save you $12-13 a month. Run a smaller return pump. I'm running a maxijet1200 for a return on my 58 now.

Cut wattage on pumps before you cut it on lights. Theres a much bigger payoff.

 

[zapata41]

well i'll be the first to answer the ?

tank specs:

180g , 40g sump, 90g frag tank
3 400w MH , 2 are 6hrs a day and 1 is 4hrs a day
two mak4 pumps running 24/7
skimmer is DIY NW with Hakko 60 air pump totaling 150w
Ca RX is 40w
misc maxi streams at 100w
heaters never run, thankfully, nor does a chiller, two colling fans do the trick wonderfuly at 40w
few other things here and there and the tank cost a little over 130$ a month to run

PG&E comes in just under 250$ a month though.

Tim

man it really sucks to write down all that crud and see where my hard earned moey really goes

 

[jda]

Good ways to save are by getting the color you want from the halide bulbs and skipping actinic VHO/T5/PCs.

Get a dual controller for a chiller and heater so that both aren't on at the same time.

Needlewheel skimmers pumps usually take less electricity than high-pressure beckett skimmer pumps.

Use gravity for multiple tanks. If you have a fuge, then drain the water into your fuge from your display... and so on.

Get a kill-a-watt meter for about $30-40 and see what your equipment is actually running. For me, the 2 ampmaster 3000 pumps that I have on CLs take 30% electricity than a sequence dart at the same GPH.

 

[RichConley]

One of the BEST ways to save electricity, is to not run closed loops.

From an economical stand point, you get MUCH better value from stream pumps (tunzes, maximods, seios) or surge devices, than you get from even the best (Sequence darts) closed loop pumps.

 

[murphreef]

i have a 180 and my electricicy is costing around 100-110 a month out here in southern california....

im only running 2-250WHQI PFO pendants and HQI ballast with phoenix 14k bulbs 8 hrs a day.... and another 260W of acitinics 10 hrs a day

i have a Sequence Dart on a CL with an MO 4 way, i have a seio 1500 and a seio 820, i have a pan world 100x-x as a return pump, i have a sedra 5000 on my asm-g4 skimmer, i have a rio hf4 to feed my calcium reactor and a mag 2 as the recirc pump, i have a 36w uv filter, i have a fluval 404 run my 1/2hp chiller, i have other small things like my solenoid my auto top off and so on but those dont take much.... if i did it over to save on electricity i woulda gone with some tunzees on a controller....

as far as feeding probably like $20 a month

i dont dose anything else but my CA reactor

salt is probably like $25 a month

misc.... such as new ro filters every 6-8 months... new lights every 8 months.... new test kits every couple of months .... and maintenance supplies etc....

if i averaged it out the cost of just keepin it up is probably about $200 a month

 

[Eric Boerner]

Stream pumps will cost you dearly upfront, but in the long haul, you'll get your money back in the amount of $ you'll save in electric.

For instance:

Stream 6000 - 15 Watt - 1800 GPH x 2 = $520 + $32/Year

Sequence 4300 - 253 Watt - est 1800 GPH on two sides = $330 + $260/Year

Over 4 years:
Stream 6000 cost = $640
Sequence cost = $1370

Huge difference

This logic can be applied to most reef equipment. The cost savings using Electronic ballasts vs Magnetic, two 100 watt heaters vs 1 250 watt, etc.

Purchasing low wattage, quality equipment may cost more upfront, but in the long haul, its more than worth it.

On 2 systems doing things the conventional and 'cheap way' I was spending well over $300 a month in electricity 2 years ago. This time I'm doing things right from the get go. 180 gallon, 2 streams, 2 400 watt electronic ballast (island aquascaping), 2 hyperflow sump pumps, 2 100 watt heaters staggered, 1 inline filter pump, calcium reactor pump, 25 watt CF bulb on the refugium, thats it. Total houshold electric is less than $120 a month. I figure less than $40 is from the tank.

 

[murphreef]

your lucky u live in a state that didnt rate hike ur electricity through the roof.... we are now stuck with all the excess charges that were signed into it by our previous governor during our so called rolling blackouts....

its all BS it was just a way for the electric companies out here mainly SO Cal Edison to make a grip of money

we have so many different rates out here from baseline to over baseline to really over baseline to stupidly overbaseline to winter charges to summer chares to delivery charges to miscellaneous charges....

lets just say my house is 1700sf i have my 180g tank im gone 10-12hours a day... ac is set at 79-80 and still my elec bill last month was $360!

can someone say im getting ripped off!

 

[ricks]

I just did some figures... And came out with about 500.00 a month. Or about 1.00 per gallon, sound about right?????

 

[REEF-DADDY]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7759477#post7759477 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ricks
I just did some figures... And came out with about 500.00 a month. Or about 1.00 per gallon, sound about right?????

sounds high

 

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7758710#post7758710 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Eric Boerner
Stream pumps will cost you dearly upfront, but in the long haul, you'll get your money back in the amount of $ you'll save in electric.

For instance:

Stream 6000 - 15 Watt - 1800 GPH x 2 = $520 + $32/Year

Sequence 4300 - 253 Watt - est 1800 GPH on two sides = $330 + $260/Year

Over 4 years:
Stream 6000 cost = $640
Sequence cost = $1370

Huge difference

While I completely agree with your point, the sequence Dart would be a better comparison. Theres no reason to use the much bigger 4300. Its a closed loop, you dont need the extra head height.
You're $.12 a kwh is really cheap, but the dart looks like this:
Sequence Dart - 140w - 1800gph *2 =$219 + $147/year
=$807.

The tunze actual cost is 761, because you need the controller, so total tunze cost is
=761+ 128 =$889, so slightly more expensive than running the Sequence dart, for the same flow. If you really want to save money, look at the non controllable tunzes.

$6060 = 2x11w - $270 initial + $23/year for a 4 year total of $362

or...

2 x maximod900 (1500gph @ 6w) $80 initial (as low as $40), $12 yearly, for a 4 year total of $128

Theres huge money to be saved in stream style pumps, but the controllable tunzes you're looking 5 years minimum for any real payback.

This logic can be applied to most reef equipment. The cost savings using Electronic ballasts vs Magnetic, two 100 watt heaters vs 1 250 watt, etc.

not true. your heaters run according to need. Having 1 500w heater on a tank that only needs a 100w will run the same amoutn of electricity (barring heater getting stuck).

Purchasing low wattage, quality equipment may cost more upfront, but in the long haul, its more than worth it.

On 2 systems doing things the conventional and 'cheap way' I was spending well over $300 a month in electricity 2 years ago. This time I'm doing things right from the get go. 180 gallon, 2 streams, 2 400 watt electronic ballast (island aquascaping), 2 hyperflow sump pumps, 2 100 watt heaters staggered, 1 inline filter pump, calcium reactor pump, 25 watt CF bulb on the refugium, thats it. Total houshold electric is less than $120 a month. I figure less than $40 is from the tank.

Its tough to really use youre numbers. Your electricity is REALLY cheap. (we pay twice what you do). My 2x250w electronics cost $30 a month to run total. 2x400 would cost me more than the $40 you have earmarked for your tank.

 

[Eric Boerner]

You dont 'need' a controller to run the Streams. That is added luxury. Unless you throw sea swirls on the output of your closed loop, you wont get turbulence from it. Putting SS on the close loop throws in extra cost and power on top of it.

I disagree about the heater. You can more effectly heat your tank on staggered smaller heaters in seperate locations of the tank. If you toss a 500 watt heater in your sump, you are drawing 500 watts continously until your sensor reads the full tank is at your desired heat. This might be in 5 to 30 minute 'bursts' of heating, depending on how cold your room is.

If you ran 2 250 watts at seperate ends of the tank (overflows), 1 set 1 degree higher than the other, your 'bursts' of heating will draw less power, since only one will kick on predominately. Yes you will have it on longer than a 500 watt, but the legnth of time theyre vs current drawn will be less since the tank will be heating more evenly, than a single spot.

And yeah MJ-900 mods are by far the cheapest, most energy efficient way to get flow through out a tank. Makes you wonder why the price of Tunze and the new Vortechs have gone up, rather than down to meet the 'competition' of the modders.

 

[Eric Boerner]

The added benefit of living in a cold climate is that our electricity is pretty cheap due to snow melt river flow. But on the flip side, natural gas to heat our houses is damn expensive in the winter (electric goes up too). Washington state is the 2nd lowest cost for power in the country. Think its .08 in summer, and .12 in the winter.

 

[marcrothschild]

I spend around 230.00 a month for my 100g SPS tank...this includes all costs averaged out over the year. My equipment is listed below.