"Must Save"

[clown2be]

I need to balance electricity and corals.

I set up my new tank after a few years running a softie and LPS tank. With my new tank I went 90% SPS and bought everything you see listed in my "tank discription" over board and I must say my SPS could not be happier with color, polyp ext, and growth. I will post YTD photos soon. Here are old photos from months ago and the tank has taken off since. My goal was to have a full blown SPS tank with growth to the water line . I'm running into a est increase of elect bill of 300.00+ a month. My wife and I make good money but this is to much to swallow. I know I can cut back some where to save on my elect bill because Iwill need to retire someday.

Here is what I did tonight.

Cut 400W 20k mini pend lights to 4 hours from 7 hours.

Cut VHO lighting from 4 hours to 3

Cut 250W sump light from 12 hours to 3 hours.

Cut off my second hammerhead pump that ran 2nd closed loop and turned of its 4 way ocean motion.

Drained 240g sump to 1/4 volume to decrease calicum growth and other things.

Cut off my mag 36 pump return pump so I'm only running a mag 24 as return for a 225g.

Raised Chiller to 81.5 so does not come on as much

Turned fans for lighting down too.

I know I'm going to lose some color,polyp ext, and growth from all of this, but i'm In this for the long hall.

Any input would be nice, like penductor's and smaller pump + a ball valve current device I have heard about. I can't use penductor with a Oceanmotion.

 

[clown2be]

Back side

Left side

 

[ReeferMonkey]

Uh, what do you have on your sump that necessitates a 250W halide?? If you're running a fuge you could easily get by on a lower wattage shop light or PC rig.

For water movement, I would look into Streams - high flow, low W consumption. The chiller will probably come on less anyway as you'll have less lighting heating up the tank.

I would be particularly nervous about making all these drastic changes to the tank at one time - it's asking for trouble IMO. Nice tank BTW.

 

[gil716]

if you have a programmable controller, try using a fan for evaporative cooling before the chiller kicks in.

ditto on the streams.

 

[SunnyX]

SUMP:

As stated above, you really dont need a 250W MH for your sump, it is more then excessive. I use a 14W compact fluorescent screw in that I purchased from Home Depot for my Sump/Refugium.

Lighting:

What are the measurements of your tank?
I see you run 3x400W MH, which is also excessive.
I used to run 3x250W MH in Reef Optix III reflectors months ago, I now run 2x250 MH in Lumenarc III reflectors and its more then enough, and this is on my 225gl tank. It cut down big time on heat.
No chiller here

WATER MOTION:

The Hammerhead pumps really eat up alot of power. On my tank I use a DART for my return pump, along with a Tunze Stream 6100 and a Seio 1500. It doesn't seem like much but It gets the job done.

Too many reefers are excessive in their equipment. Most tanks out there could go with half of the equipment and still get by. I like to keep things as simple as possible.

 

[REEF-DADDY]

I would lose those mag pumps altogether. They love the juice. Get a nice Dart, around 3600 gpd and 180 watts for like 219. Sell both Mags and you'll be money ahead.

 

[us2000ua]

There is new Tunze Master Electric Recirculation Pump 1073.090 .
Take a look, Energy Consumption: 130W:

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=TZ1731

 

[mikekman]

Like some guys said above, take out the 250w Halide on the fuge and put in some fluroescents or small wattage PC lights. That will cut costs down.

-At night open all the windows in your house. That will naturally cool down your tank very well so your chiller won't have to be on all night, etc.

-Since your MH light regiment has gone from 4 hrs instead of 7, why not have your lights on lets say at 6 am-10 am and then it shuts off. Early morning=still cool. You might not even need the chiller running too much if you have your lights on early before the heat sets in.

 

[RichConley]

You guys are missing something here.

Hes cutting lights, which is only a small drop. LOOK AT THE PUMPS.

2x hammerhead @350w each =700w
mag36 @ 360w
mag24 @ 265w

1325w constant @17c/kw = $165 a month.

250wMH @ 275w @12 hours
2x400wMH@425w*2 @ 7 hours =850 @ 7 hours
=277.5kwh@.17=47.50.

So your pumps are costing you $165 a month, your lights are costing $48. The lighting cuts you made probably saved you $10 a month.

This is exactly why no one should be using large MagDrive pumps.

Get rid of all the pumps, get a half decent return pump (1000gph is fine for a 225) and get some Tunzes or something.\

The lights are not even an issue.



Those pumps are also dumping probably 1000w of heating into your tank at all points. SO you're using 1350w of energy to drive the pumps, and probably 1000w+ on the chiller to take it out.

 

[RichConley]

Dont worry about the 250w halide in the sump. We're talking like $8 a month here if you replace it with a 15w bulb.

 

[ReeferMonkey]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7376818#post7376818 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RichConley
**RIDICULOUS COST OF PUMPS**

The lights are not even an issue.



Those pumps are also dumping probably 1000w of heating into your tank at all points. SO you're using 1350w of energy to drive the pumps, and probably 1000w+ on the chiller to take it out.

Very good post. It makes me feel a lot better about running an Eheim 1262 and eventually some Tunzes on my 36Lx24Wx18H 60g ish tank I'm working on. Maybe I can justify a 400W Radium that way Or maybe not...

 

[RichConley]

Everyone screams OMG, METAL HALIDE ENERGY CONSUMPTION all the time.

430w(HQI)*(8hrs/day)*(30day/month)*(1kw/1000w)=103.2kwh * (.10/kwh to .20/kwh)= $10.30 to $20.60 a month.

A 250 is a little more than half that.

A 250w pump cost 3x as much as a 250w light to run. Why? Because it runs for 24hrs, vs 8.

 

[mntl]

As said above:

streams for flow

luminarc or equivalent reflecters with 250's or 2x400w with the luminarcs.

Ditch the MH over the sump and the massive return pumps, all that would be needed at this point is a sump return (which does not require much).

Nice 4" ball bearing fans like the icecaps are only 12watts or so and a few (couple) of them blowing across the top of the tank will drop the heat alot.

Upfront this is alot, but after selling some of the old equipement or trading and the massive reduction in electric bill, this will save you a ton within a few months.

 

[RichConley]

is the 250w on a sump, or fuge?

 

[us2000ua]

I think best way for your tank is to use low consumption circulation pump, just enough to bring right volume of water to sump for skimmer. And use 2-4 streams, each use only 45W. I have power backup system attached to two streams, when power goes down I have those two 90W running for long time. We put too much money to our tanks to loose it one day. Then again, you have to deal with heat. You can try to shift your MH time to late evening. SPS need only 3-5 hours of MH. And about fans. I have four Orion fans (very quiet) in my hood, they are 6W each.

 

[REEF-DADDY]

Guys also keep in mind that spending $600 to save $20 per month does not make sense.

Rich- You said it best, the pumps are the costs here.

 

[clown2be]

Thanks for all the feed back guys, I'm at work , working hard right now to pay that electric bill. I will reply to posts this evening.

 

[clown2be]

Reefmonkey- I only have macro in my sump/fuge, but my orig plans were to use it as a grow out tank for SPS frag sales. I'm aware I will lose some color, polyp ext, and growth with these changes all at once. Thanks for you compliment.

 

[clown2be]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7375929#post7375929 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gil716
if you have a programmable controller, try using a fan for evaporative cooling before the chiller kicks in.

ditto on the streams.

I do use a big house fan blowing across the top of the tank.

 

[clown2be]

Sunnyx-I do have a 13w PC unit that I will change over to for my sump. Good idea

The tank measures at 72x30x24 LxWxH. Changing my 400w's to 250w would be to expensive. I'm hoping running 400w at lower hours will do somewhat the same as 250w for longer hours.

I know my pumps are the biggest problem. I want to run penductors , and in order to do this I can't use my OM unit. I read somewhere about someone using some type of ball valve to swith current instead of using OM, controller, or SCWD's.

Do you know what I'm talking about?