My new nano!

I wish my electric bill was 150......Last month I was at 525. I am now on a monthly budget of 350. That is just electric my gas is seperate. I am running a 180 FOWLR and a 75 gallon reef. The 180 only has 4 - 72" VHO's and the 75 has 2 - 250 watt halides and 2 - t-5's. Not sure how the person only pay's 150......Maybe he turns his electric meter upside down for half the month. Or his residence is the size of a shoe box.
 
That will be a fine tank project someday, DPS. nice find. that pump is way oversized for the tank needs unless you plan to have the sump in the basement and the tank on the second floor. the 2000 gph is about right. 5 times and hour turnover would be 1800 gph. so if you set it up with an undertank sump, you could doo just about as good with a pair of Quiet one 4000 submersible pumps in the sump. only 50 watts each and at 4-5 foot head might delliver 750 gph each. with a real good trickle filter that should be just fine to keep the water safe and clean. 100 watts per hour would cost you 72 kilowatt hours a month or at 15 cents a kwhr about $10.80 a month to run. that would be pretty low for a tank that size. and since its FOWLR lighting would be minimal.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11257045#post11257045 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DamnPepShrimp
Nah, not RBU1's tank. It was for sale on the NJ boards, but the guy lived in philly. The tank came with most of the plumbing, stand, a beefy emperor aquatics skimmer, and a practically new Iwaki MD-100RTL pump. I am going to redo the plumbing and stand to my needs. I won't be able to set it up until I buy a house or have a permenant location. I am just keeping it in my parents garage for now until I can finish college or buy a house etc. So I will have plenty of time to save up for everything I need for this beast. I've been doing some research, I don't see the electric bill being that high, it isn't going to be a reef. There are several people who have low electric bills with bigger FOWLRs. RBU1, did you have two 300g tanks? Is yours setup yet? Details?
Click to expand...

i could hold on to that tank for ya in my basement ;) ;) ;)
 
Ken, thanks for the helpful post, I was hoping someone would chime in with some $$ figures! I think I am going to get the ocean runner 6500 pump. Run it externally, it puts out almost 1700gph, and only uses 115w. So it wouldn't be much to run, add the skimmer, lights, heater and powerheads and I am looking at not even $30 a month for the tank, sounds good to me! I don't know if the quiet one pumps will be enough, because the tank on the stand is 6ft tall. I'd rather just stick with one pump, should work out good. Now I just need to figure out whats up with that skimmer!

tankpred, you gotta get that 180 to saltwater first! Are you setting that up as a FOWLR?
 
ocean runner sounds like a good pump too. but it will only put about 1200-1300 gph to the tank, i think. its the head loss from a 6 foot rise to the tank top. but, should be fine for a fish only.

for the quietone 4000 at 6 foot i would adjust that flow down to about 600 gph per pump. either pump would be ok for a pair of 600 gph overflows.

or move up to a quietone 9000, which should deliver an honest 1800 gph at 6 foot head to your tank for 145 watts per hour.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/add_info.cfm?pCatId=9849

you have to adjust down the nominal flow for the height you are pumping to. it takes more work.
 
I think the ocean runner will work the best. The quietone 9000 is a bit too much, and I only want to run one pump. Are the quietone's external? The ocean runner should put out about 1200gph to the tank, good enough for me. The korilia's will make up for the rest. I don't want a lot of flow through the sump, actually heard that is bad. I need my skimmer to keep up. Well I need to start saving! Maybe someday this thing will be up, well see. Thanks for all the help and input everyone.
 
Speaking of electrical usage... I was listening to an older podcast of the talking reef, and a guy on there went all around his house with a Kill a Watt electric usage meter to see what electricity he, and his tank were ACTUALLY using. I dont remember all of the specifics, but i do remember he said JUST his laptop ran over 30 dollars a month. i dont have any specifics on what exact laptop he was using or how old it was, but using a pump, and all those T5's even with a FOWLR has to be more than 30 bucks a month.


Just thinking out loud..
 
No way, at my apartment, my roommate runs his laptop, my computer, all the TV, lights, etc and a 75g reef tank and my electric bill is about $70 a month, its been as low as $55. Now I know the tank will take up more energy then my 75, maybe double. The pump is 115w, with 2-4 powerheads, heater, and two NO T5s, shouldn't be much more though, I think around 30-40 bucks is a fair guess. Maybe his meter was off or did a calculation wrong, no way could a laptop run over 30 bucks! Just hard to believe, not flaming, just want to get the facts. Anyone else have any input on this? Thanks.
 
Either way, that thing is going to be awesome after its set up. Do you have ANY time frame when its gonna be up and running?
 
Well its at my parents house now, I'm still in college. I'd have to buy a house to put it in, since I move around a lot with school. I'm going to try and convince my rents to let me set the tank up, very doubtful. You think it would crush a hardwood floor? Half the basement is finished, with one side being concrete, the other some easy lock together hardwood flooring. Who knows tho, could be sometime next year (spring/summer) or if I have to wait to buy a house, it'll be a couple years. Needless to say, I'll decide what house to buy, by where the fish tank will go. If the house can't fit the tank, I'm not buying it! I'd still like to get to the bottom of the whole electrical situation. Anyone have any ideas on that?
 
its easy to add up your power consumption. every pump or transformer tells you how many watts it uses. and you know how many hours a day they will run, either continuously for pumps, or 8-12 hours a day for lights. a little simpe math will add up how many watt hours you burn in a day, divide by 1000 to kilowatt hours and multply by 30 days a month and you have the monthly KWHRS. the only wild card is the heater. but i dont use mine in summer, fall and spring. just winter. and they are not on all the time. so .. make a guess and add that in too. then multiply by 15 cents a KWHR for delmarva summer rates, or 12.2 cents/KWHR for winter rates and see what it costs.

sump pumps, big skimmer pumps and lights are the biggest offenders. Its a good exercise to do as we plan out our tanks. cut costs and the green house gases produced to generate the electricity.

you would be amazed at how many TONS of CO2 are produced to run our tanks. So an efficient tank is a better tank.
 
When exactly does the price change occur? All I know for equipment wise is that I will be getting the ocean runner 6500 pump, which uses approx 115w, is that an hour? I will probably have 4 korilia 4 powerheads (8.5w each), NO T5 lights 2-4 (56w each), don't know how much a heater uses, also I can't decide on a skimmer. So adding all that up, estimating on the skimmer and heater, lets say 350-475w, is that per hour? If it's by hour, say lights on 12 hrs, same with heater, so thats under 250w, just going on the high side, the other 225 is coming from the skimmer and pump, so lets say 250w 12hrs a day and 250w 24hrs a day, so doing the math for a month, it should be no more then $40.50 a month, and that is on the high side in the summer time prices. Easily affordable.
 
yeah the watts on the equipment are per hour. sounds about right. my multiple tanks use about $90 a month. Im still thinning down.

the rate just changed for october to th winter rate. summer is something like june thru sept. at the higher rate. peak colling season.
 
Sounds good, I can live with $40 a month then. I need to get this setup soon, I think I might have a 6" passer angel coming home tomorrow! Anyone wanna buy a RR 75g? Comes with plumbing and homemade stand, $100?
 
Well I did things *** backwards, I got one of the fish I wanted to get last and smallest, I got big and first! I couldn't pass up the deal though, here he is, the king of angelfish!

photo-13.jpg

photo-12.jpg

photo-11.jpg
 
Yeah, he's an awesome fish, but I am scared to put anything else in the tank with him! It feels great to have another large angel back in my tank again, it's been way too long! I'd like to get a queen and emperor, but with the "king" of all angels in there, I don't know how it's going to work out.
 
Have to re list the pics of the passer, I was messing around and using them for my avatar.

photo-19.jpg

photo-18.jpg


Anyone have any ideas for tank mates?
 
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