Do you know how much it costs/month to run your tank?

The Kill a Watt electricity meter can measure usage of any equipment connected to it. Not only will give you usage in watts but also the cost of running the equipment per hour, day, week and annually. It cost me $40. I always wanted to know the power cost of my 125 gallon reef tank and this was the correct tool to do it.

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/5638/2009090511s.jpg

Here is how I determined thecost to run my tank.

First step is to plug the meter to the electric outlet. Once connected, it will give you the voltage which was close to 120 volts.

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/8538/2009090516s.jpg

Next step was to review my electric power bill which gives me the monthly kilowatt cost for the last year. The average of the last 12 months was 19c. Electricity cost in Puerto Rico is a little higher that in continental US. Then the cost was entered in the meter in order to obtain the correct measurement.

I started to connect all my tank equipment one by one to measure the annual power cost. Equipments that run 24/7 were easy to determine. For the lights an estimate was determined based on the time they are on. The must difficult was the chiller. The on-off cycle is different during the year depending on the season. My chiller is off for around four months from November to February. I estimated that 10% of the time the chiller was on on the average for my computation.

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/4192/2009090531s.jpg

These are the results of the estimated annual power cost for each equipment in my 125 gallon reef tank.

Power heads Koralia #1 - $9.98 X 2 = $19.96
Power head Koralia #2 - $18.30
Little Giant 4MDQ-SC 810 GPH pump - $144.00
Aquaclear 402 PH sump (backup UPS) - $14.97
Power head Maxijet behind the rock structure - $20.80 X 2 = $41.60
Sicce pump skimmer SWC Xtreme 200 - $39.94
Pump calcium reactor Ecoplus - $38.28
Metal halide 2 175w (8 hours) - $213.00
VHO 2 160w (10 hours) - $157.00
Fans for the Light fixture - $31.62 x 2 = $63.24
Light for mangroves - spiral fluorescent, 26w/100w 5K Satco (24h) - $39.94
Light chaeto algae - ecosmart 75w (24h) - $28.29
Chiller Current USA Tower 1/4hp - $44.90
Other miscellaneous equipments like the moonlights and Co2 tank solenoid were not measured.

The total annual cost to run my tank was $863.42, including other miscellaneous equipments is more or less $875.00. That is $72.92 monthly or $2.40 daily.

That is a little more than what I expected. Very interesting tool for those that want to know their tank power cost. It can also be used for any kind of appliance

Using a big pump to push water from a basement sump to a display tank on the main floor can run from $50 to $100 per month! A pair of 250w halides will run $30 to $40 per month. Add actinics, heaters, skimmers, and other devises and tanks can really pull wattage.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Manoj's Reef

My next big investment will be lights. Not sure which one to buy....

---

Swing by and you'll see the AI's in action.You'll have your mind made up easy peasy lol

Holy Cow!!!

I have 5 freswater tanks and I'm getting ready to start a 28 gal. reef. Without the reef I'm spending $132/month. I gotta figure out a way to cut back!!!