Electricity Costs

Yikes. I it's costing me about 65.00 a month to run my aquariums. I have a
55 gallon tank, a 10 gallon turtle tank and a small 3 gallon acrylic tank.
Does anyone else have this problem? Apparently the tank heaters are very
costly to run. And I have 3.

That depends on many things. What the heaters are set to & what the ambient
temp of the room is. If it is the the heater will stay on longer. If it is a
problem find out what the low temp is for you fish & keep it near the low
rang. I also find the larger tanks are cheaper for this as they lose the
heat slower because of the large volume of water. Its prob. the smaller
tanks that are killing you. Also make sure that your canopy is well sealed
to keep the heat in. Also I find for larger tanks canister type heaters are
great because they actaully add some heat to the water from the pump so the
heater doesn't come on as often..... Another thing you could try is to add
more rocks to the tank as these will add more to the thermal mass of the
tank absorbing the heat during the day & releasing it at night so the heater
doesn't have to work as hard....

Just a few suggestions....


"FishNut" wrote in message
news
Yikes. I it's costing me about 65.00 a month to run my aquariums. I have
a
55 gallon tank, a 10 gallon turtle tank and a small 3 gallon acrylic tank.
Does anyone else have this problem? Apparently the tank heaters are very
costly to run. And I have 3.

Man i should read the post before I send it I meant canister type filters.
Sorry.

"Also I find for larger tanks canister type heaters are
great because they actaully add some heat to the water from the pump so
the
heater doesn't come on as often"

"CanadianCray" wrote in message
...
| Man i should read the post before I send it I meant canister type
filters.
| Sorry.
|


Oddly enough, I was confused by your second post since my mind read
"filters". Funny

That sounds a little bit expensive to me!
I would assume that it might cost you $10/month at the absolute most
even if the heaters ran constantly.


R.
http://members.rogers.com/miniks/aquarist.html


On Sun, 21 Mar 2004 15:53:56 GMT, "FishNut" wrote:

Yikes. I it's costing me about 65.00 a month to run my aquariums. I have a
55 gallon tank, a 10 gallon turtle tank and a small 3 gallon acrylic tank.
Does anyone else have this problem? Apparently the tank heaters are very
costly to run. And I have 3.

"Ryan Minaker" wrote in message
...
| That sounds a little bit expensive to me!
| I would assume that it might cost you $10/month at the absolute
most
| even if the heaters ran constantly.
|


I agree. I have 6 tanks, and at best guess, my power bill is only 15
bucks a month more than before I had them. The OP needs to check his
water heater, if one of the elements burns out, it will continue to
make hot water, but the burned out one will be constantly shorting,
running up the power bill. I've had this happen twice, one time it
cost me over 85 bucks in power. The other time it was a rental, so
the landlady ate the bill, boy was she ****ed.

b

Too funny!

Hey, I have a question for you:
I have an ebo jagger 200 watt heater and it's been working great for 3
years. Recently I've noticed that the temperature setting is all "out
of whack" if I set the temperature to 79F it'll heat the water until
it reaches 85F to 88F.

So now I have my temperature set at 71F and the heater heats the water
to 79F. Any ideas on why my heater might have suddenly stopped being
accurate?

R.




On Sun, 21 Mar 2004 17:51:29 GMT, "Dinky"
wrote:



"Ryan Minaker" wrote in message
.. .
| That sounds a little bit expensive to me!
| I would assume that it might cost you $10/month at the absolute
most
| even if the heaters ran constantly.
|


I agree. I have 6 tanks, and at best guess, my power bill is only 15
bucks a month more than before I had them. The OP needs to check his
water heater, if one of the elements burns out, it will continue to
make hot water, but the burned out one will be constantly shorting,
running up the power bill. I've had this happen twice, one time it
cost me over 85 bucks in power. The other time it was a rental, so
the landlady ate the bill, boy was she ****ed.

b

Yeah they sometimes just wear out. The thermostat in yours is faulty. You
need to keep an eye on it or buy a new one.

--
Craig Williams
_________________________________

www.Canadiancray.tk
"Ryan Minaker" wrote in message
...
Too funny!

Hey, I have a question for you:
I have an ebo jagger 200 watt heater and it's been working great for 3
years. Recently I've noticed that the temperature setting is all "out
of whack" if I set the temperature to 79F it'll heat the water until
it reaches 85F to 88F.

So now I have my temperature set at 71F and the heater heats the water
to 79F. Any ideas on why my heater might have suddenly stopped being
accurate?

R.




On Sun, 21 Mar 2004 17:51:29 GMT, "Dinky"
wrote:



"Ryan Minaker" wrote in message
.. .
| That sounds a little bit expensive to me!
| I would assume that it might cost you $10/month at the absolute
most
| even if the heaters ran constantly.
|


I agree. I have 6 tanks, and at best guess, my power bill is only 15
bucks a month more than before I had them. The OP needs to check his
water heater, if one of the elements burns out, it will continue to
make hot water, but the burned out one will be constantly shorting,
running up the power bill. I've had this happen twice, one time it
cost me over 85 bucks in power. The other time it was a rental, so
the landlady ate the bill, boy was she ****ed.

b

CanadianCray has pretty much covered all the points (quite well too, so I
might find myself out of work soon ;~) _except_ for using insulation to
reduce costs (I knew I could find something if I wanted to be a pain in
the butt ).

Some fishkeepers wrap 3 sides of their tanks with styrofoam insulation.
Paint the side facing the aquarium with black latex (the carrier in _oil_
paints will dissolve styrofoam) for the added benefit of a calmer tank
(less shadows & movement to bother timid fish) and good contrast (dark
blue is good too).

If you have a dedicated fish-room, heating individual tank with heaters
may be more expensive than just keeping the room warmer. It depends on
how your electricity rates compare with other heat sources. Generally,
running your tanks at the cooler end of a fish's range will allow you to
run safer (higher?) fish-loads (more oxygen in the water), but the fish
may grow a bit slower (lower metabolism) and be a bit less colourful. As
growth rates depends more on their menu, and the colours improve when
they are put into warmer water, it's not a big deal. Spawning tanks will
probably still need heaters, so you have more control over the
temperature to stimulate spawning (if you need to use temperature to do
so), or growing them to sexual maturity faster.

NetMax

"CanadianCray" wrote in message
...
That depends on many things. What the heaters are set to & what the
ambient
temp of the room is. If it is the the heater will stay on longer. If it
is a
problem find out what the low temp is for you fish & keep it near the
low
rang. I also find the larger tanks are cheaper for this as they lose
the
heat slower because of the large volume of water. Its prob. the
smaller
tanks that are killing you. Also make sure that your canopy is well
sealed
to keep the heat in. Also I find for larger tanks canister type heaters
are
great because they actaully add some heat to the water from the pump so
the
heater doesn't come on as often..... Another thing you could try is to
add
more rocks to the tank as these will add more to the thermal mass of
the
tank absorbing the heat during the day & releasing it at night so the
heater
doesn't have to work as hard....

Just a few suggestions....


"FishNut" wrote in message
news
Yikes. I it's costing me about 65.00 a month to run my aquariums. I
have
a
55 gallon tank, a 10 gallon turtle tank and a small 3 gallon acrylic
tank.
Does anyone else have this problem? Apparently the tank heaters are
very
costly to run. And I have 3.

I have eight 50w heaters, two 150w and one 300w. My houses daily cost for
electricity is $2.38 cnd. I use a natural gas furnace and hot water tank
which helps keeps the cost of power down. I found the biggest electricity
expense is the lights on the tanks. A 250w lamp for 10 hours a day will add
up over the month. I try to keep low light plants, tight glass lid, and
keep cooler temperature fish to reduce the power bill. I wouldn't want to
quit the hobby because it got to expensive.
Andre