Aquarium electricity usage?

[ozorowsky]

Hey all; I am running 2 406w metal halide fixtures, as well as a 1050gph return pump and all the usual salt water stuff.

How much should I expect this to raise my electric bill per month? My bill was $75 more this month and wondering if that is from my fish tank alone.

Thank you

 

[hiltymj]

Ha yes it is my friend runs a 180 reef tank and a 72 bow reef and his is around 300

 

[ozorowsky]

Ha yes it is my friend runs a 180 reef tank and a 72 bow reef and his is around 300

So it is safe to assume I can plan on paying $100/month to run my aquarium? Does that sound right?

 

[hiltymj]

Ummm ya I guess you could say that. I have 2 75s one reef and one fowlr and mine jumped about 100 bucks

 

[mfdrookie516]

your halides use a lot of electric. I am running 7 tanks right now, 6 of which are running T5HO fixtures. Each tank has at least one filter (most running canisters, one running two). Each tank has a heater. Lights are on for about 8 hours a day. My electric bill is about $70-80 a month and that's icluding the cost to cool my house (2400sq ft), run everything else, blah blah. So... either your halides are using a ridiculous amount of electricity (always heard they were expensive to run), or you've used more than normal elsewhere last month.

 

[ozorowsky]

your halides use a lot of electric. I am running 7 tanks right now, 6 of which are running T5HO fixtures. Each tank has at least one filter (most running canisters, one running two). Each tank has a heater. Lights are on for about 8 hours a day. My electric bill is about $70-80 a month and that's icluding the cost to cool my house (2400sq ft), run everything else, blah blah. So... either your halides are using a ridiculous amount of electricity (always heard they were expensive to run), or you've used more than normal elsewhere last month.

Yeah, I'm thinking a combination of the two.

 

[hiltymj]

Ya the big jump for me was I always had the A/C constantly fighting to keep the whole place cold and that uses a ton of electricity. I run the same. Two tanks each fitted with heater, T5HO lights, and canisters. So I do not believe that my huge jump is from my tanks

 

[deepseadan]

Hey all; I am running 2 406w metal halide fixtures, as well as a 1050gph return pump and all the usual salt water stuff.

How much should I expect this to raise my electric bill per month? My bill was $75 more this month and wondering if that is from my fish tank alone.

Thank you

Go to home depot and buy a watt meter (i believe its kilowatt brand) for $29. You can see exactly how many watts your system is using. It will even convert the watts to total cost per hour, day, week, month or year. I found my reef was using 553 watts with the lights on. It's also interesting to see how much other devices use, like my power hungry 50" plasma which my kids leave on 24/7.

 

[BfishLpond78]

Wow Rookie, I wanna live where you live, 70-80 a month!!! I have a house half yours and my bill was like 142, and thats only with two tanks! uuuggghhh i hate CT.

 

[carey]

My last bill was $259. :-( I think the tanks are finally catching up with me. LOL used to run $150 a month too. BUT that was before the summer and the 24/7 air conditioning. So I'm hopeful my bill will go down.

 

[HAVAMAL]

That's why I love my LED's!!!

 

[BfishLpond78]

I would love to get LED's...finding a 30 inch fixture is the hard part...lol

 

[HAVAMAL]

Bought mine from a private owned LFS but I've seen them also at Petsmart, live the look and will never go back to fluorescent lights.