How much does it cost to run your tank?

[kribbman]

ITT.

How much dose it cost to run your tank every month?

Between Electricity, Food, Filter Media and and any other expenses your tank requires.

My tank has a 100W heater. a 19W flourecent bulb thats on from 7am to 10 pm, a 6.5 W CO2 diffusor and a HOB filter which I assume is also about 6.5W. So im guessing that at any given time My aquarium is using about 130W to run. Im no electrical engineer and I have no Idea how much a KW/Hour cost here. so Ill owe you that number. If anybody can help me answer this I would appreciate it very much.

Food. I spend about $4.00 a month on frozen bloodworms and about $5 every two months on flake food. So food works out to about $6.50 a month

Filter Media. I have a Penguin 150 with a biowheel Im using 2 filter cartidges at a time but change one of them every two weeks . I end up buying a 3 pack every month and they cost about $8.

CO2 Media. I first started out using the RED SEA CO2 refill packs which were $8.00 each but then I swithced to buying Yeast and Sugar at the super market for about $8.00 for a 2 pounds of white sugar, Yeast, and baking soda which I dont think Ill have to buy more any time soon. but just to have an estimate I think the current supply I have could last me at the very least 4 months If I change the media every 2 weeks. That works out to about $2.00 a month.

So it breaks down into: Food $6.50
Filter Media $8.00
CO2 Media $2.00
Electricity *$4.00
_______________________
Total *$20.00

About $ 20 bucks is my estimate (thats if im not to far off in the estimate I made for the electricity) Im pretty sure its worth it. By the way my tank is a FW 20 gal.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[An t-iasg]

The Kilowatt/hour rate should be listed on your electric bill, or you can call your electric company. On my bill it's listed as kWh and it's 10.8 cents per kWh.

[Zagz]

I try in general not to think about it. LOL. I have 14 tanks and I'm sure the electricity costs me the most.

[Skyrmir]

Ouch, I don't want to think about a power bill at 10.8 cents a kilowatt. I'd be pedal powering a generator at that point. I gotta wonder why it's so high in Penn. since it's only 5.2 cents a kilowatt hour down here in Florida. We have easier access to oil tankers, but you guys are sitting on top of coal mines. Coal may be dirty, but it is cheap.

As for the price of maintaining the fish tanks, I barely notice. Our power bill runs in lock step with the temperature because of the air conditioner...that just kicked on at 1am... What I wouldn't give for a solar powered A/C unit. I could cut my power bill in half if not more.

[CatatonicBug]

Just maintenance on my tanks is almost negligible. Probably just a couple of bucks a month. I bought a small container of flake food about 4 months ago, and it will last another 2-3 months, so I don't think that's enought to count. I have one canister, and a HOB filter, a 200w and a 150w heater, and 2 27w and 2 13w CFL light bulbs running 12 hours a day. The electricity is probably the only thing that costs anything for me, but when I compare that to the 4 computers with monitors, 16-port switch, and DSL router, the fish are pretty cheap. Of course, we only pay $0.06/kwh here in St. Louis.

[kribbman]

I think i might have over estimated the cost to run my tank but still for less than $20 a month it seems like a bargain for something that provides me with so much "entertainment". I like sitting in front of my tank and just watching my fish hang out, and now that I have fry its even more interesting.

[JoshsReef]

Ill tell you I dont even wanna think about answering this question. My 75 gallon sw has way too much invested in it, lol and I always thought it would level out and cost me less than 50 bucks a month however it just seems like there is always something I need. Thousands invested into this puppy and I think powering it (electric) is the least of my concerns, lol

[pitt420dude]

I'd expect my highest costs are electricity. Food seems negligible. ALso with plants, it might be CO2 and ferts but even those last forever and aren't that expensive.

Either way I have no Idea what it costs.

[Ziggy953]

I have a 72g Bow with 678w of lighting, and several pumps (though most use less then 10w). I calculated the cost of my tank to be at $39.00 per month in power use. That was before adding the 55g frag tank to my system. That adds about $15 to the $39 so I'm around $54 a month in electric to run my system.

[cogburn]

ziggy youre scaring me... i just picked up my 180 gallon and am curious how much my elec. bill is going up... 2 400w heaters 2 canister filters one air pump and the lights for a few hours today... but if it's $50 a month my wife is going to kill me

[littlerob904]

The math is pretty easy to figure out. To convert your electricity usage to kilowatt hours you are looking at two things, the amount of watts, and the amount of time they are running.

If you're lighting is 50w on 12 hours a day that = 50w * 12h * 30d = 18000 watt hours, or 18 kw hours in one month.

Do the same thing for each item you have that draws power, multiply the wattage x the hours used in a day x 30 days in a month. Then, add all KWH up and multiply by the rate your power company charges. You will have to look at multiple portions of the bill depending on where you live, and some may be more complicated than others. In either case, once you find the $ / killowatt hour just multiply that by your kwh answer and you have your monthly cost.

Heres an example:

Pumps = 30w X 24 hours x 30 days = 21.6kwh
Lights = 100w x 12 hours x 30 days = 36kwh

The heater can be tricky because you would need to figure out how much it is actually running, you may want to check your owners manual to see if it is thermostat controlled or if it runs continuously. Assuming your heater is not continuously running and only kicks on when the temperature dips below a certain point, you would really have to estimate based on room temp. and desired water temp. Once again, the owners manual of the heater might help you with this. As a safe bet, I would say:

Heater = 200w x 12 hours x 30 days = 72kwh

Adding them all up: Total KWH Usage = 21.6 + 36 + 72 = 129.6 kwh / one month.

Now just take a look at your electric bill and multiply. Where I live, we pay somewhere around 21c / kwh after all the generation, distribution charges, taxes, fees, etc... etc... The good news is, unless you live in Hawaii, I guarantee you pay less than that in the US.

Anyways.... 0.21 * 129.6 = $27.21 a month.


Hope that helps some of you!

[cogburn]

wow... very descriptive thank you... im gonna check wattages when i get home and start doing some math

[littlerob904]

Cliff Notes Version:

Total KWH / Month For each Item = Watts X Hours a Day X 30 days

Add up all the KWH Values and multiply by the rate your electric company charges. In CT it's around $0.21 / KWH.... almost every other state is cheaper. (Some significantly)

You final result will be a typical cost per month. You can do this formula for anything in your house....television, stereos, whatever. It's sometimes good to think about how much money it actually costs you.

[nanoluvr]

good Lord, lol. I pay $0.09/kw where I live.... That's outrageous! Of course, my electricity is provided through a co-op. But evn in Houston, I think it averages around $0.16 or so.

It's $.06 for the juice, and $.03 for the delivery . $10 monthly svc charge...that's it.

[littlerob904]

Originally Posted by nanoluvr

good Lord, lol. I pay $0.09/kw where I live.... That's outrageous! Of course, my electricity is provided through a co-op. But evn in Houston, I think it averages around $0.16 or so.

It's $.06 for the juice, and $.03 for the delivery . $10 monthly svc charge...that's it.

Yeah we pay a lot...second highest in the nation to Hawaii. Theres a lot of reasons for it...mostly due to a backwards partial deregulated scheme. I happen to work for the electric company here, we don't generate our own electricity, we just distribute it. (We install and maintain, the poles wires, substations, etc... and we purchase the electricity from generating companies) The generating companyies charge around 12c right now per KWH, it makes up more than half of the total cost of electricity, and it's a total racket. It's really quite a mess right now and it causes a lot of problems for my company, one of which being public outrage at the cost, they blame us even though we have no control over the generation cost. Before deregulation, we generated electricity at 7c. Hooray politicians, they still refuse to admit they made a mistake.

[asudavew]

Originally Posted by nanoluvr

good Lord, lol. I pay $0.09/kw where I live.... That's outrageous! Of course, my electricity is provided through a co-op. But evn in Houston, I think it averages around $0.16 or so.

It's $.06 for the juice, and $.03 for the delivery . $10 monthly svc charge...that's it.

I work for a Co-op in west texas.

Generation costs for electricity in 2008 were horrid, mostly due to natural gas prices!


Your rates are a much cheaper than most companies in Texas~!

[nanoluvr]

I'm the SHECO..Sam Houston Elec. Co-op

[nanoluvr]

Originally Posted by littlerob904

Hooray politicians, they still refuse to admit they made a mistake.

I hear ya...friggin buggers

[asudavew]

Here's a spreadsheet I created to calculate electricty cost.

Anyone can change it and I can't lock the cells... So please only change numbers in blue. The rest of the cells are formulas... so any changes to black numbers will screw up the spreadsheet.

Good luck! My cost for one tank is $19.09 a month.


http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?k...e7JLpuUw&hl=en

[Brad.Sedore]

*cringes*... im running 9 150 watt lights for 12 hours... a 300 watt rack heater for 24 hours and 8 black lights at 100 watts for 12-24 hours.... thats without aquariums.... im leaving this thread

-Brad