Well ever since I got my aquarium my electricity bill has shot up, I don’t want to get rid of my tropical fish, so is there something I can buy that will cut down the energy it uses, therefore cutting down my electricity bill. Most of the cost is from the electric pump which is on 24/7, the light bulb isn’t used that much. + the tank its self is quite big.
I have 3 tanks and i dont really notice a big change in my electric bill
03
Sep
Posted by: admin - 9 Comments
9 comments for “Is there anything I can buy that will save energy & cut down the electricity bill on my tropical aquarium?”
.1
Jennifer B
I have a "Whisper" filter system for 20 gallons and don’t notice it at all on my utilities. It’s a trickle system.
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.2
athlonxp81
I would cut down on the amount of time that the light is left on. If there are no live plants in your tank than you could easily get away with only a few hours light, considering that theres a fair amount of natural light in the room.
Most aquarium equipment are low powered equipment, except for the light.
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.3
fivespeed302
Usually the cheaper pumps will use much more electricity. You must have a really big, cheap pump, because I have 5 tanks and my bill is only bad when I leave the A/C on real cold.
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.4
army of one
Well with bigger aquariums come more cost. You could try a change to your filter system. Pumps do tend to use a bit of electricity. May be your pump is of an older model and upgrading to a more modern one could be more economical. The cannister types are quiet and pretty good on electric use. Many times the light system you use can drive up electric cost. To save in that department you could try flourecent lights, or even newer types that use only small LED type bulbs. Of course the latter produces life like sunlight, produce less heat, and will last longer, but come with a high cost in initial price. A timer for the lights is also a good idea. Hope this helps.
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.5
Tolak
Most of the cost associated with tropical aquariums is the heaters. If you can bring the temperature down some, and locate the tank in a warmer area it will save money. Insulating the tank in some way will help as well.
You don’t state if the pump is an air pump or a water pump. If the pump is drawing that much current it may be way oversized, and it would be better to look into a smaller one that would pay for itself in a short amount of time.
A good example would be the large air pump that I have running over 20 tanks, around 900 gallons total. It draws 60 watts. The tank heaters are anywhere from 25 to 250 watts, granted, they are not running 24/7 like the pump, but at any given time about 1/3 are running. I save money by having all the tanks in a smaller, well insulated room, that is heated by forced air in the winter.
It averages around $60 monthly in elecrticity to run them all, yours should be much less than that, if not something else may be drawing juice, and not the tank.
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.6
aquaria_care
The filter and the heater need to be on 24/7. The lights don’t have to be on more than 8-12 hours. How big is quite big? I recommend with larger tanks that you use 2 heaters instead of one. For example, if you have a 55, you need a 250 or even a 300 watt heater. If you have a 150 at either end, the heat is distributed better and the heaters will actually be on less, saving a small amount of electricity.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do unless you have fish that can thrive in slightly cooler water, for example 74 vs. 80 degrees. This will save a bit of money.
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.7
Pete
I have 3 tanks and i dont really notice a big change in my electric bill
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.8
EDWARD W
Well my friend you are learning about how the tropical fish hobby can be expensive. It is not the pump but the heater that’s making the bill go up. It has to heat 10 gallons of water to the temp of 75f. It’s the same as the immersion heater to heat a tank of water for your bath.
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.9
cykomiko
something else is running up your bill you can see how many watts a light bulb uses do the same for your pump if its not on the pump you can multiply the amps and the volts to get the wattage it will be very low electric bills are based on kilowatt hours which is the cost to run 1000 watts for an hour it should only be about $.18 a kilowatt hour also check if the electric company has increased the rates recently in your area it is very possible because of the rise in gas prices
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