• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Canister filters to sump conversion

Dadofthree

Dadofthree

Member
Joined
15 Jul 2018
Messages
169
Location
Cannock
Hi guys i need to start thinking of cutting my lecy bill down
I have 4 tanks and a pond so you can imagine £££ electricity
So can't really mess with my marine
My small sub tropical minnow tank is fine
My shrimp tank 90ltr is fine
My biggest electricity consumer is my 2.5 m planted tank
2 300w heaters
2 fx6 canisters
Lighting is not an issue low tech
So im thinking eather remove 1 fx6
Or remove both fx6s and run a sump with 1 low energy return pump
Ive also lowered my tank temp to the min for my stock requirements
Any comments welcome
 
What is your shrimp tank setup like? Lots of scope for removing tech here! Just a light would be fine if low tech, perhaps a small airstone.
 
Matt @ ScapeEasy said:
What is your shrimp tank setup like? Lots of scope for removing tech here! Just a light would be fine if low tech, perhaps a small airstone.
Click to expand...
My shrimp tank costs pennies per day not an issue with this tank
My problem is the big tank 600w of heating
 
Been thinking about your post as my tank 500l has same heating and an FX6 and maxspect gyres.
The FX6 isnt that bad for energy use IMO.
Its the heating OFC, mine is hooded so heat loss not that bad and the heaters dont come on much as I have them set at 22 degrees and wife has the house pretty warm most of time also. So tank water temp to be 23+ most of time but I dont measure it often to be honest. What temp do you have yours set too?
 
Thanks guys been running my tank at 24/25 with an stc 1000 i worked out these heaters are costing £70 a month in electricity
So ive turned them down to 21.5/22.5 and they haven't come on in 36 hours and my tank is holding 23.5. But thanks for your imput
 
£70 pm sounds a lot! Can I ask how you worked it out?
It looks like you worked on those heaters using 600W 24/7.
 
sparkyweasel said:
£70 pm sounds a lot! Can I ask how you worked it out?
It looks like you worked on those heaters using 600W 24/7.
Click to expand...
Im with ovo electricity 600w per hour = 10p i recorded my stc100 for an hour it was calculated that over a period of 24hrs it would be on 20hrs =£2.00 per day x 31 days =£62
 
Can you record the STC for a longer period? Maybe 24hrs?
With a tank that big the heaters probably run for a long time to bring it up from switch-on temp to switch-off temp, but then should be off for a long time before the temp drops enough to switch them back on. So an average would be more accurate taken over a longer time. That just seems like a lot of power to be using, if it's right I can certainly see why you want to economise. :)
When I had a thermostat fail once I put the heater on a timer as a stop-gap, it only needed 15mins of heat every six hours on a 180 gallon tank, so a total of one hour in 24.
 
sparkyweasel said:
Can you record the STC for a longer period? Maybe 24hrs?
With a tank that big the heaters probably run for a long time to bring it up from switch-on temp to switch-off temp, but then should be off for a long time before the temp drops enough to switch them back on. So an average would be more accurate taken over a longer time. That just seems like a lot of power to be using, if it's right I can certainly see why you want to economise. :)
When I had a thermostat fail once I put the heater on a timer as a stop-gap, it only needed 15mins of heat every six hours on a 180 gallon tank, so a total of one hour in 24.
Click to expand...
My stc was set to a 1 deg +/- so heat on and off was fairly consistent day and night
I have since looked at my fish stock and adjusted my temps actually on all my tanks i took Zeus advice dropped my temp to 21 +/- 1 and the heaters haven't come on in 24hrs
Maybe mts has gone too far for me time to cut back we are probably in the region of £120 a month on hobby electricity
 
Good plan, keeping your temp as low as your livestock and plants are happy with.
It's still cheaper than a lot of hobbies, but it's sensible to reduce the cost where you can. :)
 
How big is the tank and how heavily stocked? I can't imagine that you'll save much electricity having an fx6 and a sump pump, which will need to be powerful for decent flow with a four foot head of water. Plus you've got costs for getting the sump and new pump.

Would one fx6 and an in tank power head/wave maker work? If you are heavily planted and using two filters more for the 10x per hour circulation than filter media volume then you might be able to fill one with media and run a powerhead. I have an oase 250 thermo and an eheim stream on pump in a 125 litre tank. The stream on shifts a lot of water for very little energy as its not pumping against a head of pressure.
 
rubadudbdub said:
How big is the tank and how heavily stocked? I can't imagine that you'll save much electricity having an fx6 and a sump pump, which will need to be powerful for decent flow with a four foot head of water. Plus you've got costs for getting the sump and new pump.

Would one fx6 and an in tank power head/wave maker work? If you are heavily planted and using two filters more for the 10x per hour circulation than filter media volume then you might be able to fill one with media and run a powerhead. I have an oase 250 thermo and an eheim stream on pump in a 125 litre tank. The stream on shifts a lot of water for very little energy as its not pumping against a head of pressure.
Click to expand...
Tank is 500ltr heavily stocked and planted
My intentions were to remove both fx6 and run a sump i have a spare 200ltr tank for the sump and i also have a jebao dct 6000 going spare
All this is theoretical because i have lowered my temp to 22.5 via a temp controller my heaters have not come on. In12 days which is more than i hoped for in electricity saving on this tank
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top