• 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

Soaring energy prices & aquascaping

Joined
3 Feb 2021
Messages
26
Location
Alton
Wondering whether any members are concerned about the energy requirements of their hobby in light of rising energy prices?
I'm also wondering whether aquatic shops will be raising prices as a direct result of the costs of maintaining their tanks?

I'm on verge of completing the home renovations blocking my new setup, but the increased running costs are food for thought.
 
Here in the US prices have already gone up significantly on fish. The guy at my lfs said it’s because the cost of shipping has gone up and is almost twice as expensive as it used to be. I’m sure with fuel costs on the rise shipping prices will continue to increase as well. I just got back into the hobby after a 5 year hiatus and decided to go with a 60cm aquarium vs 120 cm due to increased costs.
 
I have the plans, and plumbing in place for a 1600L tank, but to run that is looking to cost around £1000 a year now :oops: The marine tank is another large cost. When you factor it in, I have to worry about it a bit. If I explain to the lass I date, 150£ a month is on electricity for the aquariums she may not like them as much. £150 a month is still a swallowable amount though, for a hobby I enjoy etc.

Fish costs are rising, but that doesn't bother me much, always felt fish were too cheap anyway.

Regardless, almost everything will be going temperate, which suits me fine anyway. I've gotten into buckets (big ones) in the greenhouse, again.
 
Energy costs are certainly going to be a factor in deciding on any new setups, but fishkeeping is pretty much my only hobby so I won't be giving it up in the foreseeable. Also all my tanks are run heaterless.

Fish costs are rising, but that doesn't bother me much, always felt fish were too cheap anyway.

Fish prices are another thing for me. My LFS has IMO got prices that are just far too high, as an example I was considering another reef tank, but at £60 for a clownfish and coral prices are eyewatering so I had to put it on hold unless I can find another place.

Freshwater is just as bad, nearly £4 for a neon tetra, £20 for a bosemani rainbow, as I result in I now use Pets@home a lot more, luckily my local one is pretty good.
 
We might have to disagree a little on fish costs though @Nick potts , which 60£ for a clownfish seems steep to me, long gone (and rightly so) are the days of £1 neons, or 50p neons depending on how old you are ;)
 
We might have to disagree a little on fish costs though @Nick potts , which 60£ for a clownfish seems steep to me, long gone (and rightly so) are the days of £1 neons, or 50p neons depending on how old you are ;)

I can still get neons at £1 each, and even pets at home have reasonable prices. What is it you don't like about the cheap prices? (they are mass bred in huge volumes), is it that people see them as cheap and do not care about their care all that much?

I agree that prices need to go up in some cases, but some prices are just getting ridiculous IMO
 
Here in New Mexico USA, my natural gas bill has doubled and electricity has increase by 70 dollars from this time last year. Hopefully Spring comes early to off set these prices.
 
I can still get neons at £1 each, and even pets at home have reasonable prices. What is it you don't like about the cheap prices? (they are mass bred in huge volumes), is it that people see them as cheap and do not care about their care all that much?

I agree that prices need to go up in some cases, but some prices are just getting ridiculous IMO

Overall I don’t like cheap prices as people see cheap as replaceable. I’d rather they cost a bit more, it makes people want to look after their investment.
 
Whilst fishkeeping is my only hobby I've had to be realistic about the rising energy costs and the fact that the majority of my costs are down to the tanks so I've cut down a fair few and now sticking to mostly temperate fish.
I think any lfs that isn't giving serious thought to expanding their temperate range is being extremely short sighted in view of the current climate.
You only have to see the massive increase in tanks for sale on FB etc to see people are beginning to panic although for the majority that one tank they have is not adding much to their bill if they took the trouble to work it out properly.
I'm with @castle on fish cost,the more expensive they become perhaps the more people will care about them...cheap fish are seen as disposable and that's something that needs to stop.
I have no problem with paying a premium price for a healthy fish that I particularly want,my zhoui were £25 each and to me worth every penny of that.
 
I have no problem with paying a premium price for a healthy fish
Same here. I've no qualms in travelling a 60 mile round trip to a fish store that I know will charge me more money for good quality healthy fish.
I could purchase them locally (which would be preferable in supporting local economy etc) unfortunately a lot of lfs, including mine, work on the Tesco principle "pile it high and sell it cheap." If we want cheap we have to accept quality generally suffers.
 
In Australia we are looking at falling energy prices potentially due to renewables.
Only problem is we don't have nuclear which would be really nice to complement solar.

What's your yearly energy cost for the fishies?
 
I think a lot of people think tanks take a lot, but use a lot more on other household appliances if they actually worked it out. It depends on the tank you run though obviously if you are running high tech and towards the upper temperature range you are using a lot more. I think my lights/heater/filter adds up to about 100w if I have everything running, but really the lights are dimmed and off half the time, heater kicks in/out and is only maintaining 24oC so in summer not a lot over room temp. If you haven't already, you'd save more switching your room lights off for better tank viewing and watching the fish rather than the TV ;)
 
I’m more than happy to pay x-amount for certain desirable fish that I’m after. Unfortunately I like stuff that often isn’t run of the mill so that can be a case of paying a bit more to get what I want.

20 for a bosemani rainbow,
That’s abit steep!

Prices can vary massively, some establishments seem to be taking abit of liberty with their pricing but then again I don’t have a clue what rates they have to pay to keep their business open. I’m sure this varies across the country.
 
I've been looking into solar with battery backup for my next place. With rising energy costs the pay back time for solar reduces. The added benefit is the more tanks I add, then theoretically the more the pay back time reduces (as long as I don't exceed the systems capabilities) :lol:

With regards to fish prices I was a bit shocked having not bought fish for about 6 years to see they've almost doubled for most of the mass produced "bread and butter" fish and find it strange that something like a wild collected fish like khulis haven't changed much and are still around £1.50ea.
While I do agree it does make a lot of people think more about getting them, it also makes it prohibitively expensive to others that might really care for the fish regardless of the cost.
I've loved this hobby since I was 5. I don't know what the average pocket money currently is or if it's linked to inflation but as a kid now, I'd be struggling to buy fish let alone keeping groups of schooling species.
 
I've been looking into solar with battery backup for my next place. With rising energy costs the pay back time for solar reduces.

We have too - especially as we got a letter from EDF this week saying our energy charges were going up by £1,300 a year from April :oops::eek:

I think you have to forget batteries for the moment though, their prices are through the roof due to the nickel and chip shortages, and cost almost as much as the solar system itself!
 
I put a Kilo-Watt Meter on my 29 gal. tank to see how much electricity it consumes. In the summer it came out to $8.45 US per month (I pay .18/kwhr). In the winter it would cost more because the tank heater runs in the winter. I have 2 other tanks which have similar electrical demands, so the total comes out to about $25/mo US in electricity for the 3 tanks. I also have a 35 gal. insulated reservoir with heater in the basement for water changes.

Ten years ago I started a design for a battery power pack for fish keepers that would kick in when the power goes out. It was going to cost $250K to prototype it. The local university said they could do it for $90-120K. I bought a generator for $1K that runs my fish tanks and all the essentials in the house.

When I stocked my African tank 11 years ago the fish were $5 each for Calvus, Julidochromis, Cyprochromis and Ocellatus. They all sell for about $25 ea. now.

I do have a small privately owned LFS that ocassionally has something interesting. His prices are actually cheaper than any online retailers even without shipping. I get almost all of my fish online simply because there is little variety available to me locally. The problem with buying online is the shipping costs. I'm not likely to buy only 2 fish I've been wanting when the shipping is many times more expensive than the fish themselves. Consequently I only buy large orders that make the shipping more reasonable. Another down side to this is you general don't want to dump a large number of fish into a tank all at once, especially a new tank.
 
I think you have to forget batteries for the moment though, their prices are through the roof due to the nickel and chip shortages, and cost almost as much as the solar system itself!
Ah I didn't realise that. I've been looking at what other people have done on YouTube and I guess their setups were done pre the beginning of the end of the world (aka 2020).
I've also been thinking about Jean Pain heating as an additional source of heat for a fish room but wouldn't be sufficient for a house, unless you've got room for a steaming............compost mountain in your garden.
What about having aquariums with sides, back and base made of metal and glass front. They'd double as radiators and that way you'd need one in every room :lol:
 
Back
Top