[johnny313]

I put this in the shrimp section because I think there are more people in here have multiple tanks. just wondering how much money is being spent on our little obsession?
I think i am at 175.00 just for my tanks, but thats just a guess

 

[looking4roselines]

Mine is about 280-300. There are about 10 tanks running in total

I have central air on for 10-12 hrs a day for almost everyday of the month though

 

[mordalphus]

Mine is usually 125 for my whole house. Cheaper to climate control my shrimp room than it is to put heaters or coolers on all tanks. Also instead of many canister filters, I run many sponge filters on one industrial air compressor w/ manifold. Also only have small dual t5 fixtures over every tank.

Very cheap!

 

[Betta Maniac]

I've got 5 small tanks (5-20G) all with filters, lights, and heaters. My electricity bill has gone up about $40 a month since I started the hobby. Not really not costing all that much.

 

[blacksheep998]

My power bill ranges anywhere from $100-300 a month. I think I once figured out that my largest tank is costing me about $10 a month in power. It's got 104watts of light, two aquaclear 50's and a 50 watt heater which isn't even hooked up currently.

 

[jaafaman]

My 75-gallon costs about $9/month to operate, down to the 29-gallon, which costs about $3.50/month (based on $0.12/kilowatt hour). My total monthly bill averages $135 including utilities, so I have room to expand beyond my current five tanks.

Drop by Radio Shack and pick up a Kill-A-Watt meter. They're very handy in determining usage as they can be set to measure KW hours, cost-per-KWH, and even do a total across time periods while performing the math for you...

 

[malaybiswas]

I have 5 tanks running at this moment and it increased my monthly electric bill to around $50. Light is the major consumer. Everything else is nominal. Heaters are in but they normally are not over worked. Summer time does not require them to run at all and in winter my central heater keeps room temp at 70 and the heaters on an around work for increasing it to 72-75 depending upon tank community.

 

[johnny313]

My 75-gallon costs about $9/month to operate, down to the 29-gallon, which costs about $3.50/month (based on $0.12/kilowatt hour). My total monthly bill averages $135 including utilities, so I have room to expand beyond my current five tanks.

Drop by Radio Shack and pick up a Kill-A-Watt meter. They're very handy in determining usage as they can be set to measure KW hours, cost-per-KWH, and even do a total across time periods while performing the math for you...

nice! how much are they?

 

[msjinkzd]

Mine is around $375 a month with about 80 tanks running, a pool, and 3 kids.

 

[jaafaman]

nice! how much are they?

$20-30, model dependent.

I first purchased one to monitor my computer system. I run a high-end gaming rig with three teamed graphics cards and a considerable overclock on a Lynnfield Xeon, and at the time needed it to determine the size of the power supply. But the Kill-A-Watt's usefulness definitely doesn't end there...

 

[junko]

I average $250-$350 a month before aquariums. But I'm a potter with an electric kiln running 2-3 times a week, holding at 2200 degrees for 8-10 hours, LOL.

 

[msnikkistar]

343 a month during Summer with AC, 180 during off months lol

 

[jedimasterben]

$20-30, model dependent.

I first purchased one to monitor my computer system. I run a high-end gaming rig with three teamed graphics cards and a considerable overclock on a Lynnfield Xeon, and at the time needed it to determine the size of the power supply. But the Kill-A-Watt's usefulness definitely doesn't end there...

This is the same reason (and same hardware!) that I bought mine! My Xeon X3440 was a beast, but man could it suck down some power when at 3.8GHz. I'm quite a bit happier now with my 2600k, CPU load at 5GHz never breaks 280w with some hardcore water cooling.


My power bill was $320, then I got a new 16 SEER central A/C, the next month was 1/2 with the new A/C and half with the old was down to $180, then the next month was $130, now it's back up to $180, but I've been lazy and not turning the A/C up when I'm not home, etc.

My main angel/community tank uses about $7 each month in electricity, my cichlid tank uses about $3.50 a month, and the "herbert" tank (fancy goldfish) uses about $.75 (has no lighting or anything, just a Rena XP1 filter).

 

[wheezo]

$350-$400 a month... sadly.

 

[jasonpatterson]

I suspect that the cost of heating a tank during the winter is somewhat overestimated. If you think about it, for any tank that is in part of the living area of a house, heating the tank also heats the room. It's a small amount of energy input, and a small amount of heating, but it should offset some of the heating requirements for the house. Basically, it's not just heating the tank.

That said, I'm using air powered filters wherever possible and shared lighting for some tanks (a 4" shop light goes a long way for a bunch of small tanks.) All told, 76W are running continuously for filtration and circulation, 150W are running 12 hours a day for lighting (some LED, the rest fluorescent,) and a 100W heater runs perhaps 2 hours a day in one tank. 159 effective watts being consumed at any time, 3.8kWh daily, or about $0.40 per day. $12 per month, give or take. I haven't noticed any major difference in my electric bill since I caught the shrimp bug in spite of adding 7 tanks. Again though, I intentionally am using the lowest cost/power options I can find and leaving the tanks unheated.

 

[msjinkzd]

I don't use heaters, that helps my bill a lot! ithink my kids probably cost me more than the fish tanks do...

 

[Buff Daddy]

I don't use heaters, that helps my bill a lot! ithink my kids probably cost me more than the fish tanks do...

Yeah and they are pickier about food, too...

 

[shane3fan]

5000 sq ft 3 level home with 3 heat pumps---15 tanks--$250-$300/month

 

[Newman]

I think about $2 per month. just one shrimp bowl and the only thing it has is the CFL light lol.

This is not counting my reefs and my FW community + monthly electrical usage by the two people in the house. if that's all factored in then roughly $100.