Saving Energy

[gparr]

The latest issue of Coral magazine has a couple of articles about reducing the amount of energy we use to run our aquariums. Have you taken steps in the past year to reduce your aquarium energy consumption? What steps have you taken?
Gary

 

[MikeB]

I upgraded to Vortechs, I assume this can be considered as a energy saving move since the motor that produces the heat is on the outside.

 

[dnov99]

Added vortechs too, also got rid of my MRC skimmer which needed two pumps that consumed 500 watts of electricity compared to my new BK300 which consumes 80 watts. I would also like to go the LED route eventually, for lighting.

 

[Azurel]

I removed all the powerheads and went Vortech.....

 

[Troylee]

I replaced my dart return with a atb flowstar half the wattage... Also running a super efficiant atb skimmer.... My lights are next!! I'm running the worst system there is for lights, magnetic ballast with vho actinics..ouch!!!! Going full blown LEDs soon, real soon!!!! Just gotta save a little more, I found a killer deal on them so I have to do it..

 

[Myteemouse]

put large fan on top of sump blowing down dropped 2 degrees..
Stagger MH's by 2 hours so each bulb burns 5 hours but I have 7 hours total of MH light

 

[Paul_N]

Two main things I have done:
1. reduced the number of utility pumps by using one pump running a manifold.
2. MH lighting reduced from 10hrs/day down to 5hrs/day
3. * will be eliminating T5 altogether and using led for supplemental

 

[waxy]

This is an oxymoron.

You can't save electricity while reefing!

That's preposterous!

 

[powderhound]

cant save electricity, but can use less of it

 

[Azurel]

Removed 2x24w T-5s with a single 24" Reef Bright now I get better color and more par at the wattage of a single 24" T-5.

 

[BlazinNano]

Took now my frag tank. But then put two Koralia Nanos behind my rocks in the main tank to keep everything flowing back there.

 

[ricwilli]

- Reduced lighting to 6 hours
- Vortechs
- Return pump to run everything off a Manifold
- Went GREEN and installed SOLAR

 

[Palancar]

Some of the changes we made in our greenhouse system are over a year old but have proven their worth. I changed out our old protein skimmer to one with a more efficient pump. Changed all our maxi-jet powerheads to Koralias. My next step is to modify my return plumbing and replace the two return pumps with one more efficient pump.

 

[dougers31]

On my next build I will be going with a vor tech as well as a few korillias... Also will be switching to t5's and led's.