Saving A Little Money On Electricity...

severina

Fish Crazy
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So...in 6 months I'm moving to my own apartment where I would have to pay bills and other such yucky stuff like that. I'm wondering if it would be ok to turn off the filter at night to save a little on the electricity bills. Or maybe I'll get a timer, or something like that. If I did, what would be the apropriate lengths to have it off and on?
 
NOO, you cn tdo that youll kill all the good batcia.

-Alex
 
Do not turn off the filter. Besides the fact that it doesn't use nearly the power of the heater, your tank will go through a cycle since the nitrifying bacteria don't have any ammonia to sustain them.

Since the biggest power drain is your heater, put a sheet of styrofoam insulation under the tank, and behind the background. Locate the tank on an interior wall, they are warmer than exterior walls.

The next biggest drain is the light. Put this on a timer, you can really cut down on this if you don't have live plants. Most of my tanks get by with room light during the day, that is plenty for the fish. Tank lights in an unplanted tank are more for the benefit of the aquarist than the fish.

Buy any consumable supplies online.

Do not turn off the filter.
 
Uhh...I don't think it will hurt the bacteria if I do this right. As a matter of fact...I've had a squirrel bite into a powerline and didn't have power for several hours while the the company fixed the line, and have had my power turned off for a whole day because someone forgot to pay the bill. :crazy: I'm just trying to find the best way to go about this.

Edit: Sorry! Didn't see the second post! Didn't didn't know the heater used the most elecricity. Good idea about the styrofoam...I'll do that. Thanks.
 
You're playing with fire by leaving the filter off for any length of time. You'll save more money by locating the tank in a warmer area, without the risk of exposing your fish to ammonia & nitrites. These will climb during the period that the filter is off. Look at how many watts your heater is. Now look at how many watts the filter draws.
 
I...don't know what wattage my filter is. I just assumed it used more power. :| Well you know what they say...
 
An Aqua Clear 70, which is a good filter for an average stocked 55 uses 6 watts. An ac 110 uses 14 watts, and would filter a 55 even better.

At 5 watts per gallon, you should have a 250 watt heater. If it's on half the time the average draw is 125 watts.

I cut a heat register into the main trunk of my forced air heating system for my fishroom. Gas heat is cheaper than electric here, a little work saves money when I can heat the whole room to 80F in the winter.
 
If it is an internal filter the few watts of power consumed by it are not wasted.
That power goes into the tank water anyway and heats it a tiny bit ( the filter motor is cooled by the tank water circulating round it ). This means that the heater will be doing less work, ie. it will not come on as often as it would if there were no filter.
So there is nothing to be gained by switching the filter off .
 

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