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Hobby Costs; Can they be lower?

Also, this is a really helpful/interesting thread. Even typing up the above I thought of easy tweaks I should be making to turn the bills down.
 
If I had a large tank, 100% would enclose it in a small fish room to save heating costs on it. Using a heat pump to heat the room may or may not be better as there is a rather large initial investment there and I forget if they dehumidify the air which would be great except higher humidity means less evaporation, not sure on the math on that.
 
sfsuphysics said:
If I had a large tank, 100% would enclose it in a small fish room to save heating costs on it. Using a heat pump to heat the room may or may not be better as there is a rather large initial investment there and I forget if they dehumidify the air which would be great except higher humidity means less evaporation, not sure on the math on that.
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I think you have that humidity backwards. High humidity = less evaporation. Zero when it hits 100%.
 
To save money on heating the tank:

1) Add solar hot water system to your entire house.
Have a large heat exchange water storage tank.
Have a few evacuated tube solar collectors/panels. (The look a lot like the electrical ones, but make hot water instead)
Plus some pumps and things.
That gives your whole house cheap solar water. A win regardless. Except maybe $3,000 to set up.

2) Add a secondary circulation system from that water heater to your fish tank.
Generally a pump and a loop of PEX in your sump.
Pump controlled by Apex, based on temp and partly time of day.
 
Fwiw, my biggest temperature need year round is cooling my tank. If my house stays at 68, my pumps and lights tend to heat the water enough and my heater rarely kicks on.
 
H2OPlayar said:
Fwiw, my biggest temperature need year round is cooling my tank. If my house stays at 68, my pumps and lights tend to heat the water enough and my heater rarely kicks on.
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As a counter, my peninsula was running like 400w of heaters full bore to keep the tank stable overnight. I however let my nest drop the house target temp down to 55° at night and run 68° during the day. I'm not sure what it actually hits though.

Your tank also is effectively insulated on 3 sides (bottom, rear, that one wall) and has the eurobracing which may theoretically slightly insulate and/or slightly reduce evap.
Also interestingly, my tank was falling below its target temp a couple days when I left the sump door open. I was going out of town, so I left the doors open so I could see inside with my nest cam. I then left town, and that night was getting alerts that the tank was below its target, so I cranked the house heat up. The next day my neighbor closed the sump doors for me and my temp had no problem being stable. I thought that was super interesting and extremely unexpected.

Though it might've been a bit misleading because the temp probe was by the glass in the sump near the opening. However there was good water movement there, so either way it showed sump insulation (if only keeping doors closed) definitely affects temp.
 
richiev said:
As a counter, my peninsula was running like 400w of heaters full bore to keep the tank stable overnight. I however let my nest drop the house target temp down to 55° at night and run 68° during the day. I'm not sure what it actually hits though.

Your tank also is effectively insulated on 3 sides (bottom, rear, that one wall) and has the eurobracing which may theoretically slightly insulate and/or slightly reduce evap.
Also interestingly, my tank was falling below its target temp a couple days when I left the sump door open. I was going out of town, so I left the doors open so I could see inside with my nest cam. I then left town, and that night was getting alerts that the tank was below its target, so I cranked the house heat up. The next day my neighbor closed the sump doors for me and my temp had no problem being stable. I thought that was super interesting and extremely unexpected.

Though it might've been a bit misleading because the temp probe was by the glass in the sump near the opening. However there was good water movement there, so either way it showed sump insulation (if only keeping doors closed) definitely affects temp.
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The sump doors make sense. That's one of the first things I used to do to cool down a tank. Open the cabinet doors and point a fan at it. That trapped heat and humidy have an effect.

I eventually installed computer fans to keep air moving through the sump and canopy areas.
 
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