A Great Way to ruin a perfect wall; My 400 Gallon Project - Page 24

melev · #**576** 07/05/2006, 11:11 PM

Ryan, my electricity bill this month was $460, which is the highest bill I've ever had in this house. Last month was $230. ugh.

My water bill ranges $55 (winter) - $105 (summer).

NexDog · #**577** 07/06/2006, 02:33 AM

$450-$600 is normal for me. But I don't have any gas - the whole house is electricity and the air con is on alot now.

kwl1763 · #**578** 07/06/2006, 08:31 AM

I can tell you when I was living in Dallas with a 135 a 92 and a 20 up it was costing me around an extra $100 or so a month then without the tanks not counting water which in all honesty is not that much. You use a lot more in the shower everyday.

$300 electric bills in the summer were norm. $300 gas bills in the winter were norm!

Much much cheaper here in Hotalanta. Just because the climate is so much milder. I have a much bigger house and my electric bill has never been over $150 and for one month my gas bill was $300 but 10 months out of the year it's like $50 or less.

disbjohn · #**579** 07/06/2006, 08:56 AM

in the summer my power bill is averaging about $250 and my water bill is about $150 most of which is due to watering the lawn. I water once a week for 30 mins each zone and that adds up to 6 hours of watering. Has anybody installed a separate irrigation meter?

ReeferMonkey · #**580** 07/06/2006, 09:02 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by disbjohn
in the summer my power bill is averaging about $250 and my water bill is about $150 most of which is due to watering the lawn. I water once a week for 30 mins each zone and that adds up to 6 hours of watering. Has anybody installed a separate irrigation meter?

In my experience, irrigation is always metered seperately from your domestic source. This is because municipalities don't take your irrigation water into account when determining your sewer bill, as irrigation does not return to the city system.

Cuby2k · #**581** 07/06/2006, 11:01 AM

Irrigation costs vary much from one water district to the next. At my place the irrigation water is culinary water. I live in the desert and water is soooo damn high. Because we are such a relatively new and small community the city fathers never opted for a separate irrigation supply.

At my mother's house it is way different. They used to get their irrigation water in the ditch but some brain at the city offices decided to pipe it all and then meter it at every house even if they didn't use the irrigation water previously. Now people on fixed incomes are tagged with a $30/month user fee year round even if they never use it.

Ahhh, serenity now . . . .sorry I could rant but I will control myself.

BTW Servo, I am loving this thread and I refer to it often. Great inspiration and advice.

ReeferMonkey · #**582** 07/06/2006, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Cuby2k
Irrigation costs vary much from one water district to the next. At my place the irrigation water is culinary water. I live in the desert and water is soooo damn high. Because we are such a relatively new and small community the city fathers never opted for a separate irrigation supply.

At my mother's house it is way different. They used to get their irrigation water in the ditch but some brain at the city offices decided to pipe it all and then meter it at every house even if they didn't use the irrigation water previously. Now people on fixed incomes are tagged with a $30/month user fee year round even if they never use it.

Ahhh, serenity now . . . .sorry I could rant but I will control myself.

BTW Servo, I am loving this thread and I refer to it often. Great inspiration and advice.

Getting Ryan's thread a bit off-topic but ..

Irrigation source water is the same as the domestic source (culinary as you put it) - it's just harnessed from a seperate meter so that the amounts can be calculated seperately. Municipalities typically run a main or series of mains through an area - it's all potable water, whether it goes in your shower, your irrigation, whatever.

The Dallas area also has some greywater sources - DCURD being the one I'm familiar with - but there are usually additional costs (usually pumps/maintenance). As a landscape architect, I predict the next 10 to 20 years will see a massive increase in the use of greywater, especially as building systems are reconfigured to harness water used on site. There are already lots of places in the US that do this.

Sorry Ryan

Cuby2k · #**583** 07/06/2006, 11:20 AM

Well you missed the point Reefer, in my town the irrigation water is NOT metered separately. It is one and the same. At my mothers house it is a separate water system entirely and the irrigation water is NOT potable. Just the ditch water from irrigation canals that is now distributed via underground piping and bleeding the elderly out of their income. ARGH!

I always thought grey water referred to "used" water as in water from a waste treatment plant, much like the golf courses use. No?

ReeferMonkey · #**584** 07/06/2006, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Cuby2k
Well you missed the point Reefer, in my town the irrigation water is NOT metered separately. It is one and the same. At my mothers house it is a separate water system entirely and the irrigation water is NOT potable. Just the ditch water from irrigation canals that is now distributed via underground piping and bleeding the elderly out of their income. ARGH!

I always thought grey water referred to "used" water as in water from a waste treatment plant, much like the golf courses use. No?

I'll send you a PM

So Ryan, when do we get to see an updated FTS?

Also, did you ever sort out all that stuff with your Ozone? Is it up and running yet?

SERVO · #**585** 07/08/2006, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ReeferMonkey
Getting Ryan's thread a bit off-topic but ..

Thats GREAT! My thread hasn't had a topic for months!!! LOL. Actually, A FTS is overdue. I am waiting to get my new calcium reactor up and running. The cylinder cracked at the recirc loop. I have had chronic low alk and I am battling a very minor cyano problem.

Cuby: I am thrilled to hear that you are able to gain info from my thread! I hope to keep it comming.

I hope to get the prop tank up before the end of the summer. Once I help you, Nathan, plumb your tank, maybe you will be obligated to come help me with mine. I have a real big project with that.

Other than that, I continue to struggle with some corals and have no problem with others, but I'll get a FTS sometime soon. Brent came by and reclaimed some of his monster corals. I aquascaped the left side of the tank and I am really happy with it.

It is fascinating to see the variablility of what people pay for utilities. Clearly our tanks are not a major factor and changes from base line are a great indicator. Keith posted the best comparison. Give us a comparison now and next year! That....I am really interested in seeing!

I bought a deluxe red sea ozone unit, but I was sent the wrong one. After fighing with the online vendor, I got a credit for it and haven't purchased another. I'm not really jumpin out of my chair to get one at this point, although I do think that my tank would benefit from O3. I really want to get supplimental lighting 3 more 6100's and 2 nano streams. The mermaid is busting my balls that I consistently spend 500 bucks on the tank a month. (TOTAL BS!!!!) Thats really where I am at now. I am getting a big bonus this summer and she wont be able to give me much ****! I mean hey, I got her the window dressings that she wanted right!!!!

THe funny thing is I really thought about posting that as well give the comments at the begining of the thread

tankguy001 · #**586** 07/08/2006, 01:30 PM

I know I'm late in this thread but I love the way your tank has turned out. Just looks perfect , what a great job. On a side note , when my kids are old enough and out of the house , I'm going on vacation and finding me the same kind of mermaid you caught.

SERVO · #**587** 07/26/2006, 09:09 PM

Well I finally got my Ca reactor up and running. Currently trying to dial it in without a pH controller

. I'm being real conservative.

The original reactor cracked at the intake recirc loop so it was modified. I fired off a picture when I just turned on the pump. You can see some of the air kickin around the bottom.

Chrisrush · #**588** 07/27/2006, 12:54 PM

Looks good buddy. Glad to hear that David was able to resolve your busted reactor.

That gen-x media looks nice as well.

Chris

Hendersonracing · #**589** 07/27/2006, 01:23 PM

WHERE CAN I GET ONE----------effluent box

SERVO · #**590** 07/27/2006, 09:24 PM

Hendersonracing; email triggersystems at customerservice@triggersys.com

I know that he could put one together. IMO, I would have it made a little smaller in width. You don't need that big of a volume effluent cup. I think he mad it 4 inches long. 2X1 would be fine.

Well, for about the past 5 months I've had serious problems maintaining appropriate Ca/Alk levels. I've dosed B ionic, Kalk and all along used a worthless reactor. The reacctor pump basically wasn't push any water thru the media. The ARM media ended up turning into mush.

This has resulted in spontaneous STN of some of my corals. To add to this, I used some of the "bad" Sea Chem salt with low Alk. THis caused some of my Acros to burn at the tips. On top of that, I developed a cyano problem.

The corals have rebounded, while the cyano problem is starting to receed.

FINALLY, I have gotten my parameters where they belong. *Yeahhhhhh* I love the Schurans media in my new reactor. My Alk and Calcium levels have jumped to where I want them to be.

I have an additional chamber, but I'm wondering how much coral I will need to have to add it.

Pretty stoked about this. I have had some corals thrive and grow through all of that. I am kinda afraid to see them "take off". Maybe some of the other corals will compensate.

H20ENG · #**591** 07/27/2006, 09:59 PM

SERVO,
Which reactor did you run before, and what was it that made it not work correctly? (So I dont make the same mistake

)

SERVO · #**592** 07/27/2006, 10:40 PM

It is an ATI reactor that I have only seen at Sunlight Supply.

It looks good, but the problem is the pump. The plumbing is european, so I wasn't able to find the right pieces to retrofit a new pump to it

.

I could hardly get my Calcium above 340 and my alk above 2.5.

Much better

Horrible. I tried massive water changes, tons of additions and it would always bomb on me. My attention to detail is not lacking, thats for sure.

I'm excited to see this tank take off. I consider 8/15/05 to be the birthday, so I'm excited but bummed that it took one year to stabilize

.

I'll see what happens next. I should post a FTS in the next couple weeks, but first, once my tank is consistently stable, I'm going to get this frag system up and running.

H20ENG · #**593** 07/27/2006, 10:41 PM

Thanks

SERVO · #**594** 07/27/2006, 10:52 PM

Ohhh

Please everyone who reads this, chime in with your 2 cents;

What do you think that I should do for lighting for the frag tank.

I'm thinking 250W dual ended HQI halides. Not sure of ballast brand. I would love one bulb with 6.5 for growth and the other 20K to color up. I would really love to place one reflector on a motorized track, but I'm not sure if I am going to do that.

Recomendations?

melev · #**595** 07/28/2006, 03:22 AM

You probably will need 250w bulbs over your frag tank because it is so tall. Mine has a 150w DE bulb over it, and it works great. I would love to hook up some type of Disneyland motor to it to make it roll back and forth over the prop zone. That way there is no need to hang two lights, and the corals get more even lighting.

menard · #**596** 07/31/2006, 09:10 AM

Man,clean your mail box bud !

jnarowe · #**597** 08/02/2006, 10:27 AM

Interestiing thread. My house is all electric and my bills have increased about $70/month due to the tank. My June bill was $236 up from $170 last year. Power is cheaper here I guess since my place is 4,100 sq. ft. (not including garages etc.) and we keep it at 70F year round. (Temperate climate too)

Can you explain the effluent cup a little more? Is there some info. online about it? I have been debating whether to release my effluent into my skimmer or my refugium as a way to reduce CO2 going into the display. What are your thoughts on that?

floridabob · #**598** 08/03/2006, 09:53 AM

wheeeeeeew
what a thread took me 2 days to read from front to back!!!!!!
nice tank and set up servo my tank hopes it grows up to be as beautiful as yours good reefing

waynemk · #**599** 08/04/2006, 12:20 PM

Ok, I’m not as fast of a reader as floridabob so it took me 3 days.

Serious props on the setup. I love the thinking about equipment almost as much as I love the beauty of the tank and you clearly spent a lot of time thinking about it. I’m moving some time in the next 6 months and will get a 3 br that the second bedroom has a full bath and convert the bathroom to an equipment room and the br into my office.

My favorite idea is the room A/C rather than a chiller. Are you happy with the 10k btu window unit? I am planning on just under 2k of halides on the main and not sure about quarantine yet. If I recall correctly you have about the same wattage in lighting. You mentioned that you got a chiller and where considering sending it back. Did you? I wouldn’t mind doing both but under sizing the chiller a bit. I HATE temp swings. You mentioned about a 3 degree swing. Is that all the time or only when its really hot out? Do you think a higher BTU unit would solve the problem? I assume a bathroom would be about the same size as your room. what is the set point of the A/C and what do you want your tank to be?

Congrats on the little one. I assume you didn’t frag the mermaid to propagate.

jnarowe · #**600** 08/04/2006, 12:44 PM

Quote:

I HATE temp swings.

Any particular reason why? Natural reefs have temp. swings daily and seasonally so I am interested in getting your take on this. Right now my reef will swing as much as 5 degrees in a 24 hour period.