Eco & cost cutting idea's.

[ezat]

Hello all,

I am considering putting a few tanks together but instead of just throwing it all in, i want to take a step back and think of cost reduction. For example rainwater collection, power consumption ideas etc.

Maybe there is a thread or two here but could not find it.

Thank you.

Ezat

[Ash]

Heating & cooling are two of the biggest costs, so having the area the tanks are in (or the tanks themselves) insulated will be a great aid.

Some find it is more power efficient to heat/cool the room with a reverse cycle split system, others find any heating/chilling of the water itself will dictate the temp of the room & be cheaper - it depends on your situation.

Regardless in a small enclosed space with lots of water the humidity will be high so you need to take that into account somehow - an AC would strip humidity from the air but if you directly heat/chill the water then some ventilation will be definitely required so the room isn't like a low temp sauna!

Then there is lighting as probably the most expensive next step - perhaps rather than fluros look at the options with LEDs or if sticking with fluros, use smaller ones with better reflectors so less of the light (and therefore energy) is wasted. T5HO units tend to come with good reflectors & have came down in price, though for a given distance of tube (and therefore coverage) they chew more juice & though they do punch deeper into the water if you are having planted or really deep tanks.

Rain water collection wise, some people are concerned about pollutants entering their tanks via whatever soot was on your roof ending up in the tanks - though that would depend on what heavy industry or farming is in your area as to whether any air pollutants would be on your roof to start with - most rain water collection set-ups ditch the first bit of rain for this reason anyway, to flush away the nasties.

I've pulled most of this stuff out of my hazy memory (some would say butt ) from reading people's fish room build threads over a number of years so take it with a grain of salt.

You'll probably get more, possibly more up to date ideas searching for "fish rooms" and seeing people's different builds & then once they are built them any further discussion of what they would change & why.

hope this helps

Ash