I had a friend come over today and ask f I have ever looked at how much it cost to run my reef tank.

I don't know.

He heard thatI had just added some "cool" lighting and was thinking of doing the same and wanted to know how much my power bill was.

I really haven't noticed any differance.  he thinks that his home tank may be costing him over $100.00 a month in power.  Based on the differance between his power bill and his neigbors power bill. 

I am going to check it out and see if I am paying anything near that to power my reef.  My standard power bill hasn't gone up that much since I started my reef, but I was curious to know how much it has gone up.  It has to cost something to power all that equipment I have plugged in.

3 power heads

1 return pump

1 UV light

1 150 watt HQI

1 175 watt MH

1 96 watt PC

2 fans

1 heater

1 air conditioned room

hmmm I wonder how much all the power these thing actually use.  'm going to monitor my power consumption this weekend, I'll let you know.

There is a calculator on reefcentral that could help.

http://www.reefcentral.com/calc/tank_elec_calc.php - http://www.reefcentral.com/calc/tank_elec_calc.php

Kinda scary.

Let me tell you from recent experience... my July electric bill (electricity only) was $360 .  When that happens the wife starts silly talk about shutting down the aquarium and asks questions like "just how much does that thing cost?"  So, I brought home a nice amp meter and measured all the circuits in my house, including the aquarium.  I measured the amp draw for all my aquarium users.  Everything was pretty much like the nameplate data except my 400 watt MH.  It drew closer to 600 watts.  My 125 gallon tank consumes just over 600 kW-hr per month (about 20 kW-hr per day).  That's about $40 - $50 per month (depending on which pay tier I'm on).  Ouch!  But it's workable.  Oh, I had UP&L come out and verify these numbers.

So for you Daniel:

3 power heads  (10 watts)(24 hr) = 240 W-hr

1 return pump (50 watts)(24 hr) = 1200 W-hr

1 UV light (25 watts)(24 hr) = 600 W-hr

1 150 watt HQI (150 watts)(10 hr) = 1500 W-hr

1 175 watt MH (175 watts)(10 hr) = 1750 W-hr

1 96 watt PC (96 watts)(12 hr) = 1152 W-hr

2 fans (10 watts)(10 hr) = 100 W-hr

1 heater (150 watts)(1 hr) = 150 w-hr

1 air conditioned room ???

Total = 6692 W-hr = 6.692 kW-hr per day
6.692 kW-hr/day x $0.07/kW-hr x 30 days = $14.05 per month

Here's mine http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2935&PN=6 - http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2935& PN=6  I'm at about 60 a month between two tanks.

Jon, what kind of ballast is the 400w MH??

Was this friend just talking about electricity?  There's much more cost than just electricity.  Some people spend thousands of dollars for their set-up.  Then there's Mark who I told last night could write the "frugal aquarist" book.  He manages to set up his tank and end up with an awesome tank for much less than a thousand dollars. 

I think cost also depends on how handy you are.  Some people have everything plumbed and wired for them professionally.  Others do a lot of DIY projects. 

Then there's the maintenence. 

One thing for sure.  No matter how you do it, it's not a cheap hobby.

Connie wrote: Without a doubt, Im in over 6 or 7 thousand and most are in alot deep then I am.......

Heh, I wish it was just 6 or 7 thousand....shhhhh, don't tell my wife!

He was talking just flat out electricity.

I mentioned having the power company come out to him.  I think that he may have a bad meter.

jfinch wrote: It is a Universal-Magnetek ballast firing a coralvue 20K bulb.  I'm not really sure why it's drawing so many amps .

According to their web site it should only pull between 458-475W.  It my be getting bad??

Turns out the power issue was cuased by a clogged AC condenser.

Poor chap, his dryer vent blows lint right on top of his ac unit. 

Thanks for all the input.

My setup costs roughly $20.00 a month.