Eco-conscious fish keeping?

[Henk Hugo]

Hey guys,

Two events yesterday really got me thinking about the carbon foot print that we as aquarists generate. While at a client yesterday one of the fish wholesalers in CPT came in and we started to talk about electricity cost for him to heat all of his tanks, which was astronomical!

When I got home I started reading the July issue of Koi and in there I found an article titled “The Eco-friendly koi keeper.”

It really got me thinking about stuff and I did some maths. My koi pond pump uses 6570kwh a year! The big problem is that there is only one energy efficient pool pump in SA and I already have it on the pond!

So I was wonder if any of you guys have done changes to your tanks to make them more energy efficient. I have never really thought about it….

[solex69]

Very good point raised Henk.

I sort-of kept tabs on my electricity usage as I added tanks during the year and the main thing that chomped my electricity (of my aquatic equipment only of course) are the lights. One could go for energy saving tubes, but I like my T5s :)

What I've done is to change the time that I switch my lights off to monitor electricity usage and I can get about an extra week out of my normal electricity purchase if I shut down my tank lights +/- 2hrs before I used to. My tank lights are now on from about 6am till 7pm each day of the week and on weekends, approx 8am - 7pm.

So, for my tanks to become more energy efficient, I'll probably have to switch to energy saving tubes and do some more research on heaters and filters. But ok, I'll think about it :P

2c for the day :)

Cheers
Dale

[Henk Hugo]

now theres a good point... I havent even done the maths with my lights but my pond pump costs me +- R210 a month. my light work out to 950kwh a year. which works out to only R30 or so a month. i guess it all adds up. i have been toying with the idea of insulating the sump on the big tank as well as the back and sides of the tanks in my fishroom.... what do you think?