Reef Winterizing: Tweaking your tank to save money during the cold?

[GillMeister]

I make no adjustments on my system for seasonal changes.

 

[Isis77]

1. Switch to DC devices. Even before they paid for the difference in a year - and now with the looming rate hikes, even faster.

2. I'm going to turn my protein skimmer and possibly one reactor off at night, ramp down my two pumps from 45% to 25% and look at possibly shortening my light schedule by 2 hours.

2a. I'm also toying with the idea of possibly lowering the temperature by 1-2 degrees and turning my UV off for 8 hours every night, but this means redoing all my temperature settings and alarms - and I consider the UV a mission critical component.

2b. Suggestions to reduce shower times at lower temperatures was met with "you don't have the same amount of hair", dimming the lights with "unlike you some of us aren't blind" and not putting up the Xmas lights this year with "you can sleep with your fishes then". Guess I'll be looking to cancel my Netflix subscription...

 

[ReefRondo]

I will make absolutely no changes at all.

 

[smoleral]

Where’s my Floridians at?!
We can’t wait for winter. We can finally turn the AC off after 9 months of full blast, and no more extremely stressful AC failures that occur in the summer. Winter is the season of cost savings for us. Time to finally get the tank heaters out of the dusty storage and plug them in for the first time this year.

 

[attiland]

This thread by @zoa what inspired our QOTD today!

So yes winter is coming and is already here for some of you and with that comes higher energy bills. Of course lights, pumps, heaters and all of our aquarium equipment add to the mounting increase is costs so what can we do about it? What do you do about it? Let's talk about it!

1. What are some things you can do to help bring down the cost of your aquarium during the cold months?

2. Do you have a plan in place to reduce cost or do you just absorb it and leave everything like it is?

In the house the temperature is the same as in most of the summers so no changes for me. Finally happy that in the uk is the same all year around. Cold and wet

 

[design.maddie]

I drop my temp down 2 degrees lower than peak summer temps. I adjust the temp over 3 months. So 3 months at 78, 3 months down to 76, then 76 for 3 months, then 3 months back up. My entire house operates like this so not really a "Reef Tank" thing, I just follow the trends and don't fight it with my heater. I replace my heater before it gets cold every year.

Winters here are between 10-60f

 

[Metcho]

Not going to change anything. I don’t run heaters at all. I live in Florida and my ac stays on pretty much everyday. lol

 

[DeniseAndy]

Mine is pretty simple. I add back in the heaters to the systems and remove the chiller and chiller pump on my large system. The hardest part is cleaning out the chiller. Then I wait for spring to again clean the chiller out from sitting around all winter and adding it back in line.

 

[scvc620]

Where’s my Floridians at?!
We can’t wait for winter. We can finally turn the AC off after 9 months of full blast, and no more extremely stressful AC failures that occur in the summer. Winter is the season of cost savings for us. Time to finally get the tank heaters out of the dusty storage and plug them in for the first time this year.

I'm in Melbourne area and it looks like we are gonna have a warm winter according to the Almanac. I don't really do anything to winterize anyway. Hubby puts on long johns below 68 and I put on short sleeves instead of tank tops. LOL Fish just keep on being happy. Love my little piece of the ocean.

 

[laxer23]

This is actually a cool topic, we keep our tanks at a constant temp all the time. If you look at ocean temps at the Great Barrier reef for example the temp from their winter to summer ranges from 75F to 86F. What would be the effects of replicating a natural temperature cycle? Better growth? Spawning? Nutrition needs lessening during Winter temps?

 

[Tate1213]

This will be my first winter with my setup. I might bump the temp settings up a degree or 2, other than that I plan on doing everything the same that I’ve been doing. Already have extra heaters&pumps stored incase of failures.

 

[Greybeard]

Hm.

Contrasting the power usage of my 150g tank, using all DC pumps, LED lighting...

I have a big, old, inefficient, ranch style home, with two 3.5 ton heat pumps, swimming pool, hot tub...

Winterize the tank? Eh. Drop in the bucket. Happily, energy costs in rural Missouri aren't what they are in other states.

 

[austibella]

No no change for winter. Living in south Florida our air is on 24/7. Cant wait for winter to hopefully get one or 2 days we can shut off the A/C and open the windows!! I usually open the doors in the morning for a half hour just to get fresh air in the house but its just to humid and hot ...

 

[mdb_talon]

My cost is less in the winter. I have a room ac that runs pretty much nonstop 8 months a year for both temp and humidity control in fish room. Central hvac is turned off to thay room. The coldest months i turn it off and crack a window. If it gets too cold(below zero) i close the window.

 

[Shooter6]

Yes after last winters texas freeze, I've made some huge changes and I. The process of finishing up.

I suffered a huge loss of high end sps, and an overall plunge in my 180g display, 290g overall system due to the power outages.

Tor it apart, salvaged frags of what I could and set up a new system.

New system is a currently running 400g with 300g Rubbermaid tote sump. With a 320g plumbed into the system but not yet filled.
The 400/300 tank and sump are in a heavily insulated room I built inside my garage.

I ran a 110v 12k minisplit in this room.
Also having an electrician run a secondary fuse box, with 10 breakers for the system. Its going to have an auto power switch so when the house looses power it will disconnect this fuse box from the rest of the system. And there's a dedicated generator with an auto start.
The rest of the house will be running of 2 additional generators. Also ripping out the entire central air system and replacing it with 2 seperate 240v minisplit systems with the cassette style registers.
I have found that I no longer need a heater for the system, probably saving 1500 watts of power doing so. The minisplit keeps the fishroom at a constant 78, and the water stays between 78.5 and 79. The storm was a blessing in the long run.

 

[tomboys]

If anything we'll "summerize" the tank by adding cooling fans for the few days a year when they're actually needed. Winter is like the rest of the year here - wet and cold!

 

[DeniseAndy]

OH, I do drop my temps in the winter in my tanks. I allow them to get sdown to 76 and max at 77.8. In summer type months it stays between 78 and 80. So I do have some swing seasonally. Forgot to mention that in my winterizing methods.

 

[Sunny in Miami]

Here in Sunny Miami? Where we are just about to FINALLY cool down to 65 by Saturday? Not going to do much except keep the aquarium heater at the same temp. as it has been all year long. I remember only one year back in 70s where it snowed in Miami and I covered the aquarium which was out in the screened patio with towels over plastic. Don't think that will happen this year though.

 

[scattered]

I don't do anything to the tank itself, but I do make sure the generator is running smooth and I have gasoline on hand.

 

[bpapo]

I went solar and in concept don't pay a dime for power