tank delima... which ine to keep?

[Jeff]

my electric bill for the next year will be 400$ a monthand i need to get that down. i currently running 4 tanks. a 50 gl. f/w that will be gone in the next month or two, a twenty gl seahorse, 140 gl hard coral, and a 100 gl soft coral. i will probebly need to get rid of one of the big tanks but which one? i will not give up the sps but i could put them in the 100g, but i also like the size of the 140g.
the 140 has 3 250w, 2 t-5 for lighting. circulation is sequence dart pump, 1 tunze, and i seio. i also have a phosphate reactor.
the 100 has 4 65w pc , an ice cap1400?, and some no name power head that pushes a lot of water.
i can build a canapy for the 100g and place 2 250w and the 4 65w bulbs in and bring over the tunze and seio, along with the sps. or just get rid of the 100 altogeather. i love both tanks and the fish that are in there but something has got to give.


i was just curious of others opinions so feel free to tell me what you think.

[villjr]

Keep the 140

[Jeff]

i need to remember that the 100g would be cheaper because i would loose the dart and a 250w light and i would only have to concentrate on one tank to clean and maintain. that would meen less food less chemicals ect..
my mother in law lives with us and even she seemed a little upset by the idea.

[alton]

Keep everything and run a green extension cord to your neighbors house? Keep the 140 never go smaller, later you will regret it and go buy another tank.

[caferacermike]

If it is the Oceanic 140 with the awesome footprint you'd be nuts to let it go. There is enough space in that tank to grow out several varieties of corals and fish.

I have one question and that is with 6 tanks running in my house simlar to your setup I only saw my electric bill raise $70 total. I'm wondering if removing a couple of tanks will make a significant difference? Just as soon as July came I noticed about 10 people complaining about their electric bills. Sure seems strange that they could all afford tanks in december but not in July, hmmm could it be the added cost of air conditioning and not the tanks? I found that my local utility in Austin liked to "estimate" my usage in the spring and then hit me with a huge bill in the summer. I'd go from $100 a month to $400 in one month. It had nothing to do with AC or tanks just them being to lazy to come by every month. Also estimating in the spring and then hitting you for the difference in the summer benefits them more because of the added fuel charges and such to discourage over consumption in the summer. Basically your 10 cent per Kilo jumps to 20 cents per kilo and it's much better to bill for the higher rates.

I caught my supplier screwing with me by taping a piece of paper over the meter. I had called the electric company to complain of being estimated and they swore they never did it. So I taped a piece of paper over the dials in a way that the reader would have to remove it. Not in 2 months was it touched. I called out a rep and had them look at what I ahd done and he agreed that there was soemthing wrong and I was refunded my differnce from the highest bill.

[hobogato]

thanks for the insight mike! ill have to check into that. jeff - i bet your bill will go down considerably when they stop charging the peak season charges and fuel surcharges. i think that frogguy had the best suggestion so far.

[Jeff]

we are set up on a plan that takes the average for the year on electricity and then breakes it up for each month that way you pay the same each billing period. but appearently we were at 275 a month and mow the average is 350, so the overage is tacked on to each months bill now totaling 400. i know that it is not just the tanks causing the increase, there is also an above ground pool we put in last year, and also the house is 250 yrs old so there are a lot of places to lose heating an a.c.