770 Gallon Monster Setup
- Thread starter aldiaz33
- Start date
I would be curious to hear about your quote on a solar system. Were you checking out a system to simply negate the tanks electricity use? or a whole house system?
The estimates were for a whole house system. This is actually the second estimate I've gotten. The first (6.21kW system) came in at $41K ($28K after rebates and tax credits) and this second one (5.13kW system) came in at $23K ($15K after rebates and tax credits). I'm still mulling over the numbers to see if it makes sense, but I'm thinking that the payback period would be around 10 years and I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that.
Yeah, I'm looking into this also. 7 to 10 years is the normal ROI (return on investment) and I believe it will get worse soon with out the tax breaks. If you have an electric water heater it's only around 3 to 4 years for the ROI. Water heaters are the second most expensive portion of an electric bill. AC/heating is #1. If you have a gas water heater then it's just not worth it to go solar.
The replacement Hammerhead Gold (HHG) pump that Reeflo sent me started leaking from the seal (same location as the first pump). This replacement pump had been running leak-free for only 3.5 months. I e-mailed Reeflo and asked if they could send me a Super Dart Gold as another replacement (it arrived just a few days later). Their customer service has been awesome, but I can't say I am a big fan of the Hammerhead Gold pump. It draws quite a bit more watts than advertised (331 watts at 9' head, vs the advertised 291watts at 9' head pressure) and it's pretty loud...not to mention the issues I've had with leaking seals. I know people who are running the HHGs without any problem so I don't mean to bash Reeflo. The owner said they are likely being damaged during shipping, which the first one was definitely beat up really bad by the folks are UPS. Perhaps I have just had bad luck.
I just hooked up the Super Dart Gold and so far so good. It draws closer to what they advertise (172 watts at my 9' head) and it runs much, much quieter than the Hammerhead Gold....I know, the Hammerhead gold was pushing about twice as much water (4,400GPH, versus the 2,200), but I think the Hammerhead was overkill anyways and it was costing me about $70 month on my electric bill (the Super Dart should only cost me about $40/month).
I've been trying to cut back on my expenses, so I decided to not buy heaters and wait until next winter to test how many watts it would take to maintain tropical temps. The current water temperature is 59F. Although it's gotten down to 30F (outside air temp) in the early morning, the air temp in the room has only gotten down to 50F.
The Hammerhead Gold is enormous comparied to the Super Dart Gold (SDG), although I found it interesting that the SDG has a larger inlet (2") versus the HHG's 1.5" inlet.
I just hooked up the Super Dart Gold and so far so good. It draws closer to what they advertise (172 watts at my 9' head) and it runs much, much quieter than the Hammerhead Gold....I know, the Hammerhead gold was pushing about twice as much water (4,400GPH, versus the 2,200), but I think the Hammerhead was overkill anyways and it was costing me about $70 month on my electric bill (the Super Dart should only cost me about $40/month).
I've been trying to cut back on my expenses, so I decided to not buy heaters and wait until next winter to test how many watts it would take to maintain tropical temps. The current water temperature is 59F. Although it's gotten down to 30F (outside air temp) in the early morning, the air temp in the room has only gotten down to 50F.
The Hammerhead Gold is enormous comparied to the Super Dart Gold (SDG), although I found it interesting that the SDG has a larger inlet (2") versus the HHG's 1.5" inlet.
The guy I bought the tank from collected the driftwood from Folsom Lake and cut it to fit the tank perfectly.
PS- I haven't seen my neighbor so I haven't been able to ask him about the stand. I'll let you know when I get a hold of him.
Your native tank is awesome. I was thinking about going that route (Largemouth Bass, Green Sunfish, Bullheads and a school of Golden Shiners) but there are all sorts of laws against collecting fish in California and I don't want to risk getting in trouble.
