How long can tanks be off electricity?
- Thread starter Pond9
- Start date
You do have a fair number of tanks. Insulation on the tanks could really help. If you aren't keeping your room to 68 and warmer is Ok and it has a big window, it'll look ugly but a plastic sheet with a bit of an airspace between it and the window would likely warm the room up a bit from heat coming off the tanks.
68* is a little low. The fish won't die from it, but it won't be ideal, and you would essentially be keeping them in poor conditions so you can save a few bucks on the bill. If that's your goal, I would sell your fish and stock fish that like water in the 60's, like duanes suggested there are some cool species from parts of south America that do better in cooler water. Also NA natives like sunfish would do well.
Yeah, I agree. I estimate my tank , a 4 foot 120 gallon, other than heating(Which it's overheating all summer) uses about $15-25/month in electricity. That's nothing compared to the normal bill of $300.
Back in my aquarium shop days I had a lady refuse to buy a heater for her 10 gallon tank because it was going to burn electricity and she'd rather heat her house another 4-5 degrees all winter long to keep her fish healthy. This was back in the days of 5-6 cents a kilowatt. I tried to explain it was going to cost her maybe a buck or two max a month to heat just the tank with a 50 watt 8 buck heater and she looked at me like I was crazy. Oh well.
