Lowering Electrical bill, but needing to keep my rays comfortable

[runninlow]

So im wondering what the lowest temp a tank can be for stingrays to live comfortably. my tank has been set to 78 degree for the past 10 years and for the past 10 years my electric bill has been rising. Im pretty sure that my electric company is wondering if i growing something strange.
I have a 485 gallon w/150gallon sump, 2 125 gallon grow outs tanks and multiple 75 and 40 gallons in the fish room. Im running a closed air system for my sponge filters and each tank has a 300 watt heater. I know for sure when winter hit my Electic bill goes up and during summer my bill goes down slightly. I need to really cut down on electrical bill, ive done all the wattage testing but my bill is in the upper 400 no matter what i do.
water changes on the 485 for sure is a cuprit of my high bill, what do you guys suggest i can do to lower my bill. I dont want to give up on the hobby since its all i have living in the house with 1 women and 3 girls. its my peace
My stock:
2 Albino Pearls
2 Albino Black diamonds
2 Hybrid Black diamonds
1 wild caught Motoro
1 BD mix motoro Hybrid
2 albino arows.

fish are spread out in the tanks, other then my 485 which has 4 of the rays and 1 of the arows. 485 gets a 50 percent water change once a week, the other tanks get 50 percent water change twice a week.

 

[TyKornblue]

just wondering, does the aro have drop eye? ive heard that in bigger aquariums like your 485 they dont usually get it

 

[runninlow]

just wondering, does the aro have drop eye? ive heard that in bigger aquariums like your 485 they dont usually get it

The large 26 inch does have drop eye on one side, the smaller 18 inchs doesnt as of yet but i keep that one in a lower tank so its constantly looking up. over feeding causes most of the drop issues. Ive had mutliple arows and if you just keep them underfed no drop eye will occur.

 

[TyKornblue]

The large 26 inch does have drop eye on one side, the smaller 18 inchs doesnt as of yet but i keep that one in a lower tank so its constantly looking up. over feeding causes most of the drop issues. Ive had mutliple arows and if you just keep them underfed no drop eye will occur.

very interesting, thanks for the info. and honestly im struggling with electric bill issues too lol, no clue how to significantly lower it

 

[Milingu]

What is your room temperature?
It would not be the first case where the air pump blows cold air in the tanks and works as a water cooler and increases the electric consumption instead of lowering it.

If your room is properly insulated it could make sense to heat the whole room with gas instead of heating the tanks separately with electricity ( given gas is cheaper at your place)

Are your tanks insulated? Like for example styrofoam from 3 sides?

 

[altums85]

Just make more money

 

[runninlow]

What is your room temperature?
It would not be the first case where the air pump blows cold air in the tanks and works as a water cooler and increases the electric consumption instead of lowering it.

If your room is properly insulated it could make sense to heat the whole room with gas instead of heating the tanks separately with electricity ( given gas is cheaper at your place)

Are your tanks insulated? Like for example styrofoam from 3 sides?

The 2 125s are 3 side insulated, the other smaller tanks arent. the 485 acrylic isnt as well.
Air pump is located about 2 ft from the ceiling so for sure its pumping warmer air into the tanks, did some testing and it does raise the temp by 2 degrees. My fish room is located in the basement so all year around the basement sits about 65 to 68 degrees. The fish bedroom itself is semi insulated, the testing that ive done is that if i only heat the 485 gallon to 80 degrees. it keeps the room at a steady 72 to 75 degrees plus or minues 1 to 2 degrees during the cold season. All the smaller tank heaters (125 gallons and lower) are set to 76 degrees.
I know for sure that a major cause of the bill is when i do water changes. my little 70 gallon water heater isnt able to keep up when i do 50 percent water changes on the 485. If its set to 78 degrees, after the 50 percent water change the temp of the water drops to 74-75 degrees.
the smaller tanks 125 and lower stays constant since i can water temp match cause i dont run out of hot water.

as for heating the whole room ive tried it several times, if i heat the room to 80 degrees all the top tanks sit at 75-76 degrees the lower tanks sit at about 72 degrees, i still have to keep heaters in the lower tanks since they lose heat. at this point im not sure what could be consuming my electricity

 

[runninlow]

Just make more money

HAHAHA yeah that is easier said then done. Im not broke, im trying to see how all these guys that own 700 plus gallon tanks, running ultras, dual pumps only pay 200 bucks in electricity.
I was watching stingray biology the other day and he semi showed his monthly electricity bill and it was about 1000 bucks and he runs thousands of gallons and plenty of ultras and pumps and heaters. I'm a small fish running a couple pump, a couple heaters and my bill is 400 plus bucks lol im confused.

 

[altums85]

HAHAHA yeah that is easier said then done. Im not broke, im trying to see how all these guys that own 700 plus gallon tanks, running ultras, dual pumps only pay 200 bucks in electricity.
I was watching stingray biology the other day and he semi showed his monthly electricity bill and it was about 1000 bucks and he runs thousands of gallons and plenty of ultras and pumps and heaters. I'm a small fish running a couple pump, a couple heaters and my bill is 400 plus bucks lol im confused.

Depends on location and states. Here in cali it's expensive and they just raised the cost. Also stingray biology is in a warehouse so rates are cheaper for commercial. My gas bill lately has been more than my electric

 

[wednesday13]

I bred and kept rays for 10+ yrs at 74-76 degrees. Sounds like ur more than fine to cut ur temps a bit. As others have noted, insulation can help. I would say the most important is to have good tight fitting lids on everything (tanks/sumps) also to trap ur heat in and keep it there. Twin wall poly carb works great for lids and insulating the top. Again, i never had an issue with 74-76 degrees. In winter some of my tanks would drop to 72. Feeding slows a bit there as well as digestion but they didn’t miss a beat new borns to adults. 74 was my “ideal” winter temp to keep digestion and activity levels “normal”. Been in the hobby 25+ yrs… anything over 78 degrees is bath water and unnecessary IMO lol… theres an old thread on here somewhere about rays and temperature. The thread contained a study that found the rivers rays were collected in were much lower temp than anyone would have guessed. It noted the shallow slack waters might have been 78-80 due to the sun, but the rest of the river down to the bottom were as low as 68 degrees.