you're talking hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a solar panel large enough just for a PH and thousands for a return pump and a set of lights.

Its not completely out of the ball park.. You can build your own for half the price of a kit.

here is a kit from Home Depot

http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/s...k=P_PartNumber

Granted it is expensive, but its also 1750watts and probably contains stuff you really do not require.

Anyways.. its an idea. I saw a few panels on Ebay for a few 100$ each one about 75w I think... a maxi jet 1200 is 20w. So for a small tank I think it might be interesting.

$5500 for 1750 watts seems a little pricey to me, I'll have to do more looking though. Three big panels 4 deep cycle batteries and an inverter/charge controller, with some screws and mounting equipment. Shouldn't be too much trouble to pick your own parts off the shelf. I don't see anywhere the output of the panels. 1750 watt will be the inverter output, there is no mention of how long it'll maintain 1750 watts.

The wattages given are at peak sun so factor that, then the cost for battery, charger, invertor and also consider the losses from those you need to make up for.

im all for alt energy. It costs a little more but my house is heated by goethermal and i dont know the exact number but a good majority of my tank is run off a wind turbine unit i got from canadian tire but is made by a diffrent manufacterer. The only one you can get at canadian tire. it is made in utah i think. it cost 2100.00 bucks in the end ( you need a place to store the "energy" and i have a real big unit). you can get a smaller one for around 1000.00

Very interesting thread. As an environmental economist (by degree), I have a hard time justifying the environmental impacts of having a large reef tank. In the future I would like to have a carbon neutral tank, by using alternative energy and by purchasing carbon credits (offsets) - once some of the kinks of these have been ironed out.

Keep us informed as to how your project goes!

Okay, this is what we all really need to drive the MH lights and pumps. Why go green when you can have free power for the next hundreds years or so.....
http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/...ar-12.17b.html

Can't wait to see the environmentalists go into convulsions when they release that baby. Sign me up for one!!!!!!

Todd

I feel the same way about the energy demands of a large tank.

I have read many articles about reef bleaching it is very clearly related to sea level temperatures and acidity which are increasing due to CO2 pollution.

(Detailed article from 1999- from a highly acclaimed Marine Bio University and Researchers)

http://www.jeffwalden.com/PowerPoint...al%20reefs.pdf

I used to live in Waterloo Ont and worked in hte engeneering department of the untility company. We were installing 2-way meters that allowed coutomers to feed electricity from wind or solar cells back to the grid. This made the technology viable becasue it cuts out the need for batteries and allows seemles transition from the your source to the grid...good for reef tanks.

Also in Calgary where i live now, You can easily choose to buy WIND electricly
from Enmax our main utility company. It cost 12c/KWh I believe, before I think I paid 9c/KWh. Good deal for piece of mind and relative to a personal onside generation cost. Many business use wind energy here and like to show off that fact;)

you can use a computer UPS for short term power outages to run heaters and pumps but lights would kill one in hours.

best method is to get a small honda genset and use that in the event of an outtage,

if you used a bunch of solar pannels and a battery bank and an inverter you could feed power back into the grid on bright days and get a credit from bchydro then get a slight decrease in consumption when its cloudy.