Water could be free, in surrey it's not metered. so yes, we pay an avg. in property taxes, but, it doesn't matter really how much we use. I was actually thinking of making a waste water cooling system by running tap water through a coil in my sump, then down the drain :S... i don't know if i hate the enviroment enough for that yet though :S
as for the hydro bill, mine before the tank was 80 a month, after i'm at about 100. Calculating it out, seemed to be just about right. This was in the summer when i wasn't heating my house, that makes nubers go all over the place, especially with our recent february spring time.
but heres the numbers i found for my 55gal tank anyways:
175W MH x 8 hours = 1.4KW/d
2x54W T5's x 10 hours = 1.08KW/d
Rio 2500 Pump = 49watts x 24 hours = 1.2KW/d
Rio 1100 Pump = 23 watts x 24 hours = .55 KW/d
4 x aquaclear 201 powerheads = 6x4x24 = .58KW/d
and heaters... but can't say how long they're on, and it's not wasted heat, since it heats my house? right? Thats what i tell my wife anyways.
So overall i have 3.73KW/d, and rounding up up for PLC, LED moonlights, etc, 4KW/d x 30 = 240KW of energy at $0.0637 is $15.23 a month, so seems about right.
It's easy to see how some nice lights on a big tank could really pull that up, but to get a $700 bill something's wrong, unless you have a nice big house, poorly insulated, and a chilly wife who turns up the thermostats whenever you're not looking. Mine does too, and i have a $250 bill for a townhouse through the winter
