My Tanks Carbon Footprint
- Thread starter jrobbins
- Start date
- Location
- Staten Island
I just did an application.... The cap with holes in it is what keeps it from gurgling not it being straight....
- Location
- Greenpoint Brooklyn, NY
Instead of worrying about the carbon footprint think of it as lowering your electric bill. And the only way to do so is to spend more money to get expensive equipment that spends the time engineering ways to improve efficiency. Vortec, koralia, dragon pumps...ect. Simplifying your tank or not setting one up at all. There are plenty of ways to do so. Run a softie tank. Low wattage, low flow, you can do water changes every month if you wanted and still have everything clean and nice. Run a big refugium to pull all the waste to save on skimming and carbon changes. You can set up some great tanks with just a display and a refugium run in a lagoon setup and only use a pump to pull water from the fuge.
You shoulda told your friend to stop procreating. Overpopulation is whats killing us with "carbon footprints". Use a condom. =0) Im beeing serious... Its not the fact that we overuse every resource its we have too many people for the amount of resources we have and that number grows significantly every year.
We can have a whole community work real hard to lower their consumption or carbon output but somewhere else there will just be another home built or another dubai that puts out 100x more than those people are trying very hard to save. There was a survey i read off a rural developement company that build communities on power saving and resource saving ideas that talked about a rural community of about 100 homes that cut their power/energy consumption by 30% over a year. The next year they surveyed a development next to that developement beeing built and the contruction resources and "Carbon footprint" have you was 10x the amount that they saved for 9 months worth of work beeing done. the second development was half as large and used about the same resources/carbon footprint.
Sorry, im playing devils advocate. Its sad but Every little bit helps. Kudo's to that development who saved the 30%.
You shoulda told your friend to stop procreating. Overpopulation is whats killing us with "carbon footprints". Use a condom. =0) Im beeing serious... Its not the fact that we overuse every resource its we have too many people for the amount of resources we have and that number grows significantly every year.
We can have a whole community work real hard to lower their consumption or carbon output but somewhere else there will just be another home built or another dubai that puts out 100x more than those people are trying very hard to save. There was a survey i read off a rural developement company that build communities on power saving and resource saving ideas that talked about a rural community of about 100 homes that cut their power/energy consumption by 30% over a year. The next year they surveyed a development next to that developement beeing built and the contruction resources and "Carbon footprint" have you was 10x the amount that they saved for 9 months worth of work beeing done. the second development was half as large and used about the same resources/carbon footprint.
Sorry, im playing devils advocate. Its sad but Every little bit helps. Kudo's to that development who saved the 30%.
unless your a vegan living off the grid growing your own food, and using no transportation other than walking, then complaining about a fish tanks carbon footprint is hypocritical.
If your set on using halides then try cutting the photo period down.
Often people give much more light than they need to. what's your photo period now?
I use a snapper pump on my tank 100 watts, and 3 vortechs for flow. that's less than 200 watts for flow and return. the skimmer is another story. the lights another.
I think they are paying people to take hummers off the lots now :bablefish
If your set on using halides then try cutting the photo period down.
Often people give much more light than they need to. what's your photo period now?
I use a snapper pump on my tank 100 watts, and 3 vortechs for flow. that's less than 200 watts for flow and return. the skimmer is another story. the lights another.
I think they are paying people to take hummers off the lots now :bablefish
This reminds me of an awesome bumper sticker on a car that parks outside my building.
"SAVE THE PLANET. KILL YOURSELF!"
its really not about the money, but the consumption. most of us can probably blow the total savings for a year in a solid night of boozing.
as for the stop procreating part....hell, i have nothing to say anymore. think what you want.
- Location
- Union Square, NY
Didn't mean to sound harsh, but this conversation went on for an hour and a half?
What I was getting at is that this is a very safe and rewarding hobby, with a fairly low footprint. You shouldn't have to do a scientific study for your friend, just say "hey, I like it, it helps me relax and enjoy my life!"
I guess I feel that you don't need to justify your tank to your friend (at least not past a 5 minute conversation).
This hobby is far worse for the environment for DIFFERENT reasons that I think are indeed debatable, but one thing we all try to do is keep our costs down while maintaining a healthy environment for our pets, but at the end of the day, they are just pets and can go if things ever got too bad.
believe me, i wouldn't invest this much time, effort, or money, into this hobby if i didn't find it truly rewarding.
that being said there is certainly room for improvement in our practices, and i think constantly examining what you are doing, and looking for ways to do it better, (ie. lowering energy consumption, boycotting fish from regions known to use cyanide, etc.) is only a good thing.
this has nothing to do with proving anything to my friend, but with trying to start a discussion about ways we could all try to do it a little better. unfortunately some people, including myself unfortunately, have taken this thread personally instead of viewing it as an opportunity to improve our practice. i am just sorry that it was taken the wrong way.
ok. i'm officially done defending my positions or my friend. however, i am always open to any suggestions anyone has on how to improve my husbandry and techniques.
thank you to all who took the time to read and respond.
i run 2 175w 14k's for 10 hrs a day. no actinics, and some led moonlights which i only turn on occasionally.
i am only focusing on the pumps because i am now running 3 maxi 1200's, a mag 3 on the skimmer, and a mag 5 on the return. i am about to add a phosban reactor, which will put yet another pump in the system unless i can get creative with the plumbing.
if you think there are greater savings to be found in the light cycle, i am all ears.
- Location
- Union Square, NY
Do you live in a house where you can do solar?
I'm looking at a property with a fairly large solar energy plant, the ability to run my entire tank off it is a pretty cool idea!
As far as RODI goes, if you have a well you can put the waste line into the well and reuse that water.
For your individual setup, can you switch to a larger mag so you can drive a manifold for all your pumps?
Are you running a chiller?
I'm looking at a property with a fairly large solar energy plant, the ability to run my entire tank off it is a pretty cool idea!
As far as RODI goes, if you have a well you can put the waste line into the well and reuse that water.
For your individual setup, can you switch to a larger mag so you can drive a manifold for all your pumps?
Are you running a chiller?
- Location
- Montclair, NJ
Hi Jonathan,
I've looked into this so many ways:
1- Using electricity that I could generate with my overflow
2- Solar Panels
3- Use less wattage
For number one, it seems the effort exerted to create any useful electricity outweighs what you could actually operate. I think you might be able to power led moonlights if you have a 10-15 foot drop in your overflow (I'm simplifying this bigtime as there is many other factors). Not real practical for most although it would be cool!
For number two, my eyes are still popping out of my head how costly it is to buy solar panels. I've been encouraged by news lately that many companies are exploring using cheaper materials that should be more cost effecient. Effecient.... Oh yeah, Solar panels are not very effecient at the moment and the amount needed to generate n electricity (you choose the measurement) is way off.
Option three has been mentioned by others. I'll argue skimping out on pumps puts your livestock at risk. I've experienced this personally. I wouldn't recommend to anyone to have a system run off of one pump (assuming no pumps used for flow within the tank other than the return).
I like the topic though for discussion. If you feel that your tank is a big contributer to your carbon footprint and you find this unnacceptable, the best thing to do would be to take down the tank.
When thinking of our hobby, I agree with Josh. There are many more factors to consider as far as effect on the environment that may need more focus than the carbon release at the current time.
I've looked into this so many ways:
1- Using electricity that I could generate with my overflow
2- Solar Panels
3- Use less wattage
For number one, it seems the effort exerted to create any useful electricity outweighs what you could actually operate. I think you might be able to power led moonlights if you have a 10-15 foot drop in your overflow (I'm simplifying this bigtime as there is many other factors). Not real practical for most although it would be cool!
For number two, my eyes are still popping out of my head how costly it is to buy solar panels. I've been encouraged by news lately that many companies are exploring using cheaper materials that should be more cost effecient. Effecient.... Oh yeah, Solar panels are not very effecient at the moment and the amount needed to generate n electricity (you choose the measurement) is way off.
Option three has been mentioned by others. I'll argue skimping out on pumps puts your livestock at risk. I've experienced this personally. I wouldn't recommend to anyone to have a system run off of one pump (assuming no pumps used for flow within the tank other than the return).
I like the topic though for discussion. If you feel that your tank is a big contributer to your carbon footprint and you find this unnacceptable, the best thing to do would be to take down the tank.
When thinking of our hobby, I agree with Josh. There are many more factors to consider as far as effect on the environment that may need more focus than the carbon release at the current time.
- Location
- Montclair, NJ
Funny side story, my Uncle used a car battery and a windmill to generate electricity to light his garage and his washroom. The town found out and made him take it down. I still haven't heard a good reason why he had to take it down. I thought it was a pretty good idea.
i live in manhattan, so not really a house. kinda kills the well and solar. my neighbors would flip if i tried to put anything on the roof, and i would be really scared to see what i found if i dug a well
as far as the mag goes, that was my original question
so, is it possible to just use a large pump instead of all the small ones and significantly reduce my energy usage?
i would assume that one large pump will always be more energy efficient if measured as watts/gph, but if i am missing something (like headloss, or god only knows what else) please let me know.
you mean he used the windmill to charge the battery and used the battery to run his electric? if so, that would be a solution to running the led's off the drain. you wouldnt even need a car battery, a couple rechargeable AA's would probably work fine...
Sure you could Jonathan but there are a few downsides to a single pump running everything.
Your tank is toast of it dies while you are at work
It is difficult to regulate a phosban reactor this way. One small burp in the system and if it releases the GFO into your tank, your tank is in mega trouble...
Of course you could do the circulation this way but you'd have to make a number of changes plumbing wise and as I understand each 'turn' in pumbing adds more to the loss of efficiency.
The pump would also be larger than your current one, so you will be dealing with more heating from it that will have to be addressed.
..just a few thoughts
Your tank is toast of it dies while you are at work
It is difficult to regulate a phosban reactor this way. One small burp in the system and if it releases the GFO into your tank, your tank is in mega trouble...
Of course you could do the circulation this way but you'd have to make a number of changes plumbing wise and as I understand each 'turn' in pumbing adds more to the loss of efficiency.
The pump would also be larger than your current one, so you will be dealing with more heating from it that will have to be addressed.
..just a few thoughts
- Location
- Montclair, NJ
Yes. The problem with charging even double A's off the drain is that unless you have a drop of 10-20ft you would not be able to charge the batteries in a reasonable amount of time if at all. The low end of that 10-20ft drop may not do anything.
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