For the last 7 weeks, my entire home has had power fluctuations that were really frustrating. Initially I noticed lights flickering in the bathrooms and kitchen. But it got worse, much worse.
It seems like lately most of my blogs seem to be about the Apex. I'll try to work on that and add some other things in here from time to time.
The Apex saved my home. Sorta. For the past couple of days, I was getting Power Lost alerts from Fusion, yet everything was on. The reef was normal, tv was normal, internet was normal, the only thing I was seeing was the lights in the bathrooms would flicker a little and I assumed it was brownouts.
I contacted Ecotech today. I'm the type of hobbyist that likes to plug something in, it works correctly and I'm done. I don't tinker with it incessantly, I don't change settings all the time; I want it to be on when needed, and off when required.
February 2016 I set up my new frag tank. All the electrical stuff that supports the tank has been sitting to the left on top of a box of salt, primarily to avoid it getting wet if the fishroom were to get flooded. I had a piece of acrylic set aside for this project for about as long, but today I finally cut out the pieces and got it glued up. One of the reasons this went undone is because I knew I'd be running a CNC soon, and wanted to cut it out on that table instead of my normal 'craft by hand' method I've employed for the past decade.
In early 2016, it was time to renew my annual contract with the electric company. We have deregulation in Texas, so while everyone gets power from Oncor, we can pick which company sends us the bill each month. Strange I know, but for the past few years I've been skipping from one name to the next to always get the best deal I can. So far, it's worked out without a hitch. If there is a power problem, you call to report it to Oncor, and they fix it. The billing company just bills you for what you use, and doesn't provide any other service.
Doing a little math to see what it costs to run my tank...
3 MH bulbs - 900w x 6 hrs per day
2 VHO bulbs - 187w x 11 hrs per day
Return pump - 141w x 24 hrs per day
3 Vortech pumps - 63w x 24 hrs per day
Calcium Reactor - 65w x 24 hrs per day
3 Fuge lights - 62w x 8 hrs per day
2 Skimmer pumps - 116w x 24 hrs per day
Prop light - 147w x 7 hrs per day
2 Icecap Fans - 12w x 7 hrs per day
This is a nice page I bookmarked about a year ago.
Calculate the cost to run an aquarium.
Just fill out the form, and it will give you an idea of what it costs to run all this equipment.
I documented my 280g 14-day Upgrade Project. It is a 5.6meg webpage, so dial-up will probably not be able to download this page (browser error for sure) with all 111 images.
I came across a good deal on digital grounded timers to Costco yesterday. Unlike mechanical timers, these have a rechargeable battery backup to keep the timer on schedule. Two for $10 is really amazing, with 3-hole recepticals.
By feeding a small amount of shrimp to the BTA every other day, it has improved in appearance by inflating itself further.
