Tank current draw?

[Madmak]

Just curious to see the current draw from different sized setups. There are so many lighting and equipment options these days I'm betting there is quite a variance.

My tank in a 250 total gallon mixed reef with an Apex controller reading a max of 24A and an average of 6.5A.

[msjboy]

could buy one of those Belkin Conserverse meters ( got a brand new one on craigslist for $4.00 but typically around $30.00 ) or kill-a-watt ones.

http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Conserve-Insight-Energy-Use-Monitor/dp/B003P2UMP8

You can then find the amperage I think from the watts if I remember my physics.

regs
msjboy

[toytech]

watts = power x current so its watts /120v = amperage
acording to my reefkeeper light my 15 gal with 2 koralia 450s 150 watts of leds and heater are pulling 1.2 amps or 144 watts

[Ryan-b]

150g display, 90g sump. Max amp 6.9 average of 4.

[scherzo]

90 gallon display - 75 gallon sump
2 X 250W MH + 2 X 48" T5H0
etc

Max 7.4A
AVG 3.93A

[cale262]

200gal total net water system, with basement sump, 3 Radions, all misc equip shows on my Apex as a max draw of 11.3 Amp and an average of about 7 amp.

[mike31154]

I don't have an aquarium controller that monitors power consumption, but do have a Noma (I think) energy monitor. Pretty cool device since it can display volts, amps, watts & even allows you to input the kilowatt/hr cost to calculate what it's costing you. I keep track of aquarium stats including electrical devices on an Excel spreadsheet. Updated it recently after switching to a DIY LED fixture from MH/T5HO combo. Substantial savings over the older lighting technology. If all my tank electricals were running at full power, Excel calculates it to be approx. 550 watts (should be about 4.6 amps @120VAC).

Once we have our smart meters from BC Hydro, we should be able to figure out not only the amperage, but also power consumption in kilowatt/hours & as a result what our salt water hobby is costing us electrically. Just need to make sure everything else in the house is turned off during the time you wish to monitor consumption, including all the 'ghost' devices like wall warts, furnace xformers etc. Although most of that stuff doesn't consume much.... except for my Shaw digital cable box which sucks 40 watts as long as it's plugged in, even if it's not turned on....

[Enigma]

High of 2.4 amps for my little 25 gallon (display and sump) t5 lit system. Average of 1.8. Low of 1.1. It has a 100 watt heater and a 1/5 hp chiller.

[e46er]

mines around 10 amps peak

[wolf_bluejay]

I use a couple of fancy network controlled power bars that give me pretty accurate power readings (down to 2 decimals).
On my 220, it peaks out at about 7.2 amps and the average is approx 3 amps. But this is after a pretty agressive power "audit" of my tank and the new LED fixture. Before I cleaned things up a lot, it was maxing out at about 11 amps, with an average of about 6.

Granted, the tank was only part of my "power audit" and after 2 months or running after the changes, my house power consumption drapped at LOT. I went from averaging 1400-1600 Kwh per month down to 900 now. Which is about $40-50 lower than previously......

If you don't have a fancy power measuring bar/controller I highly recommend picking up a kill-a-watt and you can measure things 1 at a time and really calculated the cost of things. IE the LED's were worth every penny as the power savings pays for the upgrade in 2-3 years and I have brighter lights than I did before.