A while back, I got fed up with my $400 - $500 electric bill.
I decided to look at my system and cut the electrical usage without compromising my reef system.
Here are some of the mods:
1. Reduced main pump from Dolphin (10Amps) pump to a Sequence Hammerhead (3 Amps). Since this pump runs continuously, a big energy savings can be had by correctly sizing the central return pump. Even with the new pump, I need to throttle back the return to the main tank. Also, there is less heat generated, which reduces the energy load on my chiller.
2. Switched from
Beckett skimmer to a needlewheel. The Beckett skimmer required loads of flow and thus necessitated a larger main pump (it was teed off of the dolphin return line). The needlewheel ASM G6 requires only low flow and uses its own pumps.
3. Switched from an in-line chiller to a drop in coil type. This also reduced the required main pump head pressure enabling use of a smaller more efficient central pump.
4. Switched from 2 Iwaki MD100RLT closed loop water motion system to 4 Tunze 6100's. The required energy to lift water, move it up a pipe and into a tank is much more than moving the water via propellors. Since I moved all of my equipment out of the display tank cabinet into my fisroom in my garage, I would have had to move water a long way just to create water motion in my tank.
5. Increased my sump size and moved it from beneath my tank to the garage. Putting a sump in a cooler area like a garage or cellar can help reduce the cost to cool the water in the summer.
6. Began using Ozone. Although I had trouble with the ozone, it did clear up my water significantly, so much so that I got rid of 2 x 400 Watt Metal
Halide lamps and I am now only running the remaining 4 x 250 MH lamps. Ozone can do much of the job that carbon does with a higher initial cost but zero recurring costs...producing the ozone is free, except for the relatively small amount of electricity required for the generator.
(NOTE: Use ozone at your own risk, it killed my tank
)
Please post any other ideas, comments, suggestions on energy efficient methods so we can all learn.
). 
