Diver's Den Tour- Invertebrate Section

To continue the previous thread, this post will feature the invertebrate section of the facility.
First I want to show you the massive protein skimmer and reactor combo at this LiveAquaria, there are several of them:

This protein skimmer is taller than me... enough said.

Asked my wife to model for scale, humongous carpet anemones

More carpet anemones

Each of the anemones in this section, including carpet and a bunch of bubble tip are all hosting a pair of clownfish. it's really cool to see they make them all happy, even though as a retailer it's completely unnecessary to pair clownfish with anemone since one or the other would be sold soon anyways. But they did what they can to make each feel happy.

A bundle of long tentacle anemone

 a cluster of derasa clams (not yet offered on diver's den, they were exclusive for the tour), and a bunch of cultured maxima clam. very sweet deals! I managed to snatch two of these handsome derasa clams

Lighting may be one of the biggest questions any hobbyist buying from LiveAquaria wishes to ask. In the photo below you will see a broader view of the facility with lights running on a track. The lights run in a lateral movement so that it can cover all angles of the photosynthetic animals beneath rather than creating a "hot spot". When I toured this place a few years ago all lights were 400W 20K Metal Halide. Today this facility has a mix of high end LED (such as AI hydra + a few other varieties). All holding raceway are no more than 12" deep. All the animals look healthy and for clams I can observe significant growth indicating excellent health condition.

The livestock raceway

Here is a picture of the holding section for shrimp, small crabs (such as acropora crabs) and small shrimp (pistol shrimp or squat lobster, which by the way are size of a pinky nail!) They are held in individual transparent containers approx. the size of a film box (if you are born after the mid 90's you might not know what that is lol).

squat lobster, I can't believe how tiny they actually are compare to the online photos.

maxima clams in the diver's den section

And lastly, the diver's den clam section. I must say, almost all the clams in this section appears much larger than what is seems on the photo (contrary to the squat lobster), and honestly, the photos don't do justice on how beautiful they are. One of these clams I purchased looks like a mustard, brown color online but turns out to be a shiny gold in person! All of them are kept under 400W metal halide, 20K bulbs hence the very blue photo here. And one thing they offer that no one else do is live arrival ad 14 day guarantee.
Here is a couple videos:

20141120 180 Gallon Reef Ready tank build

While waiting for the 180 gallon tank's paint to dry, I took the opportunity to also paint the back panel of the stand and the back of the 75 gallon tank, which I will be placing underneath the 180 as a sump.

Tank Stand upright while the paint dries

I am experimenting a "compartment free" sump, where the water is allowed to flow freely through without needing to flow through compartments. But I am building a media container within the sump and also act a as divider for any rock, macro algae, and possible livestock I place down here from the skimmer and the return pumps.

open divider for the sump

2014-05-08 Save $$$ on electricity

I have heard and seen many discussions on how much energy their reef tanks draw and that they can see a BIG difference in energy bill with/without the tank operating. Today I want to make an attempt to break it down by using my own tank as an analysis.

First of all let's understand how do power companies charge your energy usage

Below is an example of one of my recent bills:

  Customer Charge                  30 DAYS   AT $    .34308  $       10.29       
  State Low-Income Asst Fee        30 DAYS   AT $    .10333  $        3.10       
  Distribution Service           1356 KWH    AT $    .03000  $       40.68       
  Electricity Service            1356 KWH    AT $    .10992  $      149.05       

    Subtotal Electric Meter     250177 ---------------------------$      203.12  

Note the items in line 1 and 2 are things you cannot change- you are paying those regardless how much energy you use.

And line 3 and 4 are basically two of the same thing, so I am going to add it together and call it approximately $.14 for each KWH of energy we use in the house.

KWH stands for Kilowatt hour. Basically if you add up all the wattage your household electronics' and appliances' labels you are looking at this. To illustrate:

1356/ 30 days= roughly 45 KWH for each of the 30 days this month, meaning I use 45KWH each day. To divide that by 24 hours, I am using nearly 2KWH each hour. 2KWH= 2000W= 20 X 100W lightbulbs on simultaneously for the entire 24 hour cycle each day. Using this principle above, let's estimate what % of my household energy contributes to my tank:

Tank energy:

Light: 2X70W Aqua Illumination Sol Blue LED on for 10 hours at an average of 35% of the 70W= 70 X 2 X 35% X 10= 526W

Heater: 200W, but not on constantly, probably on for approximately 70% of the time- 200 X 70% X 24= 3360W

Return Pump: Mag drive 7- 60W X 24hours= 1440W

Powerhead/wave makers: 3X 15W X 24hours= 1080W

Skimmer Pump: 60W X 23 Hours (minus feeding time)=1380

Total= 7786W

Here is the kick, even though electronics may label as 100W. Few to none ever operate at exactly that amount. Most of them actually consumes 20-40% more energy to operate at the energy level labelled. In another words, if a light build is labeled 100W, it might actually consume 140W in reality. 

For that reason, we will multiply 7786 X 140%= 10900W

10900W=10.9Kilowatt, let's call it 11 KWh

So each day out of the 45 KWh, 11 goes to the tank, roughly a quarter of my household energy! and if you look at my monthly charge- that's about $50

Now, things actually used to be worse- Metal Halide bulbs. I used to use a fixture containing 1X250W Metal halide + 4X24W T-5 tubes, a whopping 342W. And this fixture did not have the ramping and % control like the LED lights do. So if I have this light on for 10 hours/day- 342X10= 3420W 

Add this up with other parts (heater, pumps, skimmer)-10680 X 140%= 14952W

14952W is roughly 15KWh

So let's do the math: 15KWh - 11KWh=4KWh/day

4KWh X 30= 120KWh/month X $.14= roughly $17 a month of energy bill difference.- $200 a year in energy savings!

A Good LED lighting system cost between $400-$900 and lasts 10,000 hours - if you can keep the light for more than 2 years you got your money back.

A Good Metal Halide system cost about the same amount and definitely does not last as long - at least you need to replace the $50 bulb annually for optimum performance.

So next time if your significant other questions why you need to upgrade to the LED and other energy efficient pieces, please show her this post and tell her- you are saving money on the energy bill in the long run.