Al, it certainly affected my costs. We had increases in water, sewage and electrical rates since the beginning of the year. Even though I use mostly sponge filters, reduced the number of tanks I'm running and drastically cut down the time I keep the aquarium lights on, my consolidated bill is more than it was was last year.
At one time I was running about 50 tanks and now I am down to about 20. These tanks are of assorted sizes from 10 gallons up to 75 gallons as I am also keeping shrimp, guppies, Endlers, regular Angels and older Altum Angels.
I am looking to tap into the water that runs through my yard meter because that water does not get charged for sewage which is 1.5 times the cost of the water portion of my bill. I'll would have to run that water from outside of the house and into my basement/fishroom through a window which will allow the bugs to come in though the open window and that sucks.