Hello....Heating Question for a 1400 gal Tank

city_of_night · Feb 20, 2007

Hi, I just joined and have a Monster tank question. I found this site while doing research on construction techniques for Giant Tanks. I plan on building a 12x4x4 foot Tank in my basement for my Large Characins and my rapidly growing 14 inch Anthicus Adonis. (Probably using a plywood construction).

I am wondering if anyone has any experience with under-substrate radiant heat. I am in the process of converting my house from forced air heat to under floor radiant (Solar Heated with natural gas-on demand water heating back-ups). I am saving a specific zone in the plumbing plans for this tank. In the current rough plans, I have looped tubing for hot water imbedded in the cement floor of the tank itself (sealed water tight of course).

I would then install a underwater thermostat and adjust the temperature setting for this zone accordingly. Hopefully, since it would be tied into my water heating system, it would be very affordible to heat at 80 degrees.

Does anyone have a heating system like this? Would it work? Another option would be to coil the PEX tubing in the filter (Next on the list to research...I am thinking about 8,000 GPH). Would the sand warm up too much, or would the flow of water diffuse the heating properly to keep the water at a constant temp?

Any experieces or suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks,

125: 1 Anthicus Adonis (14 inch), 1 Marbelled Sailfin, 1 Xingu Royal, 1 Red-Flagtail Proc, 5 Silver Dollars, 1 Red Hook, 1 Black Bar, 1 Chalceus, 1 10 inch Black Ghost Knife

55, 45, 20...all stocked with small, but growing.....fishes....

wizzin · Feb 20, 2007

I almost did this. My house has radient heat already, so it would've been fairly easy. Mine's concrete block though, and I couldn't think of a clean way of "weaving" the pipes under the slab through the blocks. No idea whether it would actually work either. I've read that the best way to heat tanks of this size is by heating the room around it then using traditional heaters to bump it up to the desired temp.

city_of_night · Feb 20, 2007

I thought of just heating the room, but it will be in a room 9 wide by 33 feet long with an open stairwell to the upstairs, so it is not really practicle (this is a basement remodel).

The process I was thinking is pouring a new slab for the floor of the tank over the tubing coils....thus, the entire tank floor becomes a cement radiant heater.....This would be the easiest and most cost effective way, but that means the floor of the tank would be warm. I dont know if this would hurt the fish or not. I also could box the filter off and run the tubing through that, thus having a more indirect heating which may be better for the fish, but I am not sure it would be enough surface area to properly heat the tank in the summers.

In the winter the room will be heated to 72 so it would only have an 8 degree rise, but six months out of the year the rise would be more like 20 or 25.

captain.cerezo · May 1, 2008

I was looking at this too as I plan to build a 1000gal tank in the nearish future.

I was thinking of getting a space heater to a bit over room temperature (I'm in the basement yo) and getting maybe 5 300w submersibles in an oversized glass sump. so under 33 gal of bioballs there would be say 2 heaters. maybe another 2 where you store your charcoal and what not and another where the power heat andf sock is.

Even at room temperature you would be able to achieve tropical heat. I'm not sure if my fish would like a metal halide used for growing... plants. I have a few of these and was wondering if I could practically use them for fish or aquatic plants.