How to heat a large tank?

[Runitis]

It will be an insulated plywood tank in a rectangle within the wall. So that it can be covered with other insulation. It will be about 10' from a hot water heater as well so it should stay really warm. The hot water heater keeps my basement at like 70 degrees year round and along with that in the winter when we do laundry the basement is like 90 degrees because we put it on high heat and the whole basement heats up with this.

I'M ANDREW AND I'M A FISHAHOLIC
-Andrew

Lol that is so horribly wrong. A water heater heats water not a room. Youre furnace/rooms insulation keep the room at a certain temp. And doing laundry does not raise your houses temp 20 degrees. Also there you go contradicting yourself my house stays a constant 70 all year but in the winter my laundry makes it 90. You should really think about what you are saying! and do you know how hot 90 degrees is? youd have to be wearing shorts and a t shirt or youd be pretty much sweating. anyways put some heaters in the sump.

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[Sarmo]

may be his dryer isn't vented outside !!!

use heaters, get multiple heaters so if one fails you tank doesn't get cold. use a controller to monitor the temp and drive the heaters

 

[GBHammbone]

Just as a side note, not to derail, but if your basement is getting warmer by even several degrees when the dryer is running either the vent is ran wrong, plugged or broken. This could lead to high levels of humidity and eventually mold. If this is the case have your parents contact some one soon.




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[aldiaz33]

What's the coldest it gets in your basement? Averages don't really help since the heaters would need to be powerful enough replace heat lost during the coldest stints.

I basically have the same size tank in an unheated but insulated room. The coldest room temperature during a cold winter night was 50F. I was running 1,800 watts of heaters and they would stay on for 5 or 6 hours/day in order to maintain 78F during the coldest nights and days. If your room gets below 50 I would run more watts, but if your room does not get below 50F, you should be ok using 1,500 to 2,000 Watts.

I am running (6) 300 Watt Eheim Jager heaters (1,800 Watts total) plugged into a Ranco Controller (Model ETCI-1R): http://www.jehmco.com/html/temperature_controller.html. You would need a dedicated 20Amp Circuit for this setup (you would NOT be able to run your pumps, lights or anything else whatsoever on the same circuit as these heaters- doing so would be dangerous).

In order to cut down on heating cost, you would want to have the entire tank well insulated, but especially the top of your tank. If you don't have a cover, you will lose a ton of heat to the room.

 

[wow_it_esploded]

With an average ambient temperature, 2K watts of submersibles should be sufficient to keep it solid. Might want 3K just in case of cold snap/ich outbreak. Otherwise I think you'll be golden. Submersibles are pretty efficient, and should be pretty easy to maintain and replace if you break one. Maybe look into stainless subs instead of glass, just for durability because I seem to always end up with cracked glass heaters.

 

[Crazyfish88]

Like everyone else stated it depends on room temperature. Yes general rule of thumb for heating is about 3-5 watts per gallon. So if u take 750 gallons x 3 u would need 2250 watts to keep temp stable. If your room temps are colder like during winter seasons then u would most likely need 5wpg. The more wattage u can run the less time your heaters would be on. Myself I'm running 1600 watts of heaters on my 450 gallon + 80 gallons of water volume from my sump and it's just adequate with keeping my temps up. During summers I only need 1000 watts but during winters the 1600 watts can barely keep my temps up(tank set up in the garage). I tried adding more wattage during the winters but my breaker(20 amps) just can't handle the extra wattage load. Best is heat up the room during the winters so your heaters won't be running 24/7. Running high wattage 24/7 gets very expensive.


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[Bderick67]

Internal pumps and lighting will also add to the heat of the tank. On my 450g I have a single 300 watt heater in the sump. The room temp stays at about 75* and the tank runs about 3-5* above that. The only time I even see the heater come on is right after water changes.

 

[Crazyfish88]

Internal pumps and lighting will also add to the heat of the tank. On my 450g I have a single 300 watt heater in the sump. The room temp stays at about 75* and the tank runs about 3-5* above that. The only time I even see the heater come on is right after water changes.

Wow Brian u have a single 300 watt running? That's amazing lol. I wish I could get away with that little wattage heating my 450.


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[Andrew1002]

Just as a side note, not to derail, but if your basement is getting warmer by even several degrees when the dryer is running either the vent is ran wrong, plugged or broken. This could lead to high levels of humidity and eventually mold. If this is the case have your parents contact some one soon.




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The washer/dryer were just installed. The basement gets really hot after we wash laundry. Not while we do the laundry but afterwards because all the heat escaping. 90 degrees was an exaggeration. It's probably 80 degrees.

I'M ANDREW AND I'M A FISHAHOLIC
-Andrew

 

[Andrew1002]

Internal pumps and lighting will also add to the heat of the tank. On my 450g I have a single 300 watt heater in the sump. The room temp stays at about 75* and the tank runs about 3-5* above that. The only time I even see the heater come on is right after water changes.

How does the heater stay on and off with temp? Is it like an air conditioner? Like how it reaches that temp then shuts off? The rooms lowest temp is about 60 degrees.

I'M ANDREW AND I'M A FISHAHOLIC
-Andrew