Looking for ray keepers' advice on heating bigger systems....

[DB junkie]

I'm already running into heating issues on my big tank. Was wondering what you guys are all using as far as heaters on bigger systems???

The hot water heater is a long ways away from the tank, and it's a rental house, so not too excited about tapping into it.....

Is everyone still on the titanium heaters/external controller band wagon, or have the bigger in line heaters become more popular?

I remember Big Dave posting a link to an in line 1500 watt heater that had replacable elements, but can't seem to find it again.

I'm already dipping down into the mid seventies and it's not even cold here yet. Gonna have to do something pretty quick....

Thanks in advance for any input!!!

 

[DIDYSIS]

So I started with 3 300 Watt jagers on my system added a fourth just for good measure. They heat Well and are not bad. But lately I have my hot and cold water drip lines going into the tank and I keep the heaters at 80 degrees but my drip is going so it heats the tank to about 80.8 I can control the flow of hot and cold water independently thus adjusting the temperature of the tank. The hot water heater does not run a bunch ( I have never seen it run any other time than turning on the shower or sink) which is normal . The electric bill went down a good bit this month and the water bill and gas bill were very small changes. Over all it's a good savings for my setup. It takes a little time to get it tuned right.with the water flow but after a little time of playing with it you set it and it's good. It's amazing how little hot water dripping into the system will keep the whole system warm. Just a though for you. So far I love this heating setup for my system. If something happens and it gets too cold the heaters can kick in and make sure it stays good. But so far never seen any sort of issue with it over the few months this has been running. I do plan to get an aquarium controller just for a little peace of mind to let me know if the temperature gets a little out of order. But I also want it just control everything for me also. With large systems the water takes a while to heat unless you are dumping tons of hot water into it. I drip about 2gph of hot water into the tank and that is my heater.

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[skynoch]

Gas is cheap here so I just heat from my drip system but when I use electric I use a water tank heater fed from a gfi breaker and controlled by an external temp controller with a probe in the water which feeds a contacter to turn the power to the element on and off. Easy to add dual temp controls for evening and day temps as well as timers. Been using it for over 3 years with no problems and they are cheap as hell.

 

[DIDYSIS]

Forgot to say I did the jagers as they are cheap and if one burns out the others will still carry the system fine. And easy to replace one. With one heater if that heater dies it's game over and bring on the cold. And spend allot of money again on new unit. Jagers are like 25.00 on Smith and Foster. True temp 1000 Watts is 200.00 azoo titanium 500 Watts are 65.00 each not bad heaters at all.

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[DB junkie]

Gas is cheap here so I just heat from my drip system but when I use electric I use a water tank heater fed from a gfi breaker and controlled by an external temp controller with a probe in the water which feeds a contacter to turn the power to the element on and off. Easy to add dual temp controls for evening and day temps as well as timers. Been using it for over 3 years with no problems and they are cheap as hell.

Thanks for the suggestion Scott..... Can you post some pics of your setup? Maybe some links on where to get the stuff? Sounds very intresting....

Didy- I did the warm water drip thing back when I ran a drip.... Then I tried aging water and the amount of crap that comes out of the water by simply aerating it is rediculous. Try it for a few weeks. I bet you'll be suprised, especially if you're dripping warm.

I quit running a warm drip after I had a heater stick. It's fine if the heaters quit, but if they stick and there's a warm water drip, you can easily find yourself in triple digit temps, and plugged overflows from all the dead fish.... NOT a good deal, or a mistake I'm willing to let happen again.

So far I'm thinking the ETCI 2R2 controller and 2K watts of titanium heaters from Jehmco..... I will likely mess with gas heating down the road, but before I do, I need a sure thing as far as the heating goes, a fail safe I can plug in after tinkering with experimental heat, so I can sleep at night.

 

[aldiaz33]

How many gallons is your system and how many watts are you currently running?

If you have an open top, that's the first thing I would address; covering a tank prevents tons of heat loss. This product provides some good insulation and provides light transmission: http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/product/deglas-acrylic-panel-8mm-clear/acrylic-panels

Below is a list of the electric heaters I considered. I was looking for around 2,000 wattts and I ended up going with six 300 Watt Eheim Jager's on a Ranco Controller and so far so good. With the Jager's, I liked that if one heating element failed, I still had others to carry the load. I also like the fact that the Jager's have their own internal thermostat because; this adds some protection against cooking your tank in the event your controller fails on, your temp probe malfunctions or is accidentally pulled out of the water, etc.

If you need more than 1,800 watts, Jehmco sells temperature controllers that can run heaters off of two 20 Amp circuits for up to 3,600 watts (http://www.jehmco.com/html/temperature_controller.html). If you don't like the idea of running so many Jager's, you can use a combination of their Titanium heater rods; I can't speak to their quality personally (I have never used them), but I know a few people that are running them with good results.

Like Kevin mentioned, if you end up going with one large inline heater and it fails, you are in trouble; this was the main reason I didn't go with a large inline unit...it seemed too risky.

1. Six 300 watt Ebo-Jagers on a Ranco Temperature controller- http://www.jehmco.com/html/temperature_controller.html
2. Two 1,000 watt JBJ True Temps
3. Innovative Heat Concepts 2KW- http://www.heatingyourpond.com/submersible-heaters.html
4. Elecro In line Heaters 1.5KW or 2KW- http://www.koienterprise.com/Pond-He...ers-p-523.html
5. Coates In Line 1.5KW- http://poolsupplyproducts.com/p319-C...ol-Heater.html

 

[KNH]

I just have 3 titanium heaters in my sump. The water does drop a couple degrees in the winter since we keep our house around 68 but it works fine.

 

[DB junkie]

System is around 1K gallons..... Probably 1K - 1.2K watts right now. (don't remember wattage on the heaters for sure)

The system is covered pretty well, 750 gallon acrylic tank and the pond/sump is lined with 1.5 & 2" thick styro. It's covered with another liner since the 55 gallon reactors and all the drains stick up above the pond/sump so far.

The Ranco link went right to the page where I was looking at the ETCI 2R2. Don't really want to get into the breaker box at a rental house, so thought this 2K watt controller that just plugs in would be enough.

I read you mentioning using heaters with built in T-stats as a fail safe when used with a controller, and I agree 110% on it.

The Ebos that you got the same as the fancier ones at Jehmco?

Sure would make the most sense to get a nice controller and add to the heaters I have that still work.

Really dig that inline, but unless I could swing 2, I'd have to agree there's better options.

 

[DB junkie]

I just have 3 titanium heaters in my sump. The water does drop a couple degrees in the winter since we keep our house around 68 but it works fine.

What kind of controller and what kind of heaters???

I've heard both good and bad about the Titaniums. I had a couiple smaller ones that came with controllers attatched, but they were inop when I boght the used tank they came with.

 

[FishDog]

Gas is cheap here so I just heat from my drip system but when I use electric I use a water tank heater fed from a gfi breaker and controlled by an external temp controller with a probe in the water which feeds a contacter to turn the power to the element on and off. Easy to add dual temp controls for evening and day temps as well as timers. Been using it for over 3 years with no problems and they are cheap as hell.

This is what I did on my 750. I have a 2 gallon Lochnivar water heater with a 1500 watt element which is controlled by a digital controller I bought off of ebay for $40 that is used to control Kiln oven temps. It has a range of 0-999 degrees. Aquatic Eco sells external controllers for this purpose, I bought the components and built mine. My tank is in the garage and has seen 30 degree temps already and stays at 78 degrees which is what it is set at. Another thing I do is use a small 1500 watt space heater from Walmart that cost $15 to heat the air at the waters surface. I checked this morning here and outside temp was 45 degrees, water temp was 78 and air temp inside tank was 77 degrees. You loose most of your heat when the air temp is lower than your tank temp, this speeds evaporation causing the water temp to drop. If you float warm air across the surface you slow evaporation and the water will stay warmer with less wattage from your heaters.