1000 gallon aquarium heating?

[eddiegunks]

My challenge is i have a 500 gallon plywood pond in a basement. It has 1 inch foam around all sides except the top. Top is covered with corrugated roof plastic. Sump is glass and is covered.

When the outside temp dropped below 80 degrees my electric bill skyrocketed. I have about 1200 watts of heaters that run continuoulsy.

I am installing a propane room heater to bring yje room temp up to 70 degrees. Ihope this cuts my electric bill.

 

[eddiegunks]

My challenge is i have a 500 gallon plywood pond in a basement. It has 1 inch foam around all sides except the top. Top is covered with corrugated roof plastic. Sump is glass and is covered.

When the outside temp dropped below 80 degrees my electric bill skyrocketed. I have about 1200 watts of heaters that run continuoulsy.

I am installing a propane room heater to bring yje room temp up to 70 degrees. Ihope this cuts my electric bill.

 

[Eric gibson]

So what kind of heaters would all of yuns suggest to heat the 1000 gallon monster? I think I'v almost got all the kinks worked out. But befor I can start the build I have to tie the patio to my house wich ain't gonna be a big job considering there is already a roof tieing the house and patio together. What do all of yuns think about the 3 45gallon barrel setup for filtration? Any help, opinions, or insight is appreciated. Thank you all.

 

[eddiegunks]

So what kind of heaters would all of yuns suggest to heat the 1000 gallon monster? I think I'v almost got all the kinks worked out. But befor I can start the build I have to tie the patio to my house wich ain't gonna be a big job considering there is already a roof tieing the house and patio together. What do all of yuns think about the 3 45gallon barrel setup for filtration? Any help, opinions, or insight is appreciated. Thank you all.

I would heat the room if you can do it cheaply. (I get a great deal on propane). Or i was thinking of a water heater using coils to heat the sump|tank water. Again, using propane.

 

[fishguy306]

Please elaborate on how you did this. Thx

Sorry for the delay.

I added a T to the input and output of the water heater, you'll need to know how to solder copper in order to do so. It isn't hard to learn. On the output side I attached pex, then a circulation pump, one that can handle pressure, followed by a solenoid valve. From there it went to the sump where I had about 75' of pex coiled in the sump. It then goes back to the input on the water heater.

I used a Ranco, when the temp dropped too low it opened the solenoid and turned on the circulation pump. It ran 120*+ water through the pex, which transferred the heat into the sump. The water returning to the water heater was noticeably cooler but still warm. It is sent back to the water heater to be heated back up. When tank temp got high enough the ranco closed the solenoid and turned off the circulation pump.

It worked really well and was dirt cheap to run, whole lot cheaper than running heaters as gas is so much cheaper. Little more pricey to set up, but worth it in the long run.

 

[DRteugelsi]

Couldn't you just heat the sump and insulate the tank really well I mean there would be more involved than just that but i was under the assumption that would take care of it?

 

[badassissimo]

Look up vldesigns 2500 gallon. Quite a few people use their water heaters to heat the tank by running a closed loop system. They run spa flex? In a long closed loop with a majority of the pipe coiled up in a sump to heat through exchange.

Mines a 700 gallon system that I heat simply through a hot water drip. Simple, cheap, and I get the bonus of a 24/7 water change

I'm interested in this! How do you handle chlorine?

I'm a proponent of heating the room, not the tank. if you have some more temperate tropicals that are happy in the low 70°s this is a good option. a big tank won't fluctuate in temperature very quickly.

I expirimented with insulating tanks a few years back. i was breeding african cichlids in a small unheated basement storage unit. wrapping 3 sides of the tank with 1" xps foam insulation made a huge difference in how much the heater was on.

I'd go with an electric heater. keep the room warm, and insulate the tank the best you can

Definitely will look into insulating the tank and sump. I hadn't really thought about it helping in a noticeable value.

Sorry for the delay.

I added a T to the input and output of the water heater, you'll need to know how to solder copper in order to do so. It isn't hard to learn. On the output side I attached pex, then a circulation pump, one that can handle pressure, followed by a solenoid valve. From there it went to the sump where I had about 75' of pex coiled in the sump. It then goes back to the input on the water heater.

I used a Ranco, when the temp dropped too low it opened the solenoid and turned on the circulation pump. It ran 120*+ water through the pex, which transferred the heat into the sump. The water returning to the water heater was noticeably cooler but still warm. It is sent back to the water heater to be heated back up. When tank temp got high enough the ranco closed the solenoid and turned off the circulation pump.

It worked really well and was dirt cheap to run, whole lot cheaper than running heaters as gas is so much cheaper. Little more pricey to set up, but worth it in the long run.

I would love to do this but will this be possible with a saltwater tank? I'm planning to build a large plywood tank as a reef tank for my wife. I don't know that stainless steel will do well with saltwater.

 

[wannadivesteve]

To Eric. First thing I’d do is plunk down 20-30 bucks for a kill a watt meter, or you may be able to check one out from a local library or power company for a few days. Then I would put it on the heater for your 125 gallon tank. Since you already keep the room at 69-70 the heater probably doesn’t come on much unless you’re heating it into the 80s. That will give you an idea of how much you are spending on heating your existing tank.

A big plywood tank you are looking at should cost you what 3-5 times as much to heat. If you find out your existing tank is costing you say 3-6 bucks a month to heat you might want to consider how many hoops you are going to go through to try to save money. If it costs 20+ bucks a month to heat the current tank then exploring other avenues may be worthwhile.

I think DRteugelsi is right. Insulate it if you want and heat the final sump or two. If you go to Jhemco.com they have lots of high wattage heaters so you could get by with 1 or 2 heaters on that thing. IF 1500-1600 watts will take care of it they have a single titanium heater for about 80 bucks (but it will need a controller) that’ll do the job or a couple 800 watt digital heaters that are in the 80 buck each range. Safest overall is use the digitals at whatever temp you want then plug them into a controller set for a couple degrees higher... if they ever go bad and overheat the controller will shut them off. If you use a controller put the temp sensor in the main tank. If not, you may have to play with temp settings to get the temp in the tank where you want since you’re heating the sump.

 

[aldiaz33]

I'm running six 300 watt Eheim Jagers on a Ranco Temp Controller on my 770G tank and it's been working well for me for the past ~6 years.

My tank is in a detached unheated pool room and the air temps get down into the lower 50s during the colder winter months. I ran a Kill-o-watt on the heating system and if I recall correctly, the heaters alone added ~250kWhrs to my monthly power bill during the coldest winter months (the heaters get unplugged entirely in the summer). Your power draw would be much lower given your ~70F air temps.

A few things to keep in mind:
1. If you run heaters, do not run more than 80% of your circuits capacity. For example, a 20 amp circuit shouldn't have more than 1,900 watts on it. A 15 amp circuit shouldn't have more than 1,400 watts. If you go with electric heaters, the safest play is to have a dedicated circuit for them.
2. Temp sensor placement: the temp sensor should always be in the same body of water as the heating elements. If a pump fails, you could potentially have near boiling water if the heaters are placed separately from the temp sensors. Place the sensor near where the water enters the barrel, in the barrel where you plan to put your heaters.
3. How to setup the heaters: If the heaters themselves have thermostats, set them to shut off at 4 or 5 degrees above what you set your Ranco controller to. You want the Ranco controller to run the heaters. Since the heaters will not be calibrated 100% the same, if you try to use the individual heaters thermostats to achieve your desired temps, ultimately one of them will run a lot more than the other(s) and it will likely prematurely burn out. Use the thermostats on the heaters as your failsafe (set them to a few degrees above what you set the Ranco to) and use the Ranco to achieve your desired temps.
3. Redundancy is a good thing in this hobby, so having at least two heating elements on the Ranco controller is better than having one large one.

The decision to heat your system off of a gas heater will depend largely on what you pay for gas versus electricity AND the startup costs of setting each system up.

If the air temps in the room you're looking to set the tank up in are going to consistently be around 70F, I think insulating the heck out of the tank & sump and going with electric heaters will be your easiest and cheapest solution.

 

[wannadivesteve]

Awesome info aldiaz33. Looks Ike I had a couple recommendations exactly backwards. Sounds like the peak usage in the winter months was fairly minimal.