18' x 9' x 3.5' catfish tank build in progress.....
- Thread starter necrocanis
- Start date
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Running plumbing from the hotwater heater in the house to the garage is not an option. That would require about 75 ft of plumbing just to reach the garage. It would also have to be burried underground for during the winter. My option is to put a second heater in the garage somehow. Would have to put a dedicated pump just on that heater, fill it with water, and wire it to where it only turns on when the temp drops. That's why I kind of like that little 2.5 gal one I showed you guys. I would just change the water in it when I do my water changes. Best I can come up with for now. No way I'm running 70' of plumbing, and then another bunch for inside the tank. Requires digging a deep trench from the house to the garage, boring through the concrete in the basement to run the pipes out, and then boring through the very thick concrete under the garage up into the garage. All that equals a pain in the A. That's why I'm kind of leaning towards the tankless or a small tank heater. To start with though it will probably just have a few 1000w titanium aquarium heaters until I can figure out what I'm gonna do. I think it would waste a lot of heat to run a hotwater pipe underground in montana. Would be fine during the summer, but during the winter....blah! The water would be cold by the time it got there more than likely. Who knows maybe the titanium heaters will work well enough once the water is up to temp that I won't put in an external heater at all!!!
The plan goes forth as is for now, and hopefully within the next few months there will be water in this thing! For sure it will be finished before winter as that's the main reason for this tank is keeping my fish a little safer during the winter. I will be constructing a new box for the 350 gal also if time permits before next winter. Going to revamp the whole thing. Might even connect it's filter in with the big tank for added bioload on both tanks.
The plan goes forth as is for now, and hopefully within the next few months there will be water in this thing! For sure it will be finished before winter as that's the main reason for this tank is keeping my fish a little safer during the winter. I will be constructing a new box for the 350 gal also if time permits before next winter. Going to revamp the whole thing. Might even connect it's filter in with the big tank for added bioload on both tanks.
im sure if you cram enough fish in there they wont even need a heater due to the body heat and friction of bumping into each other and such!
I'm not sure if that 2.5 will work or not...as the pex would prob hold more water than that so once the water circulated out of the pex you would lose a bunch of the heat you just stored up... It would be a good experiment but I think i'll just go straight to safe with the 40 Gallon tank as it can also help with water changesnecrocanis;2984903; said:
I think the big problem you will face is more keeping the garage heated ... if you can do that then heating the tank will be MUCH easier... Take it from me as I have went from the non-heated to heated garage and I saw a noticable difference in my hydro bill, As I have always said it's cheaper to heat the space than the water but we still need the extra help sometimes
mmmm... Fish... body heat?....Not really feelin that one Captain Funny!cnoel08;2984927; said:
basslover34;2985022; said:I'm not sure if that 2.5 will work or not...as the pex would prob hold more water than that so once the water circulated out of the pex you would lose a bunch of the heat you just stored up... It would be a good experiment but I think i'll just go straight to safe with the 40 Gallon tank as it can also help with water changes
I think the big problem you will face is more keeping the garage heated ... if you can do that then heating the tank will be MUCH easier... Take it from me as I have went from the non-heated to heated garage and I saw a noticable difference in my hydro bill, As I have always said it's cheaper to heat the space than the water but we still need the extra help sometimes
Had the insulated pond outside when it got down to -40 the other year and it kept 80F with a 500w heater. The heater barely ran just once every couple of mins. Bunch of steam when you lifted the lid to put in food, but worked great. The garage will be slightly heated, but not completely. Just trying to keep it out of the -0s if possible during the winter. For what I have planned I think this thing should hold it's heat rather well, but I do want to get the main heating system set up before winter sets in again around october. I think during the summer an internal aquarium heater will do the trick fine. I was able to keep the 1000 gal uninsulated pool at around 75f when it was -20 outside and around 20f in the garage with just a 500w and a 300w titanium heater. So I would like to try some titaniums to see how that works, and if I don't like how much they are running I'll put the heater plans into overdrive. I actually don't think it would be cheaper to heat the entire garage vs. the very well insulated tank. The garage is a big empty space. 900 sq ft, and not well insulated at all. There is no source to heat it besides the space heaters that are in there now. Takes a lot of electricity to heat that garage. To keep it at 50f this winter doubled my electric bill. Loses tons of heat through the garage door mostly.
oh, were you not a part of this thread when we were talking bout putting midgets in there too??basslover34;2985026; said:mmmm... Fish... body heat?....Not really feelin that one Captain Funny!
