Best choice for heating 1000+ gallons?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
In my example, I had a 400g acrylic in my garage with 1500w of heating. In the winter temps dropped below 60, and my tank wouldn't even reach 77-78 degrees, and the heaters were running nonstop. I had to add 5-6 spare heaters I had to be able to get it in the low 80s.
 
I have a heating setup for my pond ready to go just need to build the new pond. I am actually using a 1500 watt 2 gallon water heater I got for dirt cheap and then I bought a plc temp controller off of ebay for $40. You install a thermal coupling in the piping which connects to the controller. The controller turns on a relay that turns the heater on. Wish I had it running to share how it works.
 
jcardona1;5065113; said:
How about these options?

In-line
http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/3925/Aqua Logic® In-Line Heaters
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I use one of the 3kW models of those on my 3,000 gallon setup. It works good, only complaint is during water changes its controller seems to have a hard time getting the temp to stay right, thinks its heated it back up to 80 when its really only 78. Not a big problem though, its always only off by about 2 degrees and only during water changes, rest of the time it keeps it right at 80.
 
Maybe I should have added that I'm looking for something 110V.

I had 1000 watts worth of Stealths in my pond. No issues. Added those Stealths to the tank and wouldn't you know, half of them are buggered. Small crack leaking white stuff. Stealths- what's new right?

The room isn't heated. It stays around 70 but without running ductwork into that room I have little control over temp in there.

This is why I chose to tap into hot AND cold for the drip. I drip warm water so I don't need a whole lot for heat. The pond stays covered most of the time. The tank is 3/4 acrylic so it's pretty insulated.

As far as moving this thread to setup and filtration- don't waste the time. I only post ray setup questions here cause there is much better advice here then in the DIY section.

Tank temp is currently mid 70s....... I'm not a fan of keeping rays in the 80s so IF I could do 85 it would be nice but I really only need to hit 80.

I guess maybe I'll look into a big dehumidifier.... Maybe that would raise the ambient temp in the room.

Thank you for the ideas fellas.....

So I guess there's not as many as I thought running the big in-line heaters :(

Not sure IF I could trust temp controllers on several smaller heaters as it seems there's a new horror story every few days of the controllers cooking something. After my last lil cook off I'm not ready to go through that crap again any time soon.
 
Is nobody heating their tanks with your water heater? This is what I am planning on doing for my new setup (only 650 gallons or so). I have not gone through it myself yet but it is common int he saltwater world with big tank owners.

Basically from what I gather, you tie into a hot water line with a recirc pump, and run a line into a coil of pex in your sump. Then you use a temperature controller (Ranco etc) to turn the recirculation pump on and off. Once the water leaves the coil int he sump it is cycled back to your water heater so there is no mixing of water and all you are doing is recirculating water water. I have heard it is extremely energy efficient, if you are a gas water heater.

I will be researching this much more the next few weeks, as I am just starting my build, picked up the 520g yesterday actually!
 
tanglovers;5069600; said:
Is nobody heating their tanks with your water heater? This is what I am planning on doing for my new setup (only 650 gallons or so). I have not gone through it myself yet but it is common int he saltwater world with big tank owners.

Basically from what I gather, you tie into a hot water line with a recirc pump, and run a line into a coil of pex in your sump. Then you use a temperature controller (Ranco etc) to turn the recirculation pump on and off. Once the water leaves the coil int he sump it is cycled back to your water heater so there is no mixing of water and all you are doing is recirculating water water. I have heard it is extremely energy efficient, if you are a gas water heater.

I will be researching this much more the next few weeks, as I am just starting my build, picked up the 520g yesterday actually!
Click to expand...

As mentioned earlier I do NOT own my house. I really didn't want to have to explain the whole ordeal to the landlord. IF I can't find anything else I may be forced to go this route.

Rich (VLDesign) already incorporated this on his big tank and is havinbg great luck with it. He has plans available in PDF form in his sig, just find one of his posts.

Is insulating a big acrylic tank really gonna do that much for it?
 
I guess it depends on where your water heater is located compared to your tank but I could see this being incorporated without long term changes to the house / the landlord knowing when you moved out. Obviously you would know best and maybe this just is not an option.

I have heard insulating tanks can help alot but I also think acrylic on its own is a good insulator.
 
On my 1000 gal I run 4 x 500w aqua medic heater with no stats then connect 2 x 500w to each external stat then the probes from the stats in the main tank it has worked very well but running the water throw 4 x 25w UVS also helps heat the water as long as you are not pumping to fast
 
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