best way to heat lots of tanks

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storm_fish

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 10, 2007
20
0
0
philadelphia
i have
14 x 10gallons
3 x 20gallon tall
200 gallon
125 gallon
80gallon
45gallon

all hooked up to a homemade sump .. now i need a cost efficient way to heat the tanks ... i live in philadelphia and the winters here are pretty brutal for cichlids

i was thinking about getting 2 weipro 500w titanium heaters but .. if you guys can help me find something that might be more cost efficient ... i saw one where the guy hooked his water heater with copper water pipe that pumped hot water from his heater into the pipe and would go into the sump and pump back into the heater and would turn on only when the temp drops .... its hard to explain
 
ive seen on a couple threads in here that for that size and number of tanks itll prolly be cheaper to just heat the room to what ever temperature you would like. one guy was saying how he tried heating all the tanks he had in his insulated garage with heaters, and then switched to heating the room itself and the bill was about half.
 
storm_fish;3831227; said:
i . now i need a cost efficient way to heat the tanks ...
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Three words: Thermo Nuclear device.

storm_fish;3831227; said:
... i live in philadelphia...
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Problem solved. Just look for that part of town that glows at night. You know, where they did that experiment. :D
 
heaters will get very expensive.

Room heaters run at around 1500w though so be aware of that as well.

Solar powered pool heaters might also be worth lookin into (some are only around $200)

1000w worth of heaters in the tank will raise your electricity bill quite abit. If you're anything like California, pricing is in tiers and the more energy you use, the more they charge per kw/hr
 
would a 1000w worth of heaters the same as having 1 titanium 1000w heater? ... besides the space and outlets it requires .... i have a sump so looks don't matter to me
 
Yes.... and no.

If you space two 500w heaters on opposite ends of the tank/sump, you might be able to get better uniform heat compared to having a fat 1000w on one end... better dispersement could lead to better heating... but if you have good flow, it shouldn't matter. In tanks with low flow (for type of fish) i've noticed fished huddled around the heater... lol

As far as your bill goes, it should be the same. Not sure about philly but its calculated at kw/hr here...
 
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