Fishroom help!

[Southjerseycichlidz]

Okay so I've been dealing with the same problem for quite some time now . I have a finished and insulated room in my basement with 22 tanks 10-220 gallons. The basement sits at right around 64 degrees and my tanks about the same . I went through completely re did all the insulation and bought a very expensive and good quality space heater to heat the room.. The thermostat reads 67 and will not kick off the room is way over but the cool air it picks up from the floor is not . It has not shut off at all in 3 days so my next thought a buying in thank heaters I will set them to 70-72 and higher if I am breeding this seems to be my only option right now let me know what you think . And this is the second space heater I've tried they all are doing nothing

 

[Ihsnshaik]

It's a basement so will always be cooler even with insulation and what not. How many watts of electricity are you burning with the individual heaters versus how many you would burn with a whole room type heater os what you need to ask yourself. Its much cheaper heating the room than the tanks. That being said space heaters might work but get some dehumidifiers as well they produce a lot of heat.

 

[Southjerseycichlidz]

My

It's a basement so will always be cooler even with insulation and what not. How many watts of electricity are you burning with the individual heaters versus how many you would burn with a whole room type heater os what you need to ask yourself. Its much cheaper heating the room than the tanks. That being said space heaters might work but get some dehumidifiers as well they produce a lot of heat.

thought was the tank heaters kick on and off the 1500w space heater stays running so if I set the tanks to around 70 they will only have to come up a few degrees and would be off more than on

 

[Glossolepis incisus]

If it's possible you could always, lay some high density foam insulation on the floor, than cover with plywood and flooring. This will help keep the slab from acting like a heat sink. Of course this means moving everything , plus if you don't have the head space that's another concern.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

If the heater is not shutting off because it's too close to the floor to turn the thermostat off and turn the heater off then you could try a controller that you can control the heater with and mount its probe somewhere remotely so that it will turn the heater off when it's warm enough. It will probably work much more accurately than the built in thermostat on the heater.

If you think about the wattage it would take to heat the water directly, for 20 tanks you could easily be at 30,000 watts (this is an average of 150 watts per tank). Even though they will not be on all the time they will draw a lot of wattage when they are (the breaker might not even hold all of them at once).

Also, as mentioned, if you can insulate the floor somehow, that will help a lot.

 

[Southjerseycichlidz]

If the heater is not shutting off because it's too close to the floor to turn the thermostat off and turn the heater off then you could try a controller that you can control the heater with and mount its probe somewhere remotely so that it will turn the heater off when it's warm enough. It will probably work much more accurately than the built in thermostat on the heater.

If you think about the wattage it would take to heat the water directly, for 20 tanks you could easily be at 30,000 watts (this is an average of 150 watts per tank). Even though they will not be on all the time they will draw a lot of wattage when they are (the breaker might not even hold all of them at once).

Also, as mentioned, if you can insulate the floor somehow, that will help a lot.

Where could I get a probe?? That's a good idea

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

You would just have to get a similar controller to the ones used in an aquarium setup, maybe the same one.

You just run the power to the heater through the controller and then run the temp probe that comes with the controller to a central spot in the room. When the probe sees the correct temperature it will cut power to the heater.

For this scenario though, you have to have a "dumb" heater, as in one that will go off and then come back on when the controller reapplied power to heat the room up again. When the controller turns the heater off it is essentially "unplugging" it so the heater will have to be capable of coming back on on its own when it is "plugged back in" rather than relying on a command from an operator, you, before it resumes heating. Also, you will need to make sure the controller is rated for the wattage of the heater. Sounds like it should work for you though.

 

[Frank Castle]

Okay so I've been dealing with the same problem for quite some time now . I have a finished and insulated room in my basement with 22 tanks 10-220 gallons. The basement sits at right around 64 degrees and my tanks about the same . I went through completely re did all the insulation and bought a very expensive and good quality space heater to heat the room.. The thermostat reads 67 and will not kick off the room is way over but the cool air it picks up from the floor is not . It has not shut off at all in 3 days so my next thought a buying in thank heaters I will set them to 70-72 and higher if I am breeding this seems to be my only option right now let me know what you think . And this is the second space heater I've tried they all are doing nothing

1st off, NEVER run a space heater unless it has it's own dedicated circuit and NEVER plug anything else into that circuit at the same time as the heater.