Hello, haven't been here in a while but thought I would drop by with some questions. So here's the story, I'm buying a 300g galvanized water trough and using it for monster fish. I will still be inserting it into a fitting with insulation and everything so don't worry about that. My only question is... How can I efficiently heat and filter it on a very low budget but still keep the fish happy and healthy? I was thinking heating the whole room but that just makes another project of insulating walls lol. So can anyone help? I'm new to this type of thing, I've been keeping fish for about 9 years now in tanks but never went monster until recently. Any help would be greatly appreciated - Matt PS I need to heat because I live in upstate NY and it gets cold in winter.
Heating and filtering indoor pond
- Thread starter Fish_guygobies
- Start date
Build a bulkhead around it and leave air space where you were going to have the insulation heat that airspace you have created then put your insulation around that to ensure that air pocket retains its heat
Use a lid to keep the heat in on top of the tank this will also help with humidity buildup
You can use lamps inside the air pocket that are on dimmers to regulate the temperature for the tank
Other than that your looking at a few submersible heaters and the good insulation, humidity from the tanks surface might be your bigger problem tho
Are you planning on just looking down on the trough to see the fish?
Use a lid to keep the heat in on top of the tank this will also help with humidity buildup
You can use lamps inside the air pocket that are on dimmers to regulate the temperature for the tank
Other than that your looking at a few submersible heaters and the good insulation, humidity from the tanks surface might be your bigger problem tho
Are you planning on just looking down on the trough to see the fish?
Honestly for comfort I don't really see any cheaper way to heat it viabily and keep the viewing of it comfortable than to make it a fish room, with that much surface area insulating the trough is going to save you hardly anything you will lose the heat you saved right out the top along with the water in it.
Your only real option is to make the room well insulated with no drafts heat the room (cheapest long run is a heat pump(tho I think they are called reverse cycle air-conditioning in some places of the world) and run a dehumidifier for the moisture evin with that your still going to end up with moisture in the air so be sure your walls and furniture will be OK with the damp air
On the plus side you get a nice warm room to relax in during those winter months
Filtration I'm assuming your going fresh water you can get away with sponge filters as the minimum with vacuuming the bottom to get rid of other heavy waste but you would need a power filter to circulate it out if you don't want to vacuum it.
Unless you make it a planted tank then there are other ways around it but that would also depend on the fish you want in the tank...
Your only real option is to make the room well insulated with no drafts heat the room (cheapest long run is a heat pump(tho I think they are called reverse cycle air-conditioning in some places of the world) and run a dehumidifier for the moisture evin with that your still going to end up with moisture in the air so be sure your walls and furniture will be OK with the damp air
On the plus side you get a nice warm room to relax in during those winter months
Filtration I'm assuming your going fresh water you can get away with sponge filters as the minimum with vacuuming the bottom to get rid of other heavy waste but you would need a power filter to circulate it out if you don't want to vacuum it.
Unless you make it a planted tank then there are other ways around it but that would also depend on the fish you want in the tank...