Heating Drip System

[Dovii kid]

Hello. I'm looking to start a drip system for my aquariums to provide more consistent parameters and hopefully slightly less water changes. My question is I am on a well, in the winter time water coming out of well is very cold. I do not want to run from my faucet as we have a water softener. Any suggestions for heating the drip water. A little concerned with heating the aquarium with the cold drip water, especially as I turn the drip rate up.


One thought I had was filling a large trash can with water and running a considerable amount of the drip hose in that. While it won't heat to the necessary temperature I would expect the room temp water to radiate some heat to the drip water.

Any other ideas?

 

[Siddons11]

I have heard of people using their overflowed waste water from their sump to heat the incoming drip water. Just add another reservoir for the water leaving your sump and run a long coil of tubing for your drip through it.

 

[Chicxulub]

You can get an inline water heater for about a hundred bucks that would work perfectly for a drip. Normally they're used for showers and the like. It's what I plan to do for the drip on my new tank.

 

[Dovii kid]

I like both of these ideas. Thanks guys!

 

[Chicxulub]

I like both of these ideas. Thanks guys!

Welcome!

 

[ReApEr666]

U can use a mixing valve... they have temp settings and mix water from both ur hot and cold water lines using ur hot water tank as the heat source. no need to store the water in a container and heat it. U can eliminate ur in tank heaters this way also or they just become a backup as the drip itself is heated.. honestly u may not even need it tho. i drip almost 40gph to my fishroom year round and the tank heaters alone take care of it no prob. My tap in winter is around 40°...i heat my tanks to 72-76° and some tanks are dripping as much as 8gph per tank. def. look into the mixing valve tho as its alot cheaper to use ur hot water tank then electricity.

 

[ReApEr666]

 

[Dovii kid]

U can use a mixing valve... they have temp settings and mix water from both ur hot and cold water lines using ur hot water tank as the heat source. no need to store the water in a container and heat it. U can eliminate ur in tank heaters this way also or they just become a backup as the drip itself is heated.. honestly u may not even need it tho. i drip almost 40gph to my fishroom year round and the tank heaters alone take care of it no prob. My tap in winter is around 40°...i heat my tanks to 72-76° and some tanks are dripping as much as 8gph per tank. def. look into the mixing valve tho as its alot cheaper to use ur hot water tank then electricity.

Thanks. Ideally that is what I would do. Unfortunately I want to bypass my water softener which means I must tap the line prior to the water heater and softener.

 

[Yulli]

I have the same problem as you, my solution (might be a bit excessive but you dont need to go as far as I intend to). Buy a 6kw(can be any size but this made sense for me) tankless hotwater heater which has temp adjustment down to 80F run the cold water line to there, from the heater run to a wifi lawn sprinkler controller(cause I like tech and why not) then run to the tanks. You wouldn't want to run it as a true drip more of a flow through, but that makes more sense as it will stress your well pump less. Mine will be going in the next 3 months or so, have to run a sub panel for the electric as well as some other fun that has bumped the cost of my project up a bit.

 

[wannadivesteve]

How much water are you actually dripping into what size of tanks? Above a poster says he's dripping 8 gallons of 40° water an hour into some of his tanks (doesn't say what size they are). Most people tend to way overthink heating drip systems. If it's truly a drip, I'd question the need for a heating system unless you're pumping a lot of very cold water in at a high rate.