Help from some fish room guys

[snaggle]

I am planing on building my new fish room soon, I am trying to decide on heating each tank or just the room. Here is what I will have minimum in my fish room;

1 x 1000 gallon + pond
1 x 600 gallon + pond
1 x 230 w/sump or two canisters
6 x 75 gallon
4 x 60 gallon
13 x 50 gallon
6 x 40 gallon
4 x 20 gallon

I do plan on having lots of pond style tanks for large groups of fish such as gold fish and live bearers. I think I will eventually have over 20000 gallons since I do plan on a couple 4000 gallon+ tanks as well.

I will be keeping ever thing from a-z so I will also need to have a large rang of temps.

I plan to use an out building on the farm I am looking at buying I will be over insulting it and installing geo-thermal heat. I will also be planing on a grid tie solar and wind system in the future.

I am just in the starting stages right now, I have most of the tanks listed all the ponds and large tanks will be built DIY after I move in, so I am just planing on equipment right now.

 

[gomezladdams]

Heat the room,its more economical.

 

[snaggle]

Heat the room,its more economical.

Even when I will have a wide range of temps? From gold fish to discus.

 

[bfhslilred93]

you can run black pvc outside on your roof and use the heat that builds in there to heat the tanks thats what i did with my swimming pool

 

[snaggle]

That is a good idea, I think I will look in to doing that.

 

[dogofwar]

It's hard to give you good advice - too many variables.

In general, it's better to heat the room and have in-tank heaters for fish that need it. I recommend heating the room to the low 70's so that it's not a swamp / uncomfortable.

Insulate and cover the ponds that you build or they will be really hard to heat. You could use the pond as the sump for many of the tanks, if you drill the tanks / do a central system.

 

[Tommydeal]

I don't see anyway to do it without heating the room and the tanks because you have different temperature requirements and if the room is too cold, the heat-loss will affect tank temps tremendously, even with excellent insulation. However you go about getting the heat, I think you should heat the room to the temp of the coldest tank and heat the tanks that need higher temps individually. Can't wait to see this fish room!

 

[snaggle]

Thank for the advice, my thinking was to heat the room and the tanks a well.

This fish room will be a long term project but I do have all of the glass listed right now so that is where I will be starting.

 

[rallysman]

Heat the room and the tanks. I've found when you heat the room only, it might be a tiny bit more efficient, but incredibly hot and not enjoyable. Heat the room to the temp of the lowest fish tank and go from there.

 

[snaggle]

Heat the room and the tanks. I've found when you heat the room only, it might be a tiny bit more efficient, but incredibly hot and not enjoyable. Heat the room to the temp of the lowest fish tank and go from there.

For a room this size should I use a dehumidifier or just an air exchange unit?

For a 75 should I use a HOB or just two sponges?