Hot and cold drip vs Cold

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CANAMONSTER

CANAMONSTER

Redtail Catfish
MFK Member
Dec 5, 2012
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Barrie
Thinking of adding a drip to my 400g. Just want to see what majority is doing hot and cold or just cold with heaters.

Cost wise gas is cheaper then electricity so I can't decide if I should do hot and cold or just cold.
If I do hot and cold I was going to bring down two lines with toilet ball valves then bring them into a T, then run the one line through a carbon filter then into the tank.


What's your guys take on this?

Thanks
 
i use cold only and have no temp problems on my tank..
 
First question I'd ask is how many gallons a day are you looking at dripping and how cold is your water during the winter. I gotta admit I haven't done a drip system yet, but I'm looking into it for my next tanks. So far I'm tempted to stick with cold and not worrying about it unless I'm looking at a LOT of turnover in my tanks.

I'll be watching this thread. Hopefully by winter I can chime in on a three like this with some actual experience.
 
I considered using hot water briefly, but I think the cost to heat water that way was more expensive then throwing in an extra heater (while still considering the cost to raise the water while in tank) and I believe there were some concerns about the process adding extra TDS to the water. Ultimately I decided on a cold water drip. Depends on how much you drip I'm sure, but I'm dripping well under 10 gph.
 
Many do it. The concept is solid. I intend to do a hybrid approach to add hot water to my drip as well. My cold is rock solid so I only am bolting on hot.
 
Mixing valves are inexpensive, I run one on mine set at 80°.
 
I don't want to hijack the thread either, but I'd think specifics on tank size and amount of water exchange is in order, from both the OP and responders. Dripping 40-60 gallons a day of cold water into a 400 gallon would likely be completely different than dripping 400-500 gallons a day in to the same tank for example. I'd think there'd be zero reason to heat dripped water at lower rates, maybe a reason to heat it at higher rates. It would be handy to know what exchange rate people using cold water are getting without noticing any temperature issues. Once I set up my 80 gallon in a few months I'll play with flow rates myself, in the meantime it would be nice to hear what people are having success with.
 
Thanks for the info everyone, I will only be dripping 2 to 5 GPH so not very much. It does seem like hot water would make sense at much larger volumes of water but if you all are having no temp issues with straight cold this is what I will do. It's easy enough to pull another hot line in if need be.
 
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