How do you heat your large tanks?

[Toby_H]

I use 2W per gallon to heat my tanks. A single 250W heater has no problem keeping my 125 gal at 80*F.

When I had my 300 Gal Rubbermaid set up in the house I used 3 250~300W heaters. Since it had such a large surface area with no lid I went with 3W per gal. Worked fine for years.

When heating the room to heat the tank, the water will be the same temperature as the rooms average temperature. Although if you have pumps or other equipment in the tank it may create a bit of heat.

 

[BadOleRoss]

When I had my 220SW, I had 3/250W heaters in the sump. I plan on doing the same for the 300G I am currently working on.

 

[david503bk]

Uh, hmmmmm, let's see.........HOW ABOUT 80 DEGREES!!!!

I should have known. Doh

 

[LD50]

I heat the room instead of individual tanks.

Thats what I do, house is 75 year round...with the lights it may nudge up to 77 by the end of the day. By morning its back to 75-76 so 1 1/2*F of variation over the course of a day, my fish dont mind so neither do I. I only bust out the heater if I'm treating a fish for nasties.

 

[xdragonxb0i]

i heat my 240, with 2x 300w in my sump. its at 82 degrees

 

[kjfan1]

I have to heat all of my tanks. With out it they go down to 65. Winter, ugh

 

[Oddball]

I should have known. Doh

I cheat. My fishroom is a fish building nearly 8000 sq/ft and separate from the house. When I relocated here, I bought a church and parsonage. We live in the parsonage and (pun intended) 'converted' the church into a hatchery. The house stays at temp we're comfortable at and the hatchery is gas heated to 82F. With over 125 tanks, the temp stays well regulated since it takes the tanks a while to shed heat.

 

[JL]

1x 250w in my sump keeps my 180 @ 83 and the heater is no where near maxed out.

 

[tank125]

Run your 4 heaters through a heater controller so that you do not have the problem of them malfunctioning and overheating the tank. Otherwise, since it is in the basement you can help with heat by insulating the outside walls of the tank with some foam board.