red tailed catfish home advice? 6x6x4 heater size?

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justarn

justarn

Arapaima
MFK Member
May 24, 2011
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Kent UK
hey all i have a 3 inch baby red tail, after much debating i bought one and placed him in my 180g cichlid community while i get his home sorted...

i am buying a 6x6x4 foot fibreglass tank next week, my friend works in a glass company and is getting me a 6x3 sheet of bullet proof glass which i plan to fit in one side. i thinks i can use aquarium mastic to stick it in right?

i know i'll need a decent size heater, what size heater will i need? ive seen a few 3kw pond heaters will that be enough? the tank will be indoors in the uk, the missus dont know yet lol! the house will be kept above 15 degrees centigrade all winter?

also gonna be reinforcing my wooden floor to hold a ton per square metre:WHOA:
sounds fun eh lol.
 
send on?
 
The rule of thumb I have read states that you will need 1,000 Watts for every 1,000 gallons you need to heat 10F above the ambient air temperature.

This calculator is relatively consistent with that theory: http://www.heatingyourpond.com/submersible-heaters.html

Since your pond is around 1,000G and you ambient air temp is going to be at least 15C (59F), then you should be fine with a 3KW heater. What do you pay for electricity? Running a 3,000W heater would cost me a fortune every month in the winter time.
 
theres a fella who lives around the corner from me in kent who imports from don conkerals in the usa, he the sells them on ebay delivered for around 20 quid! he has aload of other rare stuff at his place too. good luck bud.
 
13p per kwh, so i assume i could use a 1kw heater then... assuming its on 50 percent of the time, sound right? £1.56p/$3 roughly a day! £45/$90 a month, not to bad if my calculations are about right, people have much more expensive hobbies:)
 
jus looked and he hasnt got the dovii listed, if you search parachromis two come up its the same geeza, msg him as he imorts regularly if he has none he can get em;)
 
justarn said:
13p per kwh, so i assume i could use a 1kw heater then... assuming its on 50 percent of the time, sound right? £1.56p/$3 roughly a day! £45/$90 a month, not to bad if my calculations are about right, people have much more expensive hobbies:)
Click to expand...

I don't think 1KW will do it. You will want to maintain at least 24.5C, right? So to raise the temp from 15C to 24.5C and maintain those temps would require around 2KW (according to the calculator).

In regards to the cost, my clairvoyant skills sense an argument with the wife in the near future. I would start this conversation with a dozen of her favorite flowers. lol
 
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