Heating big tanks

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expkeeper19

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 3, 2009
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Regina
I've looked around a couple sections but can't really see anything about heating big tanks. I'm in the process of planning my next tank I'm thinking either 300G or 360G With about a 55G sump. Now I'm just wondering how do people heat there big tanks with out killing the power bill. I know there are guys here will tanks well into the 2000G and I can't imagine the answer being plugging in a bunch of 150w heaters or maybe im just over thinking this, Help would be appreciated thank you.

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Use 2 jager 300 watt heaters and you will he good. That is really not enough water to worry about anything else. If you want a back up use 3 heaters but really 2 will heat that tank well. Find a controller to make the heaters better and more reliable. But if you want to know im dripping hot water into my 1000+ gallons of combined tanks to keep them at 79° currently and love it. Been doing it for many months now

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Simple physics says it will take X amount of watts to heat Y volume of water to Z degrees, regardless of what you use.

If you want to reduce your powerbill you need to reduce heat loss from the aquarium so you don't need to heat it as much. Insulation is the best way to do this, polystyrene on the base, sides, back and top ideally, but even on the back and sides will make a big difference. Other options for reducing power consumption are maintaining lighter stock and using pothos to reduce the need to change water (unless you have free tap water heating?), and heating the room with a more efficient heater like a heatpump (2-3W of heating for every W of power consumed, vs 1 for 1W with a standard aquarium heater). The greater the heat difference between your tank and the room it is in the more power you will use keeping it warm, just make sure your room is well insulated too, there will come a point where it is costing you more to heat the room than the tank, which is why I run my heatpump at 22C and the tank at 27C with my set up.

DIDSYS makes a good point too, if you have gas hot water (or wetback?) and it is cheaper than electric then a hot water drip is a good idea.
 
AC set for 79 and I dont run a heater unless I have just changed out the water. The water stays right between 78-79 degrees. Also I feel like the sump pump contributes a bit with the heat it releases into the water
 
Alright thanks everyone. So the polystyrene is foam for the out side of the glass right? I guess I didn't specify but this is not a plywood build it will be a glass tank. This tank will be custom built though should I build it from glass or acrylic? In terms of holding heat better.

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Oh and I do have access to heated water. From the tap. How ever I don't know anything about setting up automatic drip systems I feel that's a little over my head

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David R said:
Simple physics says it will take X amount of watts to heat Y volume of water to Z degrees, regardless of what you use.

If you want to reduce your powerbill you need to reduce heat loss from the aquarium so you don't need to heat it as much. Insulation is the best way to do this, polystyrene on the base, sides, back and top ideally, but even on the back and sides will make a big difference. Other options for reducing power consumption are maintaining lighter stock and using pothos to reduce the need to change water (unless you have free tap water heating?), and heating the room with a more efficient heater like a heatpump (2-3W of heating for every W of power consumed, vs 1 for 1W with a standard aquarium heater). The greater the heat difference between your tank and the room it is in the more power you will use keeping it warm, just make sure your room is well insulated too, there will come a point where it is costing you more to heat the room than the tank, which is why I run my heatpump at 22C and the tank at 27C with my set up.

DIDSYS makes a good point too, if you have gas hot water (or wetback?) and it is cheaper than electric then a hot water drip is a good idea.
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Could you explain what a heatpump is I haven't heard of those?

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A heat pump is something that pumps heat. Let's see your refrigerator, the room is a high temperature reservoir and the inside of the fridge is a low temperature reservoir. That little black ball in the back basically removes heat from the low and dumps it to the high. Now open the door, you've combined the 2 reservoirs and are essentially just wasting electricity.
Let's apply this to a fish tank. A piece of glass transfers heat extremely efficiently. (Like leaving the door open) That's bad, so you cover the sides in foam (great insulator). You still have the top and front to worry about though, so you'll still use a fair amount of electricity. You could do a double pane as they do in windows, but there must be a reason its not done. Upfront costs vs savings, visual distortion etc
What the guy above is saying about getting 2 or 3 watts from 1 is impossible. That's like saying if I throw a dollar in the air, 2 or 3 will fall. But we know he meant: 0.3w:1w where 0.9w:1w is attainable.
You may increase efficiency by bringing the temperature of the reservoirs closer to each other or reducing heat transfer. Raise the temp of the room or insulate the tank to improve efficiency.
I've actually thought about making my fish tank the high temperature reservoir for a fridge, but kind of stupid the more I thought about it haha

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OP; heat pump is a type of heating (and cooling) that works on temperature difference and is far more efficient than conventional heaters; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pump
You're right than the polystyrene goes on the outside of the glass or acrylic. It needs to be stuck on with no air gaps around the side, heavy duty tape seems to do the job well. Insulating any part of the tank will reduce heat loss and subsequently reduce the amount of money you spend heating it, even if you can only do the back panel.

FishOnCampus said:
What the guy above is saying about getting 2 or 3 watts from 1 is impossible. That's like saying if I throw a dollar in the air, 2 or 3 will fall. But we know he meant: 0.3w:1w where 0.9w:1w is attainable.
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This is what I'm saying;

When comparing the performance of heat pumps, it is best to avoid the word "efficiency" which has a very specific thermodynamic definition. The term coefficient of performance (COP) is used to describe the ratio of useful heat movement per work input.
When used for heating a building on a mild day, for example 10 °C, a typical air-source heat pump (ASHP) has a COP of 3 to 4, whereas an electrical resistance heater has a COP of 1.0. That is, one joule of electrical energy will cause a resistance heater to produce only one joule of useful heat, while under ideal conditions, one joule of electrical energy can cause a heat pump to move much more than one joule of heat from a cooler place to a warmer place.
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Source; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pump#Efficiency

Another;
Are heat pumps expensive to run?
The price of power in New Zealand is rising at an alarming rate (more than 50% in five years). This accounts for the growth of heat pumps for heating, because they use significantly less power to heat than all traditional electric heaters.

Here's why: if you need 9Kw of heating, electric heating is normally 100% efficient, so for 9Kw of heating you pay for 9Kw of electric energy. Heat pumps transfer three to four times more heat, meaning efficiencies of 300-400%. In other words, to produce 9kW of heating, a heat pump would only require about 2.25kW-to-3kW of electrical energy to heat the same area.
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Source; http://www.fujitsugeneral.co.nz/faq.html

Maybe we're trying to say the same thing, but in short you basically get more bang-for-buck with inverter-type heating than conventional heaters.
 
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