600w heater enough for 155 gallons?

[Reefer911]

I have a BRS titanium heater on my CADE 1200 Peninsula. Total volume 115 gallons, and lately the heater has had trouble maintaining temps. Today it was 5 degrees F below target.

Just want to double check that the heater isnt too small for my system. In the meantime I pulled the 600 wattand placed my backup 800 watt heater and already seeing a steep increase in the trend.

 

[Saltyreef]

I would highly recommend breaking it up into two 400w heaters to negate high temp failure.

Are you using the controller that came with it?

Considering its winter, you may be fighting it being on the cusp of too small now that its colder.

 

[Reefer911]

Yeah I’m thinking it has something to do with colder temps too. It didn’t come with a controller. I’m using my GHL

 

[Idech]

It depends on the temp you want in the tank, the room temperature and the tank size. There are calculators online.


Go for redundancy and get two heaters, controlled by an Inkbird heater controller.

 

[Sean Clark]

I'll vote heat exchanger. Only 5 watts of power to drive the pump and basically unlimited heating potential. If you are running 600 watts of heaters 24/7 and still not keeping then a heat exchanger will pay for itself very quickly.

 

[Reefer911]

I'll vote heat exchanger. Only 5 watts of power to drive the pump and basically unlimited heating potential. If you are running 600 watts of heaters 24/7 and still not keeping then a heat exchanger will pay for itself very quickly.

I found advanced aquarium technologies but can’t seem to find any videos to further detail running a heat exchanger for an aquarium. Any leads?

 

[Sean Clark]

I found advanced aquarium technologies but can’t seem to find any videos to further detail running a heat exchanger for an aquarium. Any leads?

A bit self serving but:
Post in thread 'Heaters, how do you have them setup?' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/heaters-how-do-you-have-them-setup.886225/post-9799800

And:
Post in thread 'Innovative Marine EXT 200 Peninsula Build...' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/innovative-marine-ext-200-peninsula-build.853406/post-10224803

 

[Kodski]

I'll be using a heat exchanger on my new build. The most difficult part is sourcing a titanium heat exchanger. Pool heat exchangers are quite pricey. So I looked around and managed to find a wholesaler of titanium exchangers for aquarium chillers. It was significantly less expensive. Combined with a $60 pump from amazon its still more expensive than going the electric heater route, but in the end will save a lot of money in electricity, and have a huge heating potential.

 

[Kodski]

As of to prove my point that the cold is coming, I woke up to snow on the ground this morning. I decided to stop hemming and hawing about pex vs a titanium heat exchanger. I did a bit more searching and managed to find a titanium chilling coil for a good price and ordered one.

I ordered the 1.5hp coil, I’m hoping that will be large enough. The shipping tripled for the 3hp coil due to the size. It’s costing more to ship the coil than the actual coil itself costs. Plus the 3hp I’m not sure would fit in the sump. I can always order one if need be down the road. Next is to find a circulation pump. I’m also considering replacing my water heater prior to plumbing this in. I know it’s getting up there in age and don’t want any issues in the future.

Edit: out of curiosity I did a conversion from hp to watts and 1.5hp is roughly 1100 watts. Im not exactly sure that translates the same way as saying an electric heater is 300watts of power. I don’t think it would since in this case you have to take into account the hot water temp, flow rates, etc. But either way I feel like this should be enough to heat a total volume of roughly 300-320 gallons. I’d love to hear from someone who knows a bit more than I do on this.