Efficiently Heating Water

[Lazys Coral House]

With my new system, 60% of total water volume is in the basement where it is cooler. Total system water volume is about 250g. This is presenting a challenge keeping it warm enough. I have a 300w, 200w and 100w heater that are constantly on 24/7 and the warmest it gets (end of light cycle) 76.9F and coolest (beginning of light cycle) is 73.9F. Goal temperature is 78.5 which I never reach. My question is are there best practices for heating a tank. Perhaps heater location, fast vs slow water movement around the heater, 4 200w heaters vs 1 800w heater, insulating the tanks. Anyone happen to have any information on this or more experience with this challenge?

 

[roshi719]

Where are you measuring the temp at?
If there is no livestock in the basement it would only matter what temp the tank upstairs runs at correct?
I would say having the heaters near the return line, so the warmer water goes up to the tank would be best, but I may be wrong

 

[Lazys Coral House]

Thank you for your response. Unfortunately I have live stock in the basement as well. I am however curious as to the temperature of main display upstairs since the heaters are by the return, may be warmer there. I will check.

 

[Triggerman77]

I would go with larger heaters like 2 or 3 300+ and when u get enough it should maintain fine. But honestly i would try to bring room temp up just a little first. u would be surprised it wouldn't take much to help and that would also help with temp fluctuation. which is what u wanna keep stable as possible

 

[phi delt reefer]

might be a little extreme but if you basement is not finished why not just wall in a small room and run a duct to it. That way you could heat it like the rest of your house and insulate the walls as well. You will probably need to run some sort of fan to remove the humidity. Maybe you could try putting insulation(pink Styrofoam board) around your sump as well - glass is a terrible insulator.

 

[IHOP]

Do you have hot water heat in the house? Maybe you can set up some sort of heat exchanger.

 

[FateX8]

hydor makes an inline heater, i would think that would be the most efficient but the biggest ones they make are 300w
how fast is the water going up and down?

 

[octoberfest]

I'd add larger heaters. If your heaters are one 24/7 and you're still not reaching the temp you want then it tells me your heaters are too small.

A couple other things that would help:

• Make sure your sump is not sitting directly on the floor. I'd make a small wood platform for it and put some sort of insulation between the tank and whatever it sits on, even Styrofoam would work well.
• Your PVC pipe is going to act like a radiator if its sitting out in the cold air. I bet its sweating a little, if not now it will when you get the tank temp up. I'd look for pipe insulation. I know when I lived up north we had it around our hot water heater plumbing. I'm sure if you go to a plumbing store they'll know what you're looking for.
• Is your sump open as far as the top goes? If so you're going to lose a lot of heat there. I'd consider making some lids for at least part of it to slow the heat loss down.
• If you're using a glass tank for a sump then maybe add more Styrofoam around the tank to enclose it like a box on the sides. This will help reduce temp loss through the glass walls.

 

[customcolor]

use some pex tubing in the sump and do a recycling action on your water heater with a temp controler

 

[Reef Pets]

If you have your sump setting directly on your basement floor then the concrete floor is acting as a heat. If this is the case you may want to put something under your sump so it is not setting directly on the concrete floor or raise it off the floor some. CustomCorals idea will work out great as well. I have seen that same method used several times. Of course you could always add another heater as well. Of course the basements in Ohio will even be colder very soon.

 

[customcolor]

um gary...its CUSTOMCOLOR...not coral ..lol!!

 

[lvsuckerfish]

are all the heaters placed in the same area if so I would spread them a little as they may kick on and off depending on the temp around them that may be an issue also also I have my tank and sump in my garage and all my heaters are to the max as if one sticks to the on postion it will not harm the tank like a over sized heater in a small tank.i have total water or roughly 350-400 gallons and a 200 and 300 watt heaters works for me but not all that cold here I also have my sumps right on the ground black vats so I will find out in the winter if this will be ok or not I do run my lights at night since thats when I am home to view my tank and also doubles with the halides to keep the temp more stable in the night.

 

[Hahnmeister]

A Watt is a Watt... there are more efficient ways to do many things, but electric heating isn't really one. The best thing you can do is insulate what you can in the cooler areas to keep the heat in. I would suggest building an insulated waterproof box to go around your sump. When its summer out and you want to cool, just open it up and run a fan. Cool thing is, the 'box' can help keep the system from affecting your A/C in the summer and boosting the humidity. Be sure to insulate the bottom of the tank, and between the basement walls and floor as well... they might not seem like it, but they act as huge cooling sinks in winter.

Another idea is to rig up some 4" duct with some fans that create a loop between the canopy upstairs and the box downstairs.

 

[WI Reefer]

use gas


There was a thread on rc a while back and they guy had a larger system and was using gas to heat it and he said it was much more efficient. If I remember it was very cost effective too.

 

[Harry_Y]

Something sounds a little off

I have about the same volume of water (maybe even slightly more) and
I can heat it with 4-5 100 watt heaters (4 now since 1 has gone bad).

But, I am using Rubbermaid containers in the basement and they hold
the heat better than glass (what are the basement tanks made out of?)

They are also off of the ground (see my tank thread in sig line)

So you may want to put some Styrofoam around the basement containers.


Hope this helps