Water temperature question

[New Jersey REEF]

I am trying to figure out this problem:

I want to know if adding 1000gallon water tank to my system would be good idea or not. First problem to solve is temperature control. 1000 gallon tank is store in the garage where temperature would range from hottest days of summer 90 degrees F to coldest winter days 32 degrees F

Fish tank is located in the basement where water temperature stays between 77-78 F year around. I do not use heaters at all and temperature in the basement stays 73 degrees year around.


Question, if I add this 1000gallon tank to the system, how would it affect my water temperature during the hottest days of the year and during coldest days.

The idea behind it is that it would make my water changes super easy. Drain the tank, mix more water. Reconnect to the main system.

Thank you in advanced for any input!

 

[vetteguy53081]

I am trying to figure out this problem:

I want to know if adding 1000gallon water tank to my system would be good idea or not. First problem to solve is temperature control. 1000 gallon tank is store in the garage where temperature would range from hottest days of summer 90 degrees F to coldest winter days 32 degrees F

Fish tank is located in the basement where water temperature stays between 77-78 F year around. I do not use heaters at all and temperature in the basement stays 73 degrees year around.


Question, if I add this 1000gallon tank to the system, how would it affect my water temperature during the hottest days of the year and during coldest days.

The idea behind it is that it would make my water changes super easy. Drain the tank, mix more water. Reconnect to the main system.

Thank you in advanced for any input!

I would tend to think it would, but addition of a chiller unit may help

 

[Chuk]

It’s a pretty simple heat balance calculation but you’re missing some criticial information. 1) How much volume is the rest of your system?
2) It sounds like 1000 gal tank is for water changes how much are you changing at one time?

 

[Poof No Eyebrows]

Tagged

 

[Vyper]

If you are doing daily auto water changes the temperature fluctuations would be at a minimum. I don’t heat my mix bins once salt is maxed. if you are doing 10-20% at once that could make it swing a lot.

 

[New Jersey REEF]

It’s a pretty simple heat balance calculation but you’re missing some criticial information. 1) How much volume is the rest of your system?
2) It sounds like 1000 gal tank is for water changes how much are you changing at one time?

Sorry I missed that water volume of the system is 1400 gallons.

idea behind water change would be, drain the bucket out (maybe 900-950 gallons) fill back up and mix salt. Then turn the valve back on to connect back to the circlations of the system

 

[New Jersey REEF]

If you are doing daily auto water changes the temperature fluctuations would be at a minimum. I don’t heat my mix bins once salt is maxed. if you are doing 10-20% at once that could make it swing a lot.

Plan would be to change water only as needed and it would be at exact amount. Basically cut off the bucket from the system. Drain it, refill and mix water and then connect back to the main system circulation.

 

[Pistondog]

You'll spent a lot maintaining temp in a 1000 gallon tank, maybe $500 if you insulate well.
32 deg ambient, tank at 75, right?

 

[Chuk]

If you’re batching that way it will have a large impact on you’re system temperature. Rough numbers on a hot day when you’re tank is at~85 and you change 900 out of 1400 gallons ~65% you temp ends up being 85fx0.65+78fx0.35 which is 82.6. On B a cold day if you’re water is 45 you temp would drop to 56.6.

 

[New Jersey REEF]

You'll spent a lot maintaining temp in a 1000 gallon tank, maybe $500 if you insulate well.
32 deg ambient, tank at 75, right?

I live in Georgia so it doesn’t get cold here. Heat is the only problem. Basement is well insulated and climate control system.

The temperature issue may only be in garage where there is no climate control. Ya if it would impact me so much where heater or cheaper system would be running a lot more, I would have to change these plans. That’s what I’m trying to figure out

 

[Chuk]

If you did something like 30 gallons per hour your only changing 2% and you likely won’t even see a difference at all since it would only fluctuate 1/2 a degree

 

[New Jersey REEF]

If you’re batching that way it will have a large impact on you’re system temperature. Rough numbers on a hot day when you’re tank is at~85 and you change 900 out of 1400 gallons ~65% you temp ends up being 85fx0.65+78fx0.35 which is 82.6. On B a cold day if you’re water is 45 you temp would drop to 56.6.

Question is, on the hot summer day garage temperature rises to 85 degrees. How would that impact this entire water system of 2400 gallons? Would insulating just bucket would help? Such difficult problem where so many unknowns ...

Also that 1000 gallon bucket would be chilled by the entire system from down stairs. Basically the system would be acting as chiller for the tank upstairs.

Then questions would be, is it enough chilling power or will my temperature of basement will rise and AC unit would be operating extra to cool it down?

 

[Chuk]

Question is, on the hot summer day garage temperature rises to 85 degrees. How would that impact this entire water system of 2400 gallons? Would insulating just bucket would help? Such difficult problem where so many unknowns ...

Also that 1000 gallon bucket would be chilled by the entire system from down stairs. Basically the system would be acting as chiller for the tank upstairs.

Then questions would be, is it enough chilling power or will my temperature of basement will rise and AC unit would be operating extra to cool it down?

That gets into much more complex calculations. It really depends on the system dynamics. IE how big the AC unit is, surface area of the basement tank, air flow across the tank to allow evaporation, how long the water is sitting in that high heat of the garage. It’s tough to say.
Is it possible to make a swamp cooler to add the water to you’re system? It’s rather shady looking but you take a pipe cut some holes in it and wrap it in a towel and the towel bottom is in a trough or bucket. Then blow a fan across the towel to evaporate and cool the water which collects at the bottom. This cooled water is then added as your water change water. It would take some balance work / time to get your flows dialed in and maximize the chilling effect.
If you batch it in like open a couple of valves and then you instantly up your volume by 1000 gallons while some overflows to drain is basically the same as I said before the temp will rise as you’re storage tank drains into your main system. Then you’re system evap and you’re ac will cool it down. As I it will spike up close to 82/83 degrees then come down depending on the cooling load.