Aquarium heating

Hi.... with load-shedding we try to find the best and economical way to keep the water oxygenated and temperature up..... Any ideas on how to keep the electricity bill down. What do you guys do to minimal the electricity bill in winter?

 

Good thread dude. Makes a huge difference if your tank is covered or not. Another way you can warm up water for changes, is by letting the water stand in the sun in black drums.

 

Use polystyrene behind and on side of tank, can use on front and top during the night.

 

Hi

Im looking at the poly idea as i have 2 300w heaters for my 570l running at 29deg. they are on most the time. i also have an issue when it comes to water changes now in winter as the water out the tap is really cold so a water change takes me hours so that the temp doesnt drop more than 2 deg. i want to get a drum to store the water in the sun but then u need to invest in another pump to pump it to my tank. Not to keen on all the extra cost though.

 

Do smaller changes more frequently, adding a boiling kettle of water to a 20l bucket also helps, what is your water temp in sasolburg in mid winter?

 

How does the drum help when it rains al day and no sun?
Will it help setting up the drums to serve as a sump while it is in the sun?

 

I just used 25 liter drums. It's not very reliable as you mentioned, so I used to time my water changes around the temp in the drums. Don't do it anymore, because its a bit of a pita. Also doubt that it will work up country in mid winter.

 

So insulation should be the best way to bring elect costdown?
How many have tried and gave up and decided just to pay the elect bill?
What is a good formula to determine how much elect we use on our fish tanks?

 

Put all your tanks into one room and get polystyrene sheets (30-40 mm thick) and cover windows and sliding doors.

 

@Ebrahim,
It never rains up here on the highveld during winter, the sun shines, and it get nice and warm during the day, however at night temps go down to well below freezing, so your tap water is probably just above freezing, around 3 - 5 degrees for about 3 months of the year. Beats the dreary Cape Town winter hands down

 

I know about hihgveld winters. I spend some time in silverton a few years back.

 

@Broder is right that the number one heat loss from your tank is by evaporation. So having the tank covered helps a lot. In an industrial plant I've worked with, one of the major causes of heat loss from a particular tank was the air we were blowing into it. Atmospheric air (at low humidity) would go in the bottom of the tank, but the water then evaporated 'into' the air bubbles as they moved up through the water, and very humid air (saturated) then left the top of the tank. Now in aquariums, I don't know how significant this effect is off a small air pump, but if you do have bubble curtains etc as features then it may help to turn these off. Obviously if the air bubbles are your only form of circulation in the tank, you can't turn this off, but if you have other filters causing circulation, then I'd recommend turning off the air bubbles. But I repeat, I'm not sure how significant this is in aquariums. I'm certain though that evaporation is the major issue.

 

I am not sure if I can add another aspect of heating to this thread or if I supposed to start a new one but it would be nice to hear the opinions of those running fairly large sumps and how it affects the heating of the tank
When I had the heaters in the sump, could never keep the tank at the temp that the heaters were set at.
Moving the heaters into the tank keeps the temp of the tank at right tem but in the mornings, after a cold night as we have started having in Gauteng, the water in sump feels extremely cold and this is obviously being pumped baack into the tank
Would like to know the opinion/ recomendations of members running sumps and how best you have achieved a balance of maintaining water temp and again energy saving where a sump is involved

 

When I use to run a sump I had my heater in the sump andit would maintain the temp in the tank with one 300w heater for a 540ltr. With my 3m i didnt run a sump but i also had one 300w heater in there for 1080ltr water but this tank was in a room where it got sun most of day and this room is warmer then the others in winter.I guess if insulate the sump lekke it would make difference.

 

@Ebrahim, thanks yes, I think I will do that.

Tank is in my lounge, gets warm in the day but... our temperaures in Randvaal hit -7 overnight on regular basis during winter
Coldest we had (fair enough they say it was a record low) we had -12 one night last winter...

 

@ Ebrahim, didnt mention I am running 2 heaters but right now cant remember if they 250 or 300w each, on 700l so I assume this is ample
What do you think of one in the tank and one in the sump? or would that cause other problems?

 

Good point re the bubbles @RoGe. So one could then conclude that a flow pump (or filter outlet) would be more efficient for oxygenation in winter. Or is oxygen exchange proportional to evaporation?

 

The rule of thumb is one watt per liter.

 

It depends on the temp you want to reach and the qualityof the heater but I wound suggest you over work the heaters. Rather stay within the recommendations of the manufacturer. I do this at my own risk. Ihave one 300w in my 1.8m tank 640ltr but I only need my water temp to at 25.Again I do this at my own risk.

 

Oxygen exchange and evaporation are not related. In terms of losing heat from your aquarium, a flow pump or filter outlet should be better in winter than an air pump.