Heater Question

Just want to know:

Say you have a 600 L tank with a 200 L sump, You wil use two 300W heaters in your tank but what about the 200 L in the sump. Do you have to heat that water aswell (so lets say you put a 200W heater in your sump) because that water is actually gonna be "cold". Aren't the heaters in the tank gonna work overtime because "cold" water enters the tank the whole time, or must you actually put all the heaters in the tank so that they don't work overtime.

Please explain the method in the madness

 

The heaters go into the sump. There will be a time when the tank will be cold and the sump warm but as the water cycles through the tank and the warm mixes with the cold they will eventually all reach the same temp. The heaters are kept in the sump out of sight so u don't have them in the main tank. The entire cycle with heat can vary depending on tank size 600l + sump could take I think about half a day if not quicker depending on the heater hope that helps

 

Not so good with sump set ups but as far as i know you can have all the heaters in
the sump (last chamber?) thus hiding them from your display tank....I stand to be corrected

Edit:

Lol Snyper beat me to it.....

 

Its a connected system, so you heating the total volume, not just the DT

 

Agree with putting the heaters in the sump. I have mine in the middle chamber as this one is ALWAYS full of water. While getting your water levels correct you might empty the last chamber where your pump is and that's not good for the heaters

 

Makes sense, never thought about it that way. Will keep this in mind if i ever get a sump lol

 

my friend has a 1000 liter marine setup with a sump ,and he says that all his heat comes from the motors ,he doesnot use a heater

 

I personally prefer the heaters in the tank, I have see a lot of tanks that have the heaters in the sump and itseems to work fine like that.
just one question if you put the heaters in the sump will you not get cold spots in the tank?

 

no this is taken care of by water circulation .
ie you sump pump should be rated at 4 times your tanks volume thus 4 times your tanks volume will be circulated every hour .

cheers

 

are two heaters better than one?

 

YES. ALWAYS. WITHOUT A DOUBT

If one packs up, the other will help maintain the temperature... maybe not at the required temp, but it will prevent the water from dropping too fast. You shold be checking your water temp at least once a day. When you see the temp dropped too far, you then know one of the heaters is gone, and can replace.

If you only have one heater, and that one goes say, at 20h00, and you then only check the temp the following evening after work, at say 19h00... depending on the size of the tank, you may have lost a HUGE amount of heat, and will not be able to get another heater at that time of the evening in any case.... = loss of fish.

If however you notice at 19h00 that the temp has dropped 3 degrees or so, you will still have time to get a heater the next day because the 2nd one that hasn't gone faulty is still working and maintaining some sort of heat.

 

I have a question,if you have 3 heaters in the same chamber of the sump,won't they overheat because they are so close to eachother?

 

hmmm i wonder?but why would u want to put so many heaters?

 

the more the merrier.

 

On very large tanks you obviously will need more than 2. I am willing to bet that Henk is more than likely running 4, if not more, heaters on his 2.5m!

A house we built in Saddlebrook had a 2.5m x 1.2m x 1m tank, with a 1m x 600 x 600 sump. We had to run 8 Jager heaters (300w) to get this thing to maintain temp.

 

i'm sure ur fish will get roasted lol and easter is still a ways off

 

Won't keep 3 heater in the same chamber be pointless, I mean if that water is 26 degrees then the other heaters will be cancelled out and it would just be a waste of power to have 3 heater running in one chamber because if one comes on the other two will as well, Or am I wrong here?

 

Your spot on.

 

The sump chamber have fast moving water, and unless it is entering at the same temp, the heaters will not switch off. Only once all the water are at the same temp. the heaters will switch off one after the other. See 2/3 heaters as one, but remember that the thermostat settings will differ with minute fractions!
Gert.

 

Well depending on the size of your tank and amount of water it might be better to have at least one in the tank hidden in the back so that the one's in the sump don't work over time.

Depending on the amount of water volume. But some people say that it is better because if one had to brake there wont be a drop in water temperature. But i like to have one spare in the cupboard.