JHB - time to check the heaters

The sudo fishroom hit a all year low of 21.2 degrees in the last 24 hours, lowest I have seen all year. Busy checking heaters .. adding them to the tanks. Want to see if we can keep the room at 23 degrees. Still need to get some foam sheets to line the wall's and ceiling - hope to get it done this year :smile1:.

 

Eish - how fast time passes - and yes we have had a cold snap earlier this year - fish room dipped to 20 degrees last night - caught me a bit off guard - thought I had a few more days to install all the heater I removed / need to replace - do the good old check and all that.

Quick recap of things I have done in the past..

When I started - I believed in per tank insulation and a blanket at night - this worked well with 5 or so tanks - not so much with more than that.
I also had a heater in the outside tanks - due to electricity cost this is not viable anymore so fish will need to be moved indoors.
Add foam sheets to the back and sides of tanks - not that cool looking.
I managed to get foam sheets for the walls last year - did nothing to the ceiling so that could help this year.

The now ...

I am replacing most heaters with jaggers (ouch)
I am moving more fish to winter tanks and running some tanks with no fish in them. (winter tank = HMF + HOB with media and no substrate + heater)
Normal - reduce feed etc will follow.
Saw some cool window insulation - clear sheets used for snow area's - wonder if I can make something similar for the two plate glass windows. (jammed foam over them last year that really helped. - but I needed more light in the room)
Need to plug the walk through from the lounge to the fish room and use the smaller door that leads to the kitchen (would like to not do it with foam this year - dogs kept destroying it cause it had curtains in the way)


Later Ferdie

 

Old thread but - probably still relevant as a log of sorts ...

Funny how I stressed about stuff back then and now I just go with the flow.

Fish room drop for the first time below 17 degrees last night. The last of the (new) jaggers was unboxed and installed in the cube. Power draw has gone up on avg by 200 watts from my previous peaks ... I contribute the slight increase with heater to the fact that I only have 1 T5 and 2 pll's left and the rest are LED in some form or another. Humidity is the bugger again and I am behind in covering the tanks with glass sheets, maybe on the weekend. But that will cause more issue with some of the LED's

Tanks seem to be keep well at 18 degrees .


Later Ferdie

 

Started removing some heater during the week .. but the cold snap has me thinking twice, room is "snug" at 18 at the moment, keeping an eye on things.

Later Ferdie

 

I switched 2 of my 3 heaters in my big tanks off some 3 weeks ago, promptly turned them back on day before yesterday

 

My quick check list for checking heaters ... so if like me you remove heaters when they are not needed then be sure to have your own check-list before you start adding them back. (Feel free to add points that you might need)

1) visual inspection
- check for cracks or other damage to the heater, glass , gauge, cord etc.
- check the current set temperature, without it being plugged in set to max then to min, then you desired set point. (motion should be smooth at all times)
2) Bucket test (you might need some ice and a second measuring thermometer of sorts )
- add x litters in a bucket that is deep enough to submerged the entire heater - make sure that you do not shock yourself
- switch on the heater and see if it switches off at the set temperature cross check with the thermometer that you trust.
- add ice to drop the temperature and let the unit cycle and switch on again.
3) After all is OK place the heater back into the tank - make sure you have anti drip loops in the cord - i.e. avoid water running into the plug by some miracle.
4) Always switch the heater off before working on it or in the tank.

Got anything else to add?

Later Ferdie

 

I just checked now my tank is at 21.5 I need to add a heater maybe 2 tomorrow

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I am holding off a bit longer ...



Room seems to be doing well at 20 odd degrees, tanks worst 19.75 - I can still work with that since I typically aim for 18 degrees on my tanks in winter.

Later Ferdie

 

Just added 3x300W and 1x 200W to various tanks in the fish room. power consumption is already painful.

Later Ferdie

 

Yeah - cold snap it is for 2017 ... time to do some heater testing and getting them in 1 or two tanks.

 

Can actually track the extra power the heaters will be sucking in just the fishroom this year.


Max seems to be just under 500W during the day with lights pumps etc ... will be interesting to see the adding of heaters.

Later Ferdie

 

Only 1 of the 300w jagers is permanently in a tank - might not have power to it but I do not remove it during the year. As for the rest - I tend to remove heaters when not really needed anymore. This means ALL need to be checked. I have over the years disposed of most of the nasty heaters I first got - cheap but not that effective or accurate is always an issue. My main go to for 2017 will again be my now ageing Jager - but as backup I have some well aged older brands that some might recognise. One of my early qualifiers for a heater was can I set it to 18 degrees - that eliminated main from my even today. I do have a few "pre-set" but never find long term use. But as for cleaning / checking / testing before installing I will do it on all that I might want to use this year - just to know what does and what does not work so lekker.

 

hmmm - seems like my 3609's is in need of calibration for the temoswitch thing is bust. They rather old - still do not like the idea of spending crazy money on new jager today.

Need to figure out what calibration means in this bit of kit.

Later Ferdie

 

Jagers are expensive. I dont use my heater most of the year, switched it on last week when i saw the temp drop to 18. Mostly its 20/21.

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What's so special about jagers ? I've had 2 Chinese units for the last 3 years no problems .

 

From what I've heard, they are good quality make and considering how many people have failures or castatrophes in their tanks with the cheap make. Mine is a cheapo but I only use it in the winter.

@f-fish: Ever looked at the Sicce range? They also seem to be good too, expensive as well.

 

So it's purely about reliability

 

Yeah and the fail-safes in case something goes wrong - someone had a cheap heater and his cat played with it, pulling it partly out - it boiled the tank...

 

So moral of the story is keep your cat out of the tank

 

Unfortunately, you can't stop a cat from playing with the plug wires... I mean if you were sleeping in the night and the cat decides to mess around. That's why I have not gotten another cat since Flea and George went - they can be destructive, specially on the furniture...