stainless steel and geyser element

hello all
any one ever used stainless in a tank
i am thinking of using a geyser element in my new 8 foot tank with a thermostat and making the housing out of stainless steel pipe on the outlet of my return pump from the sump
any info if this is bad or good
regards Mark

 

Morning. I have 2 stainless bars keeping my socks in position in the sump with no problems. But stainless steel wont release anything into your aquarium. Just get good quality stainless. I know they are graded but I don't know much about that.

And ps good plan. I also thought of the same thing at one point. Also check out high pressure pvc pipe as you won't be boiling the water and the element won't touch the walls it should work.(No melting) And you will have better veriaty of fittings.

 

i work in a stainless workshop so it is easiest option for me, will use 304 stainless i recon
just worried man, know fish are highly intolerant of heavy metal deposit in water so need some insurance there

 

Eish. I hear you man. And you see you know the grading.

My plan originally was to do something almost like a inline co2 reactor but instead of ceramics inside you would have your element. All build out of pvc pipe. But from some articals I have read its not smart to have the element in direct contact with your aquarium water . They used a heat exchanger witch was basically a pipe with element sealed inside another pipe witch your tank water is pumped through? But maybe that's what you had in mind also.

Anyhow that's the extent I can help. Sorry. Good luck. And I still think it could work. If I find that thread again I will post.

 

aslo been doing some research and thinking of doing it with a dry ceramic element that can work with no water contact in a 2" pipe with a 2.5" pipe around it with water flow, only problem is dry element blows budget out of the window

 

I hear you. Well if all else fail my tank is outside in the garage with no ceiling and I'm running 3 300w Eheim Jagers at a constant 26 degrees with no problems. But its probably only 800l of water?

Hope your plan work would like to do some sort of diy on them to. Haha

 

do you make things to order? how bout a TASA discount?
haha

 

byronb
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would love to but what ever i do for anything outside of food industry is done under black opps style conditions, boss is rather grumpy lol

 

@

a3aan
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winter coming and monster tank is going in the work shop, when temps drop to 0 and colder i recon i am going to need 2000watts of heating ie 7 300watt heaters and at current prices of jager i want a another option lol

 

Holy crap and I thought I was in a bad situation with my tank..... All I can say is styrofoam and lots of it.... Insulate everything....

Will also keep on thinking of plans.... Good luck.

 

Why 304 and not 316?

Also you need to consider galvanic corrosion

 

ja thinking of doing 5 sides of main tank insulation meaning making even the lid insulation and the sump all 6 sides
304 is perfect up here on the highveld no major advantage as we have very lil salt in the air and fresh waster aint corrosive plus i have alot more 304 tubing scrap to use

 

Morning. Thought of another plan last night. Don't laugh.... Stick with the regular old geyser element and do a closed loop system. Use a 200l plastic drum stick your element in that. The plump 2 bulkheads into the tank one top one bottom. Then run tubing either stainless like you have from the bottom outlet and spiral it in some fashion underneath either your display tank or sump? Think up against the display tank will be the most efficient way. And let it return to the top inlet of your tank. Oh and just use a pump st circulate it obviously. Or if you want to abandon the stainless part just use 20mm plastic pipe and spiral it inside the sump? But same plan will work. And just change the circulating water once in a while. This way the element and the stainless tubing is not in direct contact with the water?
It will be a big setup thou but I'm sure it will be efficient. You could even put a geyser blanket around the 200l tank?
Cheers and good luck again.

 

eish that is a heavy elaborate system, looked at it today and think i will place ceramic element in a tube into my overflow box, this is looking quickest and easiest option, problem being the 20 amps i need to run it, as plugs are only 15 amps

 

@topdog

Just make sure with a geyser element that you have a second fail safe thermostat that can run at 2 to 3 deg higher than the first as to not boil your fish. I have in the past talked to 2 separate guys that have used this type of system and they both had a stuff up on their first attempts were the thermo failed and they were able to serve the pets for dinner that evening. Another thing you might want to consider is a German made preferably a Stiebel element as 5 years ago I replaced 7 blown elements (SA made) until I was introduced to this type and have not had a problem yet. The SA ones do not come with any type of guarantee because for this failure problem they have, they are just badly manufactured.

Regards

Jason

Here is a pic of the shape they come in.

 

hey

jpvd007​

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think i am going to go with a dry ceramic element so that i can keep it seperate from the water and have no contamination, will def try have a fail safe, man this heating is destroying the pocket

 

So than go for some cold water species. A tank with one type of fish that is bright in colour is very affective and eye catching.



Like this one

 

no man tank was bought especially for my jardini aro,
so i mean i am going for a dry running ceramic element that i can have in a stainless steel tube and run it with the tube in contact with water but never the element.
Stainless will not release harmful stuff that normal element will
so still warm water, gold fish may be used as food thou

 

Beautifull

 

Okay then you must do it. the ceramic element sound like a good idea. good luck. And don't forget to post some picks.