Ways to heat a large fish tank ?

[W.olly]

So the fish tank project is now in serious planning. It will be holding 4500 litres ( 1200 gallon ) roughly . Will have two viewing windows. 8 foot x 3 foot, Its a L shape tank with the rear long sides being 11 foot and cross section 3 foot x 3 foot. All but the viewing windows will be insulated with 2 inch polyurethane

There are some clever folk on here so as the biggest cost to run it will be to heat it what ways is there to heat it. I though about maybe like under floor heating but wrap it around the tank ?

We are paying 25p a KW in electric so its going to add up so if i can work out a way to help the heaters heat it I have lots of room for solar, if thats much good in the UK lol.

 

[brightspark]

So the fish tank project is now in serious planning. It will be holding 4500 litres ( 1200 gallon ) roughly . Will have two viewing windows. 8 foot x 3 foot, Its a L shape tank with the rear long sides being 11 foot and cross section 3 foot x 3 foot. All but the viewing windows will be insulated with 2 inch polyurethane

There are some clever folk on here so as the biggest cost to run it will be to heat it what ways is there to heat it. I though about maybe like under floor heating but wrap it around the tank ?

We are paying 25p a KW in electric so its going to add up so if i can work out a way to help the heaters heat it I have lots of room for solar, if thats much good in the UK lol.

yep it will be

 

[hotponyshoes]

Immersion heater is the most efficient way (in terms of electricity consumption)

 

[W.olly]

Immersion heater is the most efficient way (in terms of electricity consumption)

how about wet underfloor heating but wrapped around the tank. gas is cheaper than electric.

 

[dieselsamurai]

Better to have a grid of pipes in the tank like under floor heating

If it was me id use a large central heating tank as a heat exchanger then you have options to use an imersion heater or feed into it from solar during the day

 

[dobbslc]

Get some cold water loving fish?

 

[Popcorn]

That's exactly what I was gonna say dobbslc, you could stock it with native British fish.

 

[W.olly]

Get some cold water loving fish?

That is a thought by us. Perch Roach and Crucian maybe another Carp but get a bit big.

 

[angellonewolf]

only thing i can see how keep the temp at the right temp

under floor heating pipe layed before putting in the tank but how to regulate temp of the water ?

 

[W.olly]

only thing i can see how keep the temp at the right temp

under floor heating pipe layed before putting in the tank but how to regulate temp of the water ?

Something i need to look into, how does radiator system work a sin turn on and off. There must be a way i can a temp sensor in the tank to turn the combi boiler/boiler on and off. It needs to be around 24 DegC. i can still use some inline fish tank heaters but the main will be the boiler and pipe work. ALthough if the boiler can keep a stable temp then that will be fine. Once its warmed up i would think it will take a while to drop below 22 deg c..

 

[Greeves246]

Look at pond heaters. Filtration is another problem with large tanks. When I worked in the aquarium section at Liverpool Museum in the 70s filtration was done in the basement by sand filled tanks, gravity fed and pumped back up. The big tanks there were 8ftx4x4 viewing window smaller 4x4x4 .Is it indoors or outside? You may have to consider cooling in summer.

 

[waddycall]

You could use a pump and heat exchanger connected to your central heating system with a thermostat and two port valve.
You can get shell and tube heat exchangers for swimming pool heating. I think a high flow rate and a low delta t over whatever is heating the water will give the best chance of not cooking fish.

 

[mark roberts]

You can buy ready made pump heaters for koi ponds. I suppose it would cost a fortune for initial warm up but once up to temp. I'd insulate the heck out of it. Alot of koi men use their home combi boilers also.

 

[8ob]

The upside of anything consuming leccy within the four walls of a house is it’s also heating the house.

Bob

 

[Gareth J]

What about pulling a coil out of an indirect hot water cylinder, dropping it in and connecting it to the CH? You could use a recirculating esbe type valve to keep flow temperatures low. Would need some agitation to move heat around and to be digitally thermostatically controlled but much less maintenance than running fishy water through an external plate heat exchanger.

 

[gaz1]

if you want a boiler reference then use a diesel heater as that unit can be timed

you can fit a coil one side of the unit and tube it like an emmersion heater

use the exhaust on normal diesel heaters

though you will still suffer temp swings not good for tropical tanks so a hybrid is better to use