Heating grow out system and storage tanks with heat exchangers

[Leland F.]

Hello, I'm new to the forum, but not to raising fish. I've decided to build a new breeding system, and I'm planning on heating it, and my storage water with heat exchangers heated off my recirculation loop for my house, which is heated by a gas, tankless water heater. I was curious if anyone here does the same?
I'm having a stainless steel heat exchanger made now, that will mount in my sump through two bulkheads, and connect to my recirculation line directly, which has a temperature of 120 degrees. I'll have a gate valve on the loop to the heat exchanger to temper the flow rate to get the temperature I want in the growout system.
For the storage water, I'm picking up 4-275 gallon square storage tanks this weekend for $50 each, all food grade containers. I'm going to store them in my garage, and have a pump to circulate water through them all in a loop. I'll connect the storage tank loop to a flat plate heat exchanger that will be heated by my tankless heater's recirculation loop as well. The flat plate heat exchanger prevents any cross contamination with the tap water and the storage tank water.
Im a residential plumber, so this is what I do on a regular basis. I thought this would be the most cost effective way to heat a 450 gal growout system and 1100gal of storage water as well. Any ideas, or suggestions would be great.

Thanks!
Leland

[Rxfisher]

Very impressive
Looking forward to your progress

[LoGeek]

Sounds like a really good idea!

Is the gate valve manually operated or will you connect it to a thermostat?

[kris2341]

this kind of system generally does not need a gate valve, a thermostat running the recirculation pump is all thats needed to regulate temperature

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?116786-System-Concept-7kW-Equivalent-Hydronic-Heating-System-for-Aquaria-(Complete)

this is my setup, functionally similar to what you're doing.

[kris2341]

this kind of system generally does not need a gate valve, a thermostat running the recirculation pump is all thats needed to regulate temperature

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?116786-System-Concept-7kW-Equivalent-Hydronic-Heating-System-for-Aquaria-(Complete)

this is my setup, functionally similar to what you're doing.

my recommendation would be to have separate recirculation loops each with a thermostat for the water reservoir and the grow out system.

[kris2341]

odd, i thought i hit edit..

[Leland F.]

I think the gate valve will be enough to control the temperature. Adding another pump and aquastat is an upgrade I'll do if needed, but with a 120 degree loop, the heat loss on the system to get it to 84-86, I think the gate valve will work fine. Adding a pump, aquastat and controller would be another $700-$1000 which may not yet be nessary.

Leland