My Solution to Heating Water for Water Changes

[Cove Beach]

I know most people use a standard glass or titanium heater to heat their water change storage barrels, as did i when i was running a reef. Since switching to freshwater it has opened up a new possibility. I no longer need to constantly heat my water for water changes and run up my electric bill. Interested??? Here is what i am doing. First off my display is 245 gal with a 180 gal sump running at 2/3 capacity or about 370 gallons total.
I have two 55 gallon drums plumbed together for aging and top off. Both drums are heavily aerated. I have a third 55 gal drum on an elevated stand also heavily aerated which i fill from the pair below as needed. To do the heating i am using a dedicated tankless natural gas hot water heater. I created a heating loop by putting a bulkhead fitting as close to the bottom of the elevated drum as possible, and connecting the input of a Panworld pressure rated pump to it. The output is teed with a ball valve on each output. One output goes to the input of the heater and the output of the heater flows back into the top of the elevated barrel thus creating the heating loop. I have a digital thermometer that displays the temp of the water in the barrel very near the bottom and also ambient air temp. This allows me to control how warm the water gets. Once i reach 85 deg F i can shut off the heater and close the loop valve. I then shut down my return pump, and let the water drain back to the sump. After draining down my sump the required amount i open the second ball valve and pump the now heated water into the sump. I can take 55 gallons of room temp (68-72 degrees) up to 85 or higher if need be in about 15 mins. Before winter i plan to insulate the elevated drum to shorten the time even more. The up front cost is a little high but considering the long term savings i think its a winner. For larger changes the only limiting factor is space for your holding tank. I was able to use PEX for the lines running to and from the heater. One other plus, you never have to worry about a heater left on in an empty drum or having it explode when the cold water hits it!

If anybody has questions or wants more detail please feel free to ask.

[brewmaster15]

Mark sounds like a great system. I wish I had natural gas here, but its not in my area. Can you provide some pics of your system and the equipment?

Thanks,
Al

[Cove Beach]

a few pics. Also you can get the same heater that will run on LP Gas . The Panworld is sitting behind the test kit box on the shelf and the pipe running to the right is the line to the sump. http://forum.simplydiscus.com/attach...1&d=1537733417

[Paul Sabucchi]

Very interesting, will keep it in mind particularly if I get to build a fishroom

[Cove Beach]

I wanted to make the system easy to maintain and as efficient as i could especially after running a full blown reef with a 1000W of MH and lots of pumps and heaters. Electric bill dropped $125.00 a month when i shut it down!

[brewmaster15]

I can take 55 gallons of room temp (68-72 degrees) up to 85 or higher if need be in about 15 mins.

That is pretty darn good I would say!

al