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Thread: Heating fish room

  1. #1

    Default Heating fish room

    Happy new year guys and girls.

    Quick question on heating. I currently have one tank I keep in an insulated shed in my garden. I live in the uk so the temperature gets very cold at times!

    I use a normal aquarium heater and it works fine and the tank stays where I want it to be.

    Moving forward I will be adding more tanks and want to heat them as cost effectively and every efficient as possible.

    I’ve heard people say getting rid of individual heaters in the tanks and heating the room is the best option, would you agree? And if so would Infrared be a good option. Any ideas of cost per month?

    I would run Sponge filters and lighting would be cheap.

    Cheers

    Ian
    Last edited by RogueDiscus; 01-01-2020 at 06:57 PM.

  2. #2
    Registered Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Posts
    90

    Default Re: Heating fish room

    Hi Ian, I'm also in the UK and have had fish rooms in sheds in the past (my current one is in the garage with a gas boiler). It all depends on your set up really, ie. number and size of tanks, will they all be discus tanks or will you keep other stuff too? Working in a fish room at 30c is a killer, you'll be sweating cobs! I have a mixed set up, mainly discus but I have a few cory tanks as well so I maintain the room temp at 27 and have heaters in the discus tanks, it's a degree or so higher than this high up and a degree or two cooler than this lower down. This has the benefit of meaning the heaters in the discus tanks don't have a lot to do and it's a lot more tolerable a place to work in. I've used a thermostatic oil filled radiator in the past to boost the room temperature and that worked well.

    If you're running say 6 tanks I would personally use individual heaters, depending how well insulated the shed is you may also want to insulate the tanks themselves on the back and sides. You may find (as I have in the past) the tanks will end up heating the room up to over 20c anyway if you're well insulated.

    Also bear in mind condensation is likely to be an issue, unless you have a perfect vapour barrier I've found you're better off running an extractor fan rather than a dehumidifier.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Heating fish room

    Hi Kev, thanks for getting back to me.

    They tanks will mainly be discus, I may do a tropheous and or African tank too.

    The largerst tanks will be 4ft with a couple of breeding tanks too.

    I was worried about the condensation, does the extractor fan work? What sort do you run? How long do you have it on for?

    I currently have a oil radiator in the room but only have it on when I’m in there. Do you find it expensive to have on all the time?

  4. #4
    Registered Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Posts
    90

    Default Re: Heating fish room

    Hi Ian,

    the extract fans work perfectly. I've tried ones with humidistats before and had issues so I just run mine 24/7 and they have always eliminated condensation in the fish room. I stripped one fish room down after it had been running in a shed for 7 years and there were no signs of condensation damage anywhere. Conversely, in my last one, I used a dehumidifier and didn't have a perfect vapour seal and had issues with condensation running down from the roof, I only fixed it by fitting an extract fan.

    Yep, you lose heat to a degree, but equally you're not running a dehumidifier of around 300w.

    It's difficult for me to work out costs as I have two tanks in the house as well and my marine tank uses a lot of power. The heat the oil filled radiator adds though is heat the tank heaters don't have to. You might find with a few tanks running the ambient temperature is high enough anyway. I keep mine high so I don't have to buy heaters for all of my cory tanks. The other advantages are it makes hatching brine shrimp easy as I don't need a water bath to keep it warm, plus if a heater in a discus tank fails in the off position the temperature should only fall to 27 and I won't lose fish.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Heating fish room

    Cheers mate, interesting stuff

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