How do you heat your holding water?

[Bass]

Hi!

Probably just an old topic I missed?
Anyway, I really think my daily w/c % is inadequate, and want to raise it from 5gal/day to at least 10 or 15.
Tomorrow I want to get a medium bin, some particleboard, set of trolley wheels, and a handle to cart it.

My wife, Lesley, is in “But… we’ve got a mortgage now!” mode, and already plans to kill me to save the money it will cost for the above gear. I’m fearful that she’ll come good with the threat if I admit the needed +300w LFS heater will probably be an extra $150 AUS on top.

Has anyone tried a better system to bypass the expensive LFS stock heaters, and built an economical (ie. “Significant-Other pleasing”) solution to the mass heating problem?

[April]

hmmmm..... i know your fish supplies over there are costly.but surely theres cheaper heaters than 150!!!!!
seeming its not with the fish it can be a lower quality one. and how big is your container? maybe a lower wattage?
how about solar heat? you guys have plenty of it.
:

[DiscusJeff]

Keep your container covered. You might not need 300 watts.

[ronrca]

I use 45G barrels for aging my water. I fill the barrels up using hot and cold water that match the temp of the tanks already. This way I dont have to have lots of heaters. All I have is a 200W heater to maintain the temp until the next water change.

If your only doing max 15G a day, all you need is a 100W heater. Rule of thumb is 5W/G!

Storage containers can be bought a Walmart. I just bought a 45G container for $20cdn. Sweet! It even had wheels on one end plus a nice lid.

[Jason]

make an emersion heater out of junk electric parts, PM Rod lewis maybe he could help you as I dont know what the different components are called down there, plus I think his mum made him go to electricians school.

[ronrca]

Really? COol! Rod needs to post this in the diy section so we all can see if and learn how!

[angel12]

This might be a stupid idea but ill give it a go why dont you either boil the water using the aged water already in your holding tank via a kettle or microwave some ... the amount of water you will need to raise the temp to an acceptable level will not to be to large I know that you are ageing your water but surely with such a small amount of water being added to the 15 Gallons it wont make a massive diff to the PH ... its just my twopence worth I may be wrong no doubt someone will post if I am

HTH

[Smokey]

Yea, but every thing down-under is 240 volts .... and the cycles run backwards ... or is that a day ahead. lol ;D ;D ;D 8)

Smokey

[rickk]

Hey Bass
I'm not sure on gal to litre conversion, 10 gal is I think approx 4 x 12 litre buckets, Run a hot bath and place the buckets of preped water in the bath 10-15 minutes should do it.

Also a glass heater will cost you between AU$40-AU$50 and a steel one about AU$70 from a LFS

Rule of thumb I use is 1litre to 1Watt

Hey Smokey: defenitly a day ahead LOL

[Tristanyyz]

Finally, an opportunity to show off my reservoir. 2-55 gallon solid plastic containers with lids and on wheels, that are rectangular, and dont buckle!

I made a couple holes and ran a piece of tube between them and siliconed it in there as an over flow. The RO water just trickles in all day, its heated by two 250watt ebos.

All pumped out by a 950gph mag pump.

[pops]

how about some hot water heaters from some older tanks?
just a lil 2 cents[us]worth. ??? ??? ???

[lesley]

: Hey Smokey, whatever way our cycles run, it's the right way!! lol.

Re April's bright () idea, has anyone heated their water using solar - but not via the hot water heater. I am loath to use ours since with all the strange murky water that has gone in during our continuing drought I feel that it must be near the stage where it could stand alone without the tank to hold it up!!! I have wondered if you could heat water with yet another container beside the ageing water that has a large (massive?) salt concentration which, in theory, should heat water and then have piping from this maybe wrapped around or immersed in the ageing water?????

Okay guys, you can now roll around the floor laughing at this dumb idea!!

[April]

LOl not sure rod wants to teach electrical stuff. water and electricity dont mix. hence no longer an electrician. well he is...but plays with fishies instead.
i will point him to the post.
ok ours run in a loop...theres dont. right?

Nice Pair there Tristanyyz, ive got just about the exact setup, same tubs and all, just they're next to my bed ;D and gotta love a mag drive for moving the water

I have 150w heater in each, brings up 45 gallons from 70 to 86 in the 24 hours between wc's, id think a 50w would be more than enough for warming up 10 gals at a time.

[April]

must be a canadian thing. as i also have those exact containers. lol
got them at canadian tire.