Heating a large Tank - 220g

[chavez720]

Acquired a new tank - 220g. Having never owned a tank this large I have some questions for all you big tank owners. Hope to house my discus in the tank when everything is complete.

How are you guys heating tanks this big? I live in NC so heating during the summer is not a problem, room stays around 76°F. During the winter, about a month or two, the room temp will drop to 70°F - 72°F. Taking what I usually use for heating (5 watss/gal) would require a heater in the range of 1100 watts. This sound right? or should I add more?

Are there heaters in the range of 500-1000 watts? What is a good brand?

[Jeff]

Jhemco has a heater and controller that size. Be prepared to spend some $$$ or use 4 300w should also work.

[chirohorn]

FWIW, I use a 200W older green Ebo Jager in my 135 gallon w/no problem even in the mild TX winter. Keeps it a constant 86 degrees. It's probably on only half the time, not constantly struggling to hold the temp.

[Tristanyyz]

I use my 250w eheim thermo filter for my 150 gallon, when I need to crank it up a bit, I throw in a digital titanium heater.

Just a note, be sure to level your 220gallon tank, length wise and width, before you put water in it...just use shims, they have great pressure treated ones at Home Depot.

[Tristanyyz]

...can your floor hold the weight of the tank? Count on roughly 10lbs/gallon of water, not including the weight of the tank!

[chavez720]

Have a post on another board about reinforceing the floor joist. The tank runs perpendicular to the joist and should span 4 (2X12,16" on center). I plan on putting a 4X4 post on each joist to have added security. Did not really get a good answer on how big the footer/concrete pad should be for each post so I will ask the qeustion here - What size footing should I use?

That is not much heating on large tanks!

[Tristanyyz]

Chavez720,

Re-enforced concrete floors here...so I can't help you.

I am sure there is a DIY'er around here that can help you. That would be a great topic in the DIY section.

I believe thats all it is in my filter 250W and it works just fine. A nice set-up, gives you triple digit, digital display for the temperature, in celcius. The only problem is that its only adjustable to a maximum of 31 Celcius...I emailed Eheim and asked if it could be adjusted to go to a maximum of 34C, and they asked me why I would ever want to do such a thing...now as far as I know Eheim is a German company...wasn't Dr. Heckel too????

[Dennis_Hardenburge]

Chavez
Wheather you even need the posts or not would depend on the span of the 2x12 joist, but if you are adding posts the 12 inch square concrete blocks made for 4x4 post that all home supply stores cary would be more than enough.
For heating I would use four 300 watt heaters.
Dennis

[limige]

I have a 190, that i had on my main floor for awhile, i posted a few times concerning it and came to these conclusions.

you should be alright with the weight as long as the tank is right against the outside wall and the joist underneath run perpendicular to the wall, so that there are lots of beams underneath instead of 3 or 4. and be sure you don't just level the stand in 4 corners or even six, because instead of that weight being spread out you just concentrated it in small spots.

i suggest buying a couple packs of shims and make sure it is shimmed all the way around with as few as gaps as possible, it a trecherous process. unless your floor is level.

when filling i suggest filling 1/3 slowly and let it sit.
next day check to make sure it's still level.
fill 2/3, next day check level and finish filling.

use 1/2 peice of pink styrofoam used for insulation under the tank, it will help it settle onto the stand and greatly reduce the possibility of cracking the tank, failure is not an option. keep an eye on it for the first month with a level and make sure your floor isn't moving around on you.


for heating, i really suggest going with the jalli titanium and temp controller. i forgot what size i have i'll check tonight, it's like 700 or 1000 watts i can't remember. anyway, it works great and you don't have to worry about it cracking. cost is decent for a titanium too!!

post any additional questions we'll be glad to help!
congrats on the new tank!

[chavez720]

Wondering about using only 250W - 300W of heating on a tank that big?!!?!

L - I was looking at the Jallii heaters they come in 1000w with a separate heat controller. I think this might be the direction that I will go. Would like to go with 3X500 watt if I could find a single controller to power all three. Had problems on a smaller tank (75g) with two heaters in the sump. When one went on, it would turn the second one off. Heat from the first one would trigger the second one to shut off. This only allowed half the heating to come on at one time. This put the entire heating load on one heater, which was not enough for the tank. Only solution was to put one heater in the sump and the other in the tank.

What is your lighting system? Will be going fully planted in this tank. Have been keeping Discus/Plants for about 6 years.

How much circulation? Pump Type?

Basically what are your tank parmaters and equipment. Sounds like we will have similar systems.

[limige]

well i haven't checked nitrates or nitrites, right now i just have a twin tube 4' lighting strip with an aquaglow and plantglo light i believe. but i could use double the light. i was planning on running a 4 tube system. you can get the ballast a lowe's hardware for around $45. then you buy the endcaps for the lights like $1 a pair. and wire it all in your hood, that's the cheapest route i found.

but if you had alittle more money, look into the hagen lighting products. they have a twin tube ballast kit for $33.

i checked my jalli heater is the 800watt, it does great! ordered it from aquaticecosystems.com. you could go with two or three smaller ones and the controller but i trust the titanium way more.

i tried running 2 250watt ebo's and they just couldn't keep the tank above 82 degrees in the winter when room temp in the basement was around 70. so you'll need more than that if the tank is all exposed. if you have the tank against a wall then i would consider taping styrofoam to the sides, i would greatly reduce heat lose. it's not an option for me.

i run a 20 gallon breeder tank converted to a wet/dry, it will fit inside my stand, i use a 500gal/hr mag drive pump and 2 sponge filters. sometimes i will keep more sponges in there so i have some cycled sponges for new tanks. or i'll pull one of my two and put the new one in its' place.

if you run wet/dry alone i was suggested to move up to a 1200gal/hr mag drive. you will then need multiple drains and return lines to deal with the flow. if your buying this tank new i'd highly suggest having it drilled. maybe 2 drains and 2 returns?! i ended up siliconing two peices of glass into the corner for my overflow.

[Lance_Krueger]

I have a 200 gallon Oceanic with about 25 adult discus in it, and went the four 250W Ebo Jaeger route. Had them cycling back and forth, and of course none of them worked together. Read a post where Cary recommended the Jehmco Titanium heater with Controller. I figured that only for a few bucks more, I could get a thousand watts of titanium heaters that worked together. I ordered it, and let me tell you, it's 100% industrial grade. The only wimpy part of the whole deal is the suction cups, which I replaced with some others that hold it up on the back wall or in my sump (which is where I've got it now). I got the 1000 watt version (two 500 watt titanium rods), though they can go up to 1,800 watts if you need to. Read through the page on Jehmco's site about using a controller. It's all true. Now I use those 250 watters for other tanks.
Lance Krueger

[Denny]

As I have been looking into what I will need to heat a rather large tank that I am planning on building I came across what I feel is the best heater value for the money. Go to your local hardware store and buy a replacement heating element for an electric water heater. You can get a 3500 watt element for under 20 bucks. then wire it to one of jehmco's temp controllers and you will have mongo heat on tap. you can get them in sizes from 1500 to 5500 watts and maybe more in bigger hardware stores.

They will take a bit of diy to mount in your tank and it would probably be wise to screen it so fishies don't become insta-toast but they are durable, heat like a ton of bricks and dirt cheap- fits all the diy criteria

[limige]

DJ those temp controllers are only wired to handle certain loads, the one i have is rated for 1000watts total. you would need some sort of super heavy duty controller for such an element, or a good electrical backround to wire the controller into a relay of some sort.

[Harriett]

Chavez,
You're geting lots of good feedback here, but just to throw in my experience, I live in Chicago in an old farmhouse--winters are COLD here and we keep the house at about 68-70 degrees in the daytime, down a bit at night.
I have a 180g tank on the second floor set near a corner, on a foundational outside wall with the joists running perpendicular. Level your tank slowly and carefully--shims and the rigid pink styrofoam insulation are VERY well advised. I checked with a level while I was getting it set up and then regularly for the first 10 months, waiting for the floor to warp, or in my more dramatic moments, the tank to crash through to the first floor.....after a year, no problems at all!!
I have two Rena 300s in the sump of my wet/dry. They have surprisingly proven to be more than enough to keep the tank at a balmy 86 degrees---I also have 400w of CP lights on 11 hours a day that put out a bit of heat and that I'm sure has contributed to the stable warm temp in the tank.
Best regards and have a ball--nice sized tank!
Harriett