# Cheap(er) Aquarium Heating Concept



## slimbolen99 (Apr 28, 2006)

A little background: I have 30 aquariums from 10 gallons to 75 gallons in the basement of my house. Each is filtered by sponge filters on a central air system. Last winter, the tank water got down to 65 degrees F before I added a large room space heater. The problem with that is that the electric bill went from $100 a month to $300 a month. Wife didn't like that.

Paranoid that I will potentially be paying $200 a month again to power a larger sized space heater to keep the aquariums warm, I've been exploring other options. Buying 30+ tank heaters is not an option, due to to a lack of available electrical amperage room on the two circuits the fish room is on.

I thought, what if I can pump warm air through my air pump down into the sponges, and thus into the tanks? How would that do in keeping the tank water a little warmer?

Typically, in the winter, the tanks on the very bottom rack got to be around 65F, and the middle tanks about 70, and the top tanks about 72; which is not conducive at all to keeping tropical fish. Oh, and this was at a monthly electric expense of $200 - $250. Without the space heater, the temps were about 5-10 degrees lower on a cold day.

So now to the concept. I'm thinking about putting a space heater blowing warm air into a ventilated fire proof box which houses the air pump supplying the air into the tanks. Something like this:










The box will have to be fireproof, so probably metal, with plenty of ventilation, but not so much that it lets all the warm air out. The other thing is protecting the air pump from the direct heated air, but still allowing the intake to suck in warm air. I'll also have to check with the manufacturer of my air pump to make sure it can operate in air temps that may be quite high.

To experiment, I'm going to use an old air pump that doesn't work too well, an eight output eco-plus air pump with a small space heater. To see how this thing works, I'll hook up varying lengths of tubing to the four outputs on the air pump which will pump into four separate shoe box containers with water in them.

I'll then use an infrared digital thermometer, like the one pictured below, to measure the water temperature in the water after the thing's been running for varying amounts of time. I'll also have a "control" shoe box with water in it sitting on the floor to give me an idea with the temperature of the water without any influence from the heated air.










I'll probably start with airline tube lengths of 2 feet, 6 feet, 12 feet, and 24 feet. That is about the lengths of the various hookups from the air pump now to the sponges in my current setup. Then I'll measure the water after the deal's been running and see what the effects are.

Looking for suggestions and ideas or maybe I'm just blowing hot air down an avenue that I won't succeed at. I'm no engineer, so I do want to make sure that I don't have any glaring safety concerns.


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

*bottom rack got to be around 65F, and the middle tanks about 70, and the top tanks about 72*
Just like debris in a tank, sounds like you need better circulation.
Ceiling fan?
Increased insulation is usually the most cost effective way to warm a room in the long run.
Any way to pull some warm air from the rest of your house, down into the fish room?
Ducting with an inline fan?
What about insulating the tanks themselves?
Styro on 3 sides might help and leave the front panel still open for viewing.
With $1200+ a year in extra costs, I can see why your looking for ideas now.


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

Most of the people I know heat their fishrooms (some with 100+ tanks) with a small ceramic heater. Once the room is warm, it doesn't take much to keep it warm, assuming the room is insulated. The problem I see with heating the air is the contact time between the bubbles and the water. The air bubbles would then leave the water and any heat left would heat the air in the room. Doesn't seem like a practical way to heat the tanks. Regardless, it will take the same amount of electricity to get the same effect. It would be better to have the heat source after the pump, rather than before the intake. Another consideration is how much heat the airlines can take.


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

Step 1: put every single tank on a layer of styrofoam. If the tanks will allow, place styrofoam behind and on the sides... add glass tops to any tank that doesn't have one.

Step 2: seal every window not needed for ventilation with a vapor barrier and tape. Consider building a simple wall to close in part of the basement.

Step 3: buy Bill's ceramic space heater.

even in a drafty 150 yr old farm house, that trick kept basement tanks real warm... 
:thumb:


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

*Step 3: buy Bill's ceramic space heater. *
:lol:


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## IDEAS-NG (Oct 23, 2008)

Just something you might not have thought of.

Air pumps usually get fairly hot due mainly to friction. The big fins on your pump are heat sinks which help to cool your pump. After closing it in and feeding it hot air you will increase operating temperature. The increased temperature will reduce the life of your pump by a lot.
I personally wouldn't risk frying an expensive pump.

By the way, I did what the other guys in this post suggested (Insulated Room & Tanks) it works for me.

Hope this helps.


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## kmuda (Nov 27, 2009)

An alternative, if it's simply to difficult or expensive to keep the room properly heated, is a centralized water reservoir. You can either heat the water there or you can place a tankless water heater inline with the flow back to the tanks.

A centralized water reservoir also simplifies water changes, so there are extra benefits.


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## Gervahlt (Jun 25, 2009)

I've also seen a few people run a hot water loop using stainless steel tubing from their home's hot water heater to their tanks. Works the same as a radiant heat coil in the floor or ceiling, but it's in the actual tank water. The pump to circulate the hot water only comes on when the tank water cools down.


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## Tom S (Dec 28, 2009)

How would you regulate that? You would need a pump for every tank or a separate loop for every size of tank, otherwise you would end up not heating the large tanks enough or overheating the smaller tanks. I can see that working for one or two large tanks, but not for a row of tanks.


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## trebor69 (Mar 15, 2010)

slimbolen99 said:


> A little background: I have 30 aquariums from 10 gallons to 75 gallons in the basement of my house. Each is filtered by sponge filters on a central air system. Last winter, the tank water got down to 65 degrees F before I added a large room space heater. The problem with that is that the electric bill went from $100 a month to $300 a month. Wife didn't like that.


Were you heating the entire basement?
Or just heating a room with the tanks?

Just curious because $200-$250 a month seems awful high just to heat a single room.

Could you section off an area/room....seal it up and insulate it best you can....then modify a duct from your whole house furnace to blow heat into the fishroom when it kicks on? It wouldnt be perfect because you'd have no control over it....it would just blow heat in there when the house thermostat kicked the furnace on. But it may help


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## Gervahlt (Jun 25, 2009)

Tom S said:


> How would you regulate that? You would need a pump for every tank or a separate loop for every size of tank, otherwise you would end up not heating the large tanks enough or overheating the smaller tanks. I can see that working for one or two large tanks, but not for a row of tanks.


You are absolutely correct. I was thinking that with 30 tanks in a single room that there'd be a centralized sump somewhere (which would have other issues/concerns on its own). That'll teach me to post in the morning before having my coffee.  Thanks for pointing that out! :thumb:


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## bntbrl (Apr 23, 2009)

Im working onthe same kind of issue in my fishroom. Right now Im running a bunch of heaters that I dont want to. They dont run at the same time though usually. I am in the process of planning a central system even though I dont want to but the cost of runnign dozens of tanks independantly is not a cost efficient option at this time for me.

I did talk to a guy once that ran his air pump into pvc pipe that was outside in the sun and he said that it would raise the temps a degree or two to help keep the heeaters from running so much. Maybe running your pvc air main into a heated part of the house can help raise the temp a degree or two.


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## jackdempsey420 (Aug 22, 2010)

i just use a reptile lamp and bulb but the bigger the better u can pick them up at ur local pet store that sells reptiles


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

In the middle of the country, natural gas is the cheapest heat. Most houses in Shawnee, Ks have natural gas so that makes a closed room with ducting from the furnace the best way to raise the room temperature. Depending on how and what the ceiling has it is also the easiest to do.


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## lmhollist (Aug 7, 2009)

In our fishroom we have a dehumidifier that runs constantly and that contributes towards keeping the room fairly warm, although I can't say what the exact temp is in there ... probably about 72-74. We've also only lived in this house for a few months so I don't know what the basement is going to be like in the wintertime. Shouldn't have to do too much winterizing though, there are two small windows that we will probably do some excessive sealing on just to keep any drafts out.

We also have most of our tanks sitting on insulation foam and we have two systems running. Our 75s and 55s all drain into a 70 gallon stock tank and then we have a 3 shelf rack with 6 20 longs on the top two shelves and a 125 on the bottom. The 20 longs drain into the 125 so that helps us not have to run a heater in every single tank.


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## kevinmjones1978 (Aug 11, 2010)

if your main air line is pvc, you could try just some standard heat tape...you know that keep pipes from freezing in the winter....


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

Part of the problem with heat tape is that it is electrical which is not cheap to run. The other problem is that heat tape can melt PVC if run directly on the pipe and run full time. It would need an add on thermostat to regulate the pipe temperature as the standard heat tapes I've used don't kick on until the pipe is somewhere near freezing. 
Using the air supply to heat the tanks would seem to be something of a nightmare to balance and regulate over time. If one has tanks at different levels, the lower tanks in a cool/cold room, will need more heat. How does one regulate the heat as the different bubblers begin to stop as they often do?


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## shaguars7 (Apr 12, 2009)

I live in toronto canada and i am sure i do not need to say it gets cold here..lol. I have a fishroom that i recently builtand how many people are saying to heat yours is how i heat mine. I do have the room fully insulated with r20 insulation and there is a heating duct in the room, but do not know how hot it will be in the full on winter with the furnace going. I did not have the room up and running till about mid april. I at first had some problems with the heater being on the floor..the top tanks on the racks werew running at around 80 and the bottoms were at about 71, so i could not juice up the heat to get the bottoms warmer without cooking the top tanks. SO to remedy this i went out and bought a 10 dollar 10" fan and it is pointed down in the room from the top... now the tanks are within 2 degrees of eachother. Also i should mention that i run an airsystem and have 18 tanks all with sponges most tanks have a minimum of 2 sponges and some as in fry tanks have 1. i think the pump being in the top corner of the room also may boost a degree or two in the temps on the tanks. goodluck with whatever u do. :thumb:


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

+1 on the air circulation to level the temps out. A point some miss when they are trying to mod their heating is that it works much better to have hot air venting in if you also have a cold air return to take the air out and back to the furnace. Hard to blow air into a closed room if there is no way for it to get out. Putting both in the room will create air circulation if placed correctly.


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