Anyone use fish pond heaters?

[paul1]

Hi guys anyone here use an aquarium fish pond heater in there tanks to keep water warm overnight if so does it help and what wattage would I need for a 350 tank cheers

 

[marc674]

I am sure green pro clean had a post up about this a few weeks ago. Looking into doing the same myself

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[Marko067]

I was reading a thread recently about koi pond heaters. There were 2kw and 3kw versions I believe but they weren't cheap as I recall

 

[Nick pegler DWC]

I started a thread about koi heater and brought a 2 kw one that sits In one of my 400 litre static tank turn it on at night and off at 5 on a timer water was 60 degrees yesterday so fill van with 400 litre of hot and 100 litre of cold was 35 at brush. I had used a £20.00 pond ice breaker in van tank overnight to stop it freezing which worked well .

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

2kw is massive overkill and could turn out to be very expensive by comparison to aquarium heaters Nick 

You may be able to get 35 degrees out of the brush but that won't last long as in minus temperatures in a van it will cool rapidly. 



I have 2 x 300watt aquarium heaters in my tank that will keep 500 litres at around 8 - 10 degrees all night.  Not woried about working temperature as it's pumped through the propane heater to the brush any way. 

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

Foot note. The infob posted above is based on 2004 rates so don't forget 13 years of inflation

 

[Nick pegler DWC]

I did look into how much everything was just had to compromise as I didn't want to drill a hole in tank for an immersion heater and didn't have the room for a gas heater in van or diesal system .but have a tube heater in van to stop it freezing overnight .

 

[Dr Von Samstein]

I'm not on eco 7 tariff so I pay 14p per kWh I use on immersion heater all through the night. 

2 KW immersion element on for about 8 hours = 16 kWh (assuming it never turns itself off because of reaching temperature so I think this is slightly high) 

16 X 14p =£2.24? Haven't got my calculator but looks about right. So for a tank of 65 degree water it costs me £2.24.

I insulated around my tank with 1 inch polystyrene and it does a good job of keeping heat in. Thursday I measured the temperature at brush head at 4pm and it was still 42 degrees.

What do you spend on gas in a day? 

I wouldn't use it to stop tank from freezing, 80w bar heater seems to manage that at 12p per night and I park as close as I can to building, but it's not a huge expense to be running hot water all day

 

[Dr Von Samstein]

Oh and set up was about £80 including immersion, plugs, core drill set, insulation ect...

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

£32 ever 6-7 weeks in gas

 

[Dr Von Samstein]

£32 ever 6-7 weeks in gas

So gas is about half the price to run, if immersion is on for the full time. A year or two back someone on here reckoned they used about £3 per day of gas?

And gas is definitely efficient in the sense of being able to turn it off, if I put immersion on I only have hot water for the day. And also, you only heat what you use, I will always have a bit left over.

But in my mind immersion is the safer route (obviously there's no risk at all to an electric heater in a tank of scalding hot water). Not questioning how any of you have set  yours up but I didn't fancy the idea of carrying the gas bottle in an unvented van in case of a crash. I know I'm probably worrying about nothing but this way I have a measure of peace of mind.

I think either way the cost is negligible compared to being able to continue working in the cold, and even in the warm it seems to make things quicker, esp fsg cleans

 

[VWC]

Is it possible to run an aquarium heater off the leisure battery?