External tank heater

[pete]

Another question for all you D.I.Yers out there.........

As most of you will now know my 72x24x24 tank houses Oscar my South American Red Tail Catfish one of the problems with these fish is that they will try to eat anything that fits in their moutns and that means ANYTHING :0

The problem that i have is that although i have installed plastic heater guards on both of the 300 watt heaters in his tank Oscar still trys to eat them and although the guards are holding out at the moment they will not last much longer with the punishment he is giving them (he has a VVERY strong bite)

So i was thinking...........wouldnt it be great if i could heat the water from outside the tank?..........like in a module that runs inline with one of my filters hoses?.........although ive never personally seen it done im sure it could be but im unsure of how to go about it?

Any help would be appriecated :what:

 

[Davy Reynolds]

me again

If your using an external this will work.

Get a pipe, plastic, drain type, cut it so you end up with a 1/4 pipe, that runs the height of your tank. Drill a few holes in the bottom. Silicon it in a corner. Place the heater and the filter outlet in it. Place the outlet near the top so that the water flows over the heater.

8)

 

[pete]

Good idea m8............but...........theres always a but lol, i want to keep everything exept for the fiter inlet and return pipes in the tank as Oscar will soon be at the size where if he really wanted to he could smash through the pipe idea :0 , as well as that i cannot put anything in the tank to hide the ugly bits of pipe as he tears up plants real and artificial and he plays football with rocks risking a broken tank lol and i like a nice looking tank if i can lol

But thanks again m8 if i cannot suss out a way to heat the water externally i will use that method lol

 

[Great Lakes]

Pete, What kind of stand do you have? Is there an enclosure under your tank?

 

[pete]

No m8 ..........wait for it....................its on...
Concrete blocks with scaffoldboards resting on top of them then polystyrene with "tongue n groove" facings to finish it all off lol

The concrete blocks unfortunatelly leave no room under the tank but all the filters plumbing etc is hidden behind the sofa :laugh:

 

[Macquatic]

You've got problems m8! Best way is a sump tank with every thing in it, but you aint got room. I overcame this problem by buying an Eheim 2328 Thermo with a burnt out pump for £10 and a Maxijet 750 for £16. The pump is mounted on the top edge of the tank out of the water and shoots the return across the surface. Don't worry maxijets won't overheat if used externally. This might give you ideas for some thing else. Mac.

 

[pete]

Yeah great this is giving me lots of ideas

Heres one i came up with earlier and i just wanna run it by you all to see what you all think?........lol :what:

Hows about a 2 foot aquarium with drilled holes in both ends for the filter pipes and a cover permanantly sealed on with 2 holes in it (again drilled glass) for the heaters to go into? :what:

I dunno if it would work or not on the one hand the water will be cycling through it very quickly and my not heat up but on the other hand what if i get a hot spot that blows the heaters? .........any thoughts?

Probabally a bad idea but it just came to me in my sleep lol

YES i even dream fishy dreams lmao :laugh:

 

[Davy Reynolds]

The inlet and outlets will have to placed in good positions so that all the water in the tank is circulation. But sounds a good idea.

Maybe pump the filter into the heater tank and use a pond pump to get the water into the tank, flow rates may differ

 

[pete]

SORTED!!!!

That idea would work very well m8 as the filter that the "pod" would run inline with is an old Ehiem (about 20 yrs old) bucket filter that uses an Ehiem 1060 hobby pump to circulate the water so i could just get another 1060 hobby pump to pump the pod out and ive got the exact same flow rates on both water pumps

I'll go price one up tomorrow i think lol :laugh:

 

[Great Lakes]

Pete, Even two identical pumps won't circulate the same. one of them will suffer from a loss of volume due to head pressure.
You Sure you don't have room for a sump in there? That would solve a whole lot of trouble. I will sleep on the problem tonite.

 

[Great Lakes]

Pete. How about this? Drain your tank down far enough to be able to silicone a partition in one end, about 8". Then a couple inches down from the top, drill some 1" holes, an at the bottom, drill a hole where you can return the water into the tank with a rio, or whatever other kind of inexpensive submersible pump you have. Then, in this area that is protected from oscars antics, you can put your heaters, and be able to stick a bunch of live plants in there to help your water quality and hide all the hardware. This is the easiest and cheapest way I can think of Pete.

 

[pete]

Now that sounds like a cracking idea mate and rest assured im giving that one alot of serious thought 8)

I can really see it working too where as the other ideas i came up with were so complex this is simplicity itself
Like they say.........K.I.S.S...........Keep It Simple Stupid........lmao

I'll have a chat to Nikki see what she thinks and let you know if im gonna do it mate

 

[Great Lakes]

Welcome Pete, Sometimes you have to look at the problem all over from the beginning.  Like next time, leave room for a sump!    :laugh:

 

[pete]

I'll be doing that when we move house and set it up again mate.........learnt me lesson lol :laugh:

 

[Great Lakes]

Way to go! Then when you have a sump, it's easier to switch to saltwater
But don't let anyone here know I told you that