Heating Aquarium

[mattygreen86]

I'm in the middle of building a plywood aquarium which I'm gonna keep in my shed, what's troubling me is heating it. The tanks gonna be about 1500 litres so I was planning on using about 3 500 watt heaters which should suffice most of the year but in the winter they will have to work very hard to keep temp right. Is there risk Of these overheating and burning out? Will this cost a lot to run and are there any better options?

 

[sputnick]

Thinking about this here is what I would do. Is your shed insulated? If not can you insulate it? If it isn't and you can't I would insulate the tank itself. Although I would insulate the tank either way. They make foam insulation and the most common sizes are 1" 1.5" or 3". You can pick up a few sheets of this and cut to fit and just glue it to the outside of your tank. This will do a few things mainly, keep the heat in during winter months saving you electricity as well as the heaters wont have to work as hard. Also if your going to insulate it, make sure that if you have a sump or lines running out of the tank to insulate those too. That is going to be the spot where the most heat loss will occur. 
 
As far as heaters I think you should use at least 4 that way if one fails you can still keep the tank temp up and 4 individually wont have to work as hard as 3.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

What temp will you be trying to keep the water at?
What is the typical coolest ambient temp in the shed in the middle of winter?
 
1W per litre will not be enough if you are trying to heat the water much more than say 10C above the ambient room temp.
 
Even with layers of bubble wrap; blackets; old curtains; condensation trays etc. I have had a number of heaters "die" in my garage 5x2x2, while trying to maintain 22C and a typical ambient temp minimum of ~8C, using two 300W. I've now stopped using this tank in the cooler months, the heating costs were too much and having to replace heaters every now and again did not help matters!

 

[mattygreen86]

No the sheds not insulated and it would be quite difficult to with the all the lighting and shelving already in there. How many hours do you think the heaters will be active. I've just done a bit of an estimate on a running cost calculator and it ain't lookin very affordable

 

[sputnick]

No the sheds not insulated and it would be quite difficult to with the all the lighting and shelving already in there. How many hours do you think the heaters will be active. I've just done a bit of an estimate on a running cost calculator and it ain't lookin very affordable

Thats why I first pointed out insulation. It will Hold the heat in the tank longer. So this reduces the time that the heaters will be on cutting cost. Basically the insulation will pay for itself. If you can't insulate the shed I would definatly insulate the tank. Another option is to heat the shed itself. It may be cheaper to run a small heater constantly and heat the whole room than to run several heaters. 

 

[mattygreen86]

What sort of insulation will be best to use on the tank? Surely anything with glass fibres wouldn't be advised

 

[sputnick]

What sort of insulation will be best to use on the tank? Surely anything with glass fibres wouldn't be advised

Like I said That foam Insulation would do just fine. Just look at the insulation rating, you'll want the best rating you can get.
Here is a link to the stuff we use in construction and the stuff I'm talking about. You can just clue it to the sides of your tank and Paint over it or even put more wood over it.
 http/www.homedepot.com/p/Owens-Corning-FOAMULAR-150-2-in-x-48-in-x-8-ft-Scored-Squared-Edge-Foam-45W/100320352