Inline Heater

[malfunction]

Does anyone use one of these? And if so, can you tell me how swiftly it heats the water? I'm thinking of buying one to heat water when I do my water changes, but it needs to be able to heat very cold water very rapidly.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I have two in use for a decade. They work fine for tanks but they wont do you you want them to, they are not meant for that. Why can't you use warmer water from the tap?

 

[malfunction]

I have two in use for a decade. They work fine for tanks but they wont do you you want them to, they are not meant for that. Why can't you use warmer water from the tap?

My house has a water softener plumbed in and I'm trying to avoid using the softened water. The only taps that aren't supplied by pre-softened water only dispense cold water. Hence the need for a heater.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Get a trash can, fill it the night before. By the time you need to use it it will be a room temp. If that isn't enough, drop in something to move the water and a few 100w heater and let it run overnight. Another thing that will help when the return water is one the old side is to refil the tank slowly and let the equipment in the tank do the work. Remember, most fish live within a temperature range. So if your water change drops the tank temp toward the lower end of their safe range, it should not be an issue.

 

[Akasha72]

put some of the cold water in the kettle and boil it, add a bit to each bucket of cold and you have heated water

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Boiling water removes the KH. I used to do this when I first started in the hobby being afraid to use my hot water from the tap. That proved a needless worry and for the past 14 years have bacthed changing water at temp. But it takes a lot of boiled water to raise temps if you have more than a few gallons.
 
The method I mentioned above, if you have time, can be set up long enough in advance so raising the temop is down in two stages. The first is let it sit to get to room temp. Then you can use a heater and circulation to raise it the rest of the way. Its cheaper this way, too.
 
Bear in mind that if the tank is say 25.5o C and you do a 50% water change and the new water is 23.5o C, you would only drop the tank temp. a maximum of 1o C. But since we add the return water gradually rather than all at once, the heater and any motors running in the tank or filter will act to warm things right away. So you would actually not raise the temp by a full 1o C.
 
I work in F, but I am fine as long as the resulting tank does not drop by about more than 2o C or so. What one wants to avoid is to drop the temp. in a tank to a level below the acceptable range of the what ever resident has the highest acceptable low temp. level. In fact, leave a bit of wiggle room there. Never hit the bottom number, but you can approach it safely. In the wild fish swim at different levels which have different temp.s and in some lakes that are spring fed, they get cold pockets. They don't die from this. For the most part our fish are pretty hardy as long as we respect their needs.
 

 

[Akasha72]

I didn't know boiling it removed the Kh ... you learn summat new everyday 

 

[malfunction]

if possible I'd also like to avoid storing the water overnight. I have a 900l tank and a 450l tank, both get water changes 2-3 times a week, depending how busy I am. I was hoping there'd be an alternative to having a container with 600 odd litres of water in my living room overnight. Boiling it isn't going to be practical, due to the quantity of water. And I think filling it slowly would simply drive me insane with frustration.

It's a shame the inline heater's a non-starter - would've made things much simpler.

 

[Akasha72]

I can't think of any other ways - sorry

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Well, the problem with the inline is how much you need to raise the temp. instantly.
 
There are tankless water heaters, but they are not cheap. They are available to run on both electricity and propane, Figure many $100s to $1,000 plus. Do a Google for "tankless water heater" These units are designed to do exactly what you want. However, they make hot water not tank temp water. So you would still need to mix it with cooler to get the temp you want. I assume you can hook up a system thick uses a faucet. You would split you cold water input between the tankless heater and the cold tap. Then the tankless output would hook to the hot tap. You would then be able to make water to temp.