ryanjury Posted February 7, 2008 Report Share Posted February 7, 2008 I have built a fishroom and lined a 3.2 x 2m section of the garage there are 20 tanks in there ranging from 2ft to 5ft only around 15 are setup up until recently I was getting away with no heating at all in there and it was only dropping down to 24ish overnight now with the colder nights its dropping down to 20ish so now ive got to look at heating options. I have tried an oil heater but that chewed power and seemed to be on all the time even when the room got upto 30C no matter what the heat setting was, I think this has a thermostat as I could hear something clicking as I adjusted the dial but it didn't work very well. Ideally I need something that wont turn on when its not needed as it wont need to add much heat to heat the room as its soo small, just something to bump it up a bit, have thought about trying to design something with 100W lightbulbs and old fishtank heater thermostat's but dont know how well this would work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted February 7, 2008 Report Share Posted February 7, 2008 Hi Ryan, Congrats on getting your room lined and running I did a LOT of research when I built my fish room and there's two choices I can recommend. 1) A small fan heater on a thermostat. Fan heater can be purchased pretty much anywhere for $20-50, Thermostat will be found at most hydroponic shops for around the $150 mark. You set the dial to the desired temp and it will turn the fan heater (cranked on full temp) on and off as needed. 2) (my setup) Heat Pump. The most efficient heating option possible and very easy. The built in thermostat will heat the room as needed and it also works as a dehumidifier and extraction fan at the same time. Get a portable jobbie and the install will be as simple as a vent hole in the wall...you might already have one installed out there for a clothes dryer. I found mine on TradeMe for $500 incl shipping from somewhere but there's one on there now in Lower Hutt for $600. Mine is a Karda/Dimplex DAC12001RH as can be found at Mitre10 for $1200. MAKE SURE YOUR UNIT DOES BOTH AC AND HEATING BEFORE YOU BUY - some units are just AC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted February 7, 2008 Report Share Posted February 7, 2008 I heated a fish house 12ft x 8ft with a one bar heater and fan. You need a fan rated to run continuously and you wire the heater up to the thermostat. The better insulated the room is, the less time the heater will be on and the more water you have in there the better the heat sink you will have. By that I mean that when you walk in the hot air will escape but the heat will be in the water and it will not take much energy to reheat the air. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted February 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2008 Thanks for the replies, I forgot to mention I have a fan running up by the roof oscillation around in theory pushing the hot air down to heat the lower tanks.. Is there any way to get a cheaper thermostat? I was hoping to use one of the old school external thermostats that used to come with heaters? Obviously an electronic one would work better but cost more, wish I was still at uni I would make one with a micro but don't have the gear anymore. All the tanks are full even if they have no fish in them to work on the whole storing heat idea Have looked into heatpumps but im not going to spend that much have been in touch with heatpump sellers and think it would be an overkill both in price and performance for such a small room and not many tanks. When you say a one bar heater you mean an column oil heater? Or a one bar element heater? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tHEcONCH Posted February 7, 2008 Report Share Posted February 7, 2008 It sounds as if it isn't the heat source that is the problem, but heat retention. I'd have another look at your insulation and see if you can improve that. A lot of fishrooms have very little heating - mine has none, other than a 150 watt heater in two of the tanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted February 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2008 I think it maybe the insulation on the door that is letting me down but it is very hard to line it with the gaps all around it.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted February 7, 2008 Report Share Posted February 7, 2008 Electric one bar (1 kW). You can buy heaters with a fan but you want a continuous rated one and wire it so it goes all the time. The heater is best at the bottom by the leaky door. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMAZONIAN Posted February 8, 2008 Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 Hi All To heat any size fish room you only need about 1Kilowatt, and a "Tangential Fan Heater" is all thats required. It is not the heat in the room that you are trying to achieve but the temperature of the tanks. The smaller they are, the quicker they heat up and also loose their heat, but 50 litre and bigger have a better retention ratio; so once they are up to temperature then the thermostat on the heater only affects the room temperature and not so much the tanks. my room is about the same size but I have 4inch Polystyrene in all the walls and nothing on the ceiling. In the last Nelson winter the temperature didn't drop below 18 degrees C, and in the summer has gone up to 31 and thats when the fans turn on. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted February 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 Thanks I was going for the fan heater idea, what exactly is a Tangential Fan Heater as opposed to a normal fan heater? And fan heaters dont have thermostats so ill have to wire one of them upto it as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted February 8, 2008 Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 And fan heaters dont have thermostats so ill have to wire one of them upto it as well? My $15 warehouse fan heater has a thermostat. Of course, it's measured in big bar vs little bar and may have questionable precision, but it's a definite thermostat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted February 8, 2008 Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 It is a matter of personal preference how you set up the heating. I have worked in a number of fishhouses and they each have different characteristics but the most important thing to get right is very good insulation if you want to keep your running costs down. Some examples: Basement in Dunedin. Heavily insulated walls but none on ceiling. Used for growing plants. No fan and heated with lots of lights only---worked well and excess heat warmed lounge above. Plant growing room with natural and artificial lighting to keep emersed plants through the winter. Walls of polystyrene sandwich but hard to well insulate ceiling and get good natural light. No fan but works well. Quarantine fish room built from poly filled concrete block and heated with electric cable in the floor. No fan. Not easy to work in as head and feat get very hot and uncomfortable. My own fishhouse worked well and was comfortable to work in. Heavily insulated with 1 kW heater and fan running continuously. Tanks on floor and three rows on stands above. Temperature variation about 3 deg between top and bottom. Mainly used for fish but some plant and lighting as well. Set up for quarantine so 50 odd tanks with a light above each but only used during maf inspections. Each tank also had 12 volt pilot light to feed young at night when main lights off and used for breeding. A lot of people get a fishhouse and lots of tanks them give it all away when they get the power bills because they didn't get it insulated well enough in the begining. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted February 8, 2008 Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 Ah...A "Plant" growing room in the basement, eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMAZONIAN Posted February 8, 2008 Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 Hi All Right on the money alanmin. The biggest thing about constructing a "Fish Room" is the insulation and also getting the excess heat away out of the room. TANGENTIAL vs RADIAL: A tangetial Fan has the FAN BLADES constructed as a long tube of blades as apposed to the normal type of fan. :roll: This makes them a lot more efficient. A very notable unit is the "ROLLS" wall heater complete with three heats up to 2KW plus cold and a built in adjustable thermostat. I think are now made by SKOPE. Good Luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted February 8, 2008 Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 A heat pump recoups costs very quickly. The maths aren't hard, 1000W puts out 2500W of heat so much more efficient than old technology. Electronic thermostat with LCD readout of room temp as well as output temp gives me peace of mind as well. All that said, I just saw that you're only talking about a 6.4M2 room. It may seem a bit overkill but mine is only 9M2 so not much larger. I thought you did the whole garage as we discussed when I visited you last April. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted February 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 lol I don't have the tanks to do the whole garage theres no point in making it too big and it costing a fortune to heat space with no tanks.. Ill take some pics after ive finished tidying up out there today, I have been working on trying to insulate the door as I feel that is probably where most of my heat is being lost so will see how that goes. I think ill hunt around for a fan heater and wire it upto one of the old heater thermostats see how that goes Ira did your fan heater have a thermostat or a couple of heat settings? The ones ive seen seem to have a couple of switches for heat settings which I presume will just pump out a certain amount of heat regardless of the room temp? But I haven't played with one yet.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted February 8, 2008 Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 I use an oil column heater with a seperate plug in thermostat as a back up. I have it set to just take the chill off the room in winter/cooler weather. It hardly ever turns on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMAZONIAN Posted February 9, 2008 Report Share Posted February 9, 2008 Hi All. Consider this then. If you use 55 or 100 watt heaters in your tanks and the room is insulated sufficiently, you will find that the ambient temperature of the room will soon rise to the highest thermostat setting and stay reasonably stable. Thus you dont need high wattage heaters or a fan heater so the running cost (if you do the calculations) is very low even in comparison to a "HEAT PUMP". In my Fish Room I find the heaters have about a 12.5% duty cycle and they are 55 Watts, even in 3 foot tanks. To heat my fish room per month costs me $30 to $35.00 in the winter, That is with 44 tanks. Not a bad price eh? And you should be able to sell a few fish each month to cover the cost. INSULATION IS THE KEY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted February 9, 2008 Report Share Posted February 9, 2008 I was trying to get reasonably constant temperature through all the tanks and that was why I used a fan. Without a fan you will get layering to one degree or another because hot air rises. This can be an advantage so it is up to you and what works best for you. I was also trying to avoid using heaters in the tanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted February 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2008 I have run out of heaters and was working on the theory its got to be cheaper to heat the room than the tanks individually and buying more heaters.. I spent a few hours out there today working on getting the door better insulated so will see how that goes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChocGourami Posted February 9, 2008 Report Share Posted February 9, 2008 I use an electric wall heater (given to me by my father in law) with an external thermostat in my fishroom. My fishroom is roughly 6.8 square metres. I've only just finished building it in my garage. I've fully insulated it with pink batts. Not sure of the cost to run per month but my old fishroom I had of similar size was only about $30 per month to run in winter and in summer the heater almost never runs. At the moment it's so warm I just leave the door open most of the day. To me this was a much more economical way than buying a heater for every tank. If I need warmer tanks they go at the top of my stands and if that's not enough I can put a heater in as well. At the moment I've got 15 tanks including a 5" x 2" x 2" but have plans for more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anthony law Posted February 10, 2008 Report Share Posted February 10, 2008 amazonian what size is the room ????? could you use a chiller container or something like tthat as a fishroom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted February 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2008 I would love to get hold of one of those chiller containers it would make an ideal fishroom and its already lined Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMAZONIAN Posted February 10, 2008 Report Share Posted February 10, 2008 Hi all It's 3.5 x 2 metres, 7 Sq. mtrs. x 2.3m = 16.1 cubic mtrs. Chiller containers are good fish rooms. they are all "stainless steel" inside and it's not too much trouble to fit a door and a window if required. Wiring it will cost about $3000.00 to do the job properly the first time, and the container itself will cost about $6000.00. You may get a roughy for about $4000.00. :roll: I looked at this option when I bought my new house, and the sums just didnt stack up. I only wanted a "Fish Room", not another "Quarantine Facility". :evil: A power bill aint so bad after all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted February 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2008 Just an update on the fishroom situation, I lined the door to get rid of the drafts got poly to overlap all the sides and gaps that I can. Now the lowest I have seen the fishroom is 24 upper tanks still seem to be 24 sometimes higher, lower tanks get to 22-23ish so im happy with that I have livebearers and will be moving the mountain minnow tank down as well. The discus tank has a heater in it (which probably helps to keep the temp in the room up a bit) and I stick heaters in tanks when my gold rams breed because I kept loosing the babies which I put down to temp variations, thanks everyone for their input I will post updates as it gets colder outside.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted February 12, 2008 Report Share Posted February 12, 2008 I have photos of AMAZONIAN's fishroom if he gives permission for them to be shown Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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