Heating Problems

[dhindry]

I have a problem on my hands.

Existing marine setup has approx 700 litres of water between two display tanks and a 200 litre sump.

I had 600 watts of heaters, but the overnight temp dropped to around 2 degrees and is only still currently around 6 degrees.

The tanks and the sump have all dropped to 22.5 degrees.

Is adding another 300 watts of heating to make a total of 900 watts allright for 700 litres of water or do I still need more????

What can I use that is easy to get hold of to insulate the sump? Will polystyrene be ok?

Thanks

Daniel

[jetskisteve]

My sump is outside so is Nicks & we both use polysterene

take a look at a temp controller much more accurate & stable

My system is about 450L & i have 600w controlled

[dhindry]

Ok, I'll go and hunt out some polystyrene.

My sump is outside too, well its in the garage but thats pretty much a fridge.

As for the temperature controller. Maybe I should build my own

Daniel

[reef]

polystyrene is fine,

3 heaters should easy do the trick.

Maybe in the future you might want to get a titanium heater. they come in 1000w.

[jetskisteve]

pm me for a price

[cookie extreme]

whats wrong with 22.5c degrees? ever dived the red sea in the winter. brrrrrrr. will save you some money on your power!

[dhindry]

Seariously isn't 22.5 degrees too cold?

What temp do people have their tanks regulated at?

[reef]

22c is fine for short term. I keep mine at 25-27c

[chimera]

i stick to 25 degree's, I've read you can run into algae problems any higher (or put a better way, bad algaes are more prone to growth at that temperature)

[wasp]

According to Shimek, the temperature of some reefs he has dived can fluctuate downwards by up to 10 degrees at night (he is talking farenheight).

But hey, better safe than sorry, some extra heating capacity may be a cheap investment.

[cookie extreme]

we had 22 degrees int tonga in the winter, 18 in hurghada while i was trere in january. 22 is not cold!! for many reef tanks. its jst that lots of reefers don't have fluctuations. i run my tank at 22 -21-23 in the winter, because its winter and most corals have a colder season too. they just don't now its the colder season, for them its betwen monsoons (rainy season).

[wasp]

Yes, I recall you showing me the low temp in your tank when I visited.

A few questions, How long do you run your tank for at 22? Any organisms that if kept you would not recomend this? And do you think this may be increasing stress on some organisms, albeit they may survive?

It does make sense to run a lower temp in winter provided no harm will result.

[cookie extreme]

i run the tank at that temparture all winter long. once summer comes and the temp increases i unplug the heaters and let the halides warm the tank. i only use the heaters to prevent to low temperatures in the winter. so my tank flactuates between 21 degrees (in winter when its really cold outside and my poor 2 heaters work overtime) and up to 30 degrees in the summer (yes i know thats pretty high hence i got an aircon unit for next summer to keep the room cold and hopefully the tank below 28 degrees)

also the decrease and increase is happening over a period of weeks and not hours. i haven't seen any ill effects on fish and/or corals.

[wasp]

If you are allowing the halides to supply heating, you must sometimes get a largish temp fluctuation between day and night?

[cookie extreme]

only about 1-2 degrees max as my water volume is quite large. have had more of a problem with the halides on during the hot summer month that i had to use frozen water bottles to cool the tank during the day. but i would say that most tanks have a temarature difference in the morning compared to the evening unless one has a chiller and good working control gear.

[suphew]

Daniel,

Bunnings in Porirua sell polysterene sheets pretty cheap. Also if you haven't already painted the back of your tank you can paint the poly sheets with water based paint so they dont look so bad.

I use poly sheets on all sides of my fresher tanks that I'm not looking through to keep the heat in, I have problems keeping my marine tank cool so haven't bothered doing it.

It can be difficult to hold the poly sheets to the glass, you could build a wooden box round your sump and line it with poly, or do what I did and use poly on the base and at least two sides of the tank, I used PVA to glue the joints, this held it in shape nicely. The PVA holds the joints but cames apart if you pull on it, I found this useful if I wanted to remove a piece, the proper polystrene glus melts the stuff togeather and you have break it to get it apart.

[Control]

Mine is varied by my controller to imatate the correct temp for the time of day and year.

I used to run at 22. remember. the lower the temp the higher the O2.