Whenever you think of heat in a reef tank, you immediately think of chillers and evaporative cooling. Well, at least that's the first thing that came to my mind. Heating a tank is just an after thought for the occasional cold night.
I am having a real problem with heating my tank. Without the lights on, the ambient water temperature is around 65F. That's with all of the pumps and power heads running. That's not even close to 78F.
I'm going to be lighting this tank with LEDs. There's very little radiant heat from these lights.
I've done tons of research on LED lighting and everyone points out that without MH lighting, you don't need a chiller. This equates to cost savings in both capital and operational expenses. Well, not if you consume huge amounts energy heating the tank?
I have 4 Marineland Visitherm 300W heaters hooked up right now and the tank is really struggling to approach 78F. That's 1200W of heating! Do I need more?
I'm well aware of the problems with heaters including stuck on, stuck off, exploding, etc. I have the 4 heaters connected to my Apex. In the future I may split this load across 2 Apex controllers (2 on each). I'm reasonably confident in this approach and should be able to catch a disaster before it happens.
I've also noted that the sump temp is generally cooler than the display tank. I haven't yet measured the exact variation, but it seems consistent.
I'm currently heating the return section of the sump and measuring the temp in the chamber right before the return section. Therefore, heated water has to circulate through the tank and back to the sump before the temperature sensor is able to detect a change. This seemed like a good idea as it ensure that the heated water fully mixes before the temperature measurement is taken, but I am less sure of this now.
I'm also considering insulating the sump, but I'm really not sure how much that would help?
Does anyone have any experience or advice in keeping tanks warm? - Is there a better approach to this? - Are titanium heaters really more efficient (I've heard of higher than average failure rates, but possibly better performance)?
I appreciate the feedback...
- Brad