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Front Page · Everything · News · Ask Guppylog · Diaries
Please help - I need heaters!

By Scott Lockwood, Section Diaries
Posted on Thu Aug 30, 2007 at 07:08:37 AM PST
Tags: (all tags)
If anyone has any 50 or 100 watt heaters they're not using, and will part with inexpensively, my fish room is not going to make it thru winter. :-( I need to get about 11 extra heaters together, ASAP.



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Please help - I need heaters! | 10 comments (10 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Hey Scott, (none / 0) (#3)
by guppygirl on Wed Nov 26, 2003 at 12:40:02 PM PST

Have you thought about some inexpensive ceramic heaters?  They are pretty safe to leave running,
and do a pretty good job for their size.

I don't know how handy you are, or where your fishroom or furnace is located, so I don't know if the following will be helpful or not.

We needed to heat a new bathroom that we put in on the first floor. To heat it, we tapped into a heat run in the basement, used some flexible duct piping (Home Depot or possibly hardware store), cut a hole in the floor of the bathroom and fitted it with a heat vent.  

Secure all the connections with duct tape, and poof, new heat run.

Warmest little room in the house!!!

Wish I had some heaters lying around, but I don't.

Trying to figure out a way to keep my little ones warm in their plastic nursery tank myself.

Good Luck,

gg
:-)



URL? Link? :-) (none / 0) (#6)
by Scott Lockwood on Wed Nov 26, 2003 at 09:41:39 PM PST

Ceramic? Do you have links to any sites that sell them?

"I love to visit PetSmart's Tropical Fish Dept. to see what new diseases are around today." -- inkmaker
[ Parent ]



Ceramic heaters (none / 0) (#10)
by guppygirl on Sun Nov 30, 2003 at 12:41:44 PM PST

Small ceramic heaters can usually be found anywhere they sell "space heaters", Walmart, K-Mart, Home Depot.

They are only about 8" square, have a ceramic heating element inside, and an insulated exterior so the sides, top, and bottom stay cool.  They can have a fan feature as well to move the heated air around.

I keep one on my front porch for when the weather turns nippy in the fall, or I want to enjoy an early spring morning.

They are usually about $15 and up.

Hope this helps!!!

gg
:-)


[ Parent ]



This wouldn't work if you have too many plastic (none / 0) (#4)
by unclescott on Wed Nov 26, 2003 at 02:34:29 PM PST

nursery tanks, but sometimes a one or two can be floated in a big (heated) tank. It is wise not to aerate the big tank too vigorously. ;)

Having a flow through fry system set on the top of a heated 20 will also work. That is pretty elaborate though.

In such a system a small powerhead pushes water up to a bowl, sitting in a tray above the tank. That bowl acts as a central reservoir. That bowl has a piece of stainless steel screening - fine mesh - melted into the side of said bowl or container as an overflow. Small siphon tubes are run from that bowl to the surrounding fry containers. The fry containers sit in a tray - maybe one of those plastic, ventilated, trays from the garden center when one buys all the spring flowers and veggies. Each fry container, which could also be covered, has a stainless steel mesh melted into the upper side of the container as an outflow. The water drains back into the 20 to be filtered and heated and pushed back to the central reservoir. There is so much evaporation in the winter from such a tank, a little R.O. water needs to be added or evaporation of tap water used to top off the system causes the whole thing to get incredibly hard.

When we had that aquarium club where I (allegedly) taught, a friend active in the IBC gave us several great Bettas. Classrooms cool off dramatically after hours. The situation was temporarilly solved by floating the Bettas in several jars in a ten gallon tank.

That was when the virtue of underwater heaters was discovered. Aside from being out of the way and less vulnerable to splashing, U.W. heaters don't get their dials spun by some jerk between classes. :(

[ Parent ]



I don't know if this will help (none / 0) (#1)
by GuppyAdict on Tue Nov 25, 2003 at 04:15:13 PM PST

but it might be worth checking out.  

http://aquatic-hobbyist.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1190



Interesting. (none / 0) (#7)
by Scott Lockwood on Wed Nov 26, 2003 at 09:46:36 PM PST

At $9.99 a heater for 150watt, that's NOT bad.

"I love to visit PetSmart's Tropical Fish Dept. to see what new diseases are around today." -- inkmaker
[ Parent ]



Scott, how you at rewiring an electric space (none / 0) (#2)
by unclescott on Tue Nov 25, 2003 at 06:44:10 PM PST

heater? I bought a couple of big units from a heating contractor. The heating element is in a sealed reservoir of oil. The guy who sold it to me recommended it after checking out the so-called fish room.

Ironically the warehouse of that contractor recently caught fire. Makes you wonder how it was heated. ;)

I have spilled water on the one warming the fishroom without incident - other than having to towel up the mess.

The one in our family room isn't working. Perhaps the best idea is to take in it - to whom I don't know off hand - and then lending it to you for the winter.

One water proof unit in a room (God help us, never use a room warmer with exposed heating wires!), a closed door, maybe that plastic stuff over the windows, might well be less expensive than 11 small tank heaters. It is a four foot unit and would have to be on the floor at munchkin level though.

You would not go crazy listening to the clock radio in the A.M. while the heater static wars take place. ;)

[ Parent ]



This sounds interesting... (none / 0) (#8)
by Scott Lockwood on Wed Nov 26, 2003 at 09:47:31 PM PST

Do you have any stats on power consumption?

"I love to visit PetSmart's Tropical Fish Dept. to see what new diseases are around today." -- inkmaker
[ Parent ]



Just looked, I don't know. However was over at (none / 0) (#9)
by unclescott on Wed Nov 26, 2003 at 11:48:16 PM PST

an Ace Hardware and K-Mart looking for electric roof deicing cables - both for the roof and, um, maybe on an emergency basis for that bleach and dechlorinating system of barrels. ;)

K-mart had a couple oil-filled radiator electric heaters. If you do a Google search for oil-filled radiators or heavy duty oil-filled radiator you will spend a lot of time sorting them all out. Prices for some of the modest units run $50-80, but one can spend a lot more than that.

I worry about hot surfaces and little kids. Some may be shielded and some have fans blowing through them. Even my unit has warnings on it about putting it near draps or electrical cords.

It occurs to me that it is one thing to have a unit around an adult, lumbering around at a distance, or kids close up. It seems like most of the hardware and/or home stores have them. I'd look closely at whatever might seem interesting. Maybe ask the vender if it can be "test driven" in the store. Ask about using the unit around kids.

[ Parent ]



Here's a reference for the flow through fry system (none / 0) (#5)
by unclescott on Wed Nov 26, 2003 at 03:56:26 PM PST

http://chika.aka.org/library/flowfry/flowfry.htm

I don't know what he does for a living, but a very clever guy by the name of George Meravi whipped this together. There have been a bunch of people doing remarkably creative things with their fish and I wish I had brought a camera along on many occasions when we didn't.

[ Parent ]



Please help - I need heaters! | 10 comments (10 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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