Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am looking to heat a waterbody of around 7kl the current temp is staying at 10-12 so was thinking to increase by 8deg would from what I hear and read is ok for winter.12,24,240v

side note:

I was thinking of using my chip heater as we have sticks in abundance.
(he laughs thinking about boiled fish.."and adds lemon!
..
or am I dreaming?
First go at loading pics
[glow=red] I will find out what happened to the photos [glow=red]

It sounds like it already has a recirculating pump. You could look at roof mounted solar pipe (as used in some pools). There is another thread on here somewhere about pumping through a compost heap for heating. Don't know how it went

As far as the chip heater, with a valve and a thermostat set a 20degC you pump through you heater pipes only when temp < 20. You would need to either put through so much flow that your return water temp is not too high, or mix the return water so you don't have boiling water onto your fish (eg. smaller diameter pipe through heater which returns to the sump when valve open tapped off the larger pipe from sump to top pond)

b2b , was thinking wether to mix the hot water or just have a radiator or coil.

Would that required a second pump that just recirced heated water from tank through heater, through heat exchanger (rad or coil) in the sump and back to tank? May have issues with that pump and heat.
Another way would be plumb the hot water back into the recirc pipe, or at least put the outlet for hot water in the same stream as the recirc-ed water as it pours into the top pond.

I am checking out thermal cycling-
Like a ring main without a pump.
I like it!
Thanks b2b

Don't know what a chip heater is, but i'm assumeing it is a wood fired closed look thingy. wehat are the colis made from if its copper then its probably a no no.

For that sort of volume you should probably just go for a 2400W heating element. You can get them made up at specialist places. you'll just have to make a water proof enclosre for the terminals, they can make them to your specs, so you will find you can have it made to hange over your tank, and the last 100mm or so can be made not to be "heated" and you shjould be able to "hook" it over the edge.

Then you just need a thermostat for it. I'm sure we can source a cheap digital one somewhere

wood chip heater /water heater.
Yes was thinking over edge not penetration.
Do you know the service life of wire element versa mat style element.
If I was to use a coil from the chip heater it would be stainless.
Thanks for the tips.

Steve,

A chip heater is a device that used to grace many Australian bathrooms about five decades ago. You placed a handful of wood chips, some twigs or just a wad of newspaper into the mongrel thing and lit it. For the next few minutes, you alternated between freezing your backside off or scalding it.

They were singlehandedly responsible for burning down quite a few houses. An accomplished pyromaniac like yourself would have loved chip heaters.

C1.....If you were going to contemplate anything like a 2400w heater, I'd be inclined to use two or three 600w HPS or Metal Halide lights over your grow beds instead......and I'd pipe the waste heat around your fish tank. You'd get more consistent temperature control and you'd have vegetables coming out of your ears.

I am using a 200 W aqua one stainless heater ...

They are fairly cheap and robust.

I am using it to heat up a wheelie bin outside.

I also have one in a small half size wheelie bin!

Pretty cool here at the moment but the temp never drops below 25 C in the tanks, the larger one is insulated with bubble wrap.

GD- Nice explanation -
the water body is about 6 or 7kl depending on the flow.
J7 thank you for your info. were having 5-18 your 3-20.
Is that about right.
What about wind factor?

Yep .. about right ... and as I live in the hills we get cold winds ... but I have my bins up against the side of the house .. fairly sheltered ..

Although i agree with the hps or MH lights and heat (good one GD) its only really of use inside, light is not an issue outside and any waste heat piped to tank would be lost too quickly. But inside.............an outstanding idea!

The elements i speak of should last a long long time. sorry don't have life span data, they are usually made from stainless steel

I'm sorry if I didn't make it clear that I was referring to using the HPS or MH lights inside. I'm committed to setting up a system which allows for peak year round production in a precisely controlled environment....and that means inside.

So from what I am hearing, the cost of lighting is offset by the production?
If my house maintains a temp of 20 deg then I don't have much heat to build if indoors.
I have to incorporate/build the lighting into the house proper and use the surplus lighting for the house in general.Good timing.!!
I had planed some indoor water features but had not included lighting other than highlighting an object.
Cheers- Back to the drawing borad.Sketchup is geat.

......'Sees pictures of waterfalls'...(water curtains)

The main water bodies exsist outside, it makes sence to have cold water(native species) outside.
Only got predaters, bugs and power to worry about.

If you grow in a controlled environment, you use lights to replace the sun. The lights (usually high pressure sodium - HPS - or Metal Halide - MH) generate a lot of heat in addition to the light that they emit.

A 600w light costs about $12.00 a month to run so it make sense to get as much benefit from the light as possible. A light of this size will be sufficient for about a square metre of growing space.....perhaps a bit more if you use a light-mover (a device which moves your light back and forth across a short track - to extend the area covered by the light).

The light shades that we plan to use (Nova) are fitted with a 100mm fan and ducting hose which enables you to re-direct the heat away from your plants to somewhere else including your house......or into cladding that surrounds your fish tank to help maintain it at the optimum temperature. This way, you leverage the benefit that you get from the light and your cost is spread.