Heating a 1000 litre IBC

Soulkreed

mattyoga wrote:

As above, really the question should be how much insulation do I need!

I'm currently building a 2 IBC RAS based system for my barra and reckon I should be able to get away with a 200W heater based on the heat flux calcs. I'm fully enclosing 2 IBCs and 2 x 200L barrels in 150mm EPS coolroom panel so top, bottom, front, back and sides will be insulated. Thats based on 24 degs water temp and an average outdoor temp in Winter of 7 degs (at worst).

So I'll be building the system with a 200W and a 500W heater and see how that goes. I'll also put the air pump inside the enclosure so any heat generated from that will be recovered - hopefully it won't overheat!

Sounds like a plan mate, keep me posted on how it goes, very interested.

Colum Black-Byron

Soulkreed wrote:

Gunagulla wrote:

My fry/fingerlings were supposedly pellet trained, but I never did get them to eat pellets, and after much expense feeding them blood worms, then ox heart over 15 months, they were mostly disappointingly small, and most of the remaining ~30 died recently, leaving me with just one, which is about 20cm long... and still not eating pellets.

Oh, I started with 150 of them- many died early on due to not eating anything when pellets were offered, and the big ones got big by eating the smaller ones.

All I can say is: good luck!

Did you have the water heated between 20 - 22 degrees? The hatchery guy at Glenwaters said to get them to take pellets the water needs to be about 20 degrees or they wont even look at it.

When I bought mine, it would have been water temps around 20C, maybe slightly less, but not by much.

I was told they were semi weened. Nope, wouldn't touch them at all.

Then I was told they needed to be fed blood worms, and slowly add more pellets to the mix, until the blood worms are gone.

I think they ended up eating each other, and very minimal pellets. But very, very little feed was taken by them. Most people seem to have similar experiences with them. Mine just seemed to hide all the time, weren't social at all. I'd show friends, and they couldn't see any fish in there.

However, Mr Damage has a big Murray Cod, and it eats everything, including those magnetic glass cleaners.

I compare the cod with my new trout, I had the trout for a day, they were gobbling up the food straight away, two weeks and they were breaking the surface, and now they are doing full leaps out of the water. Way more fun.

Soulkreed

Colum Black-Byron wrote:

Soulkreed wrote:

Gunagulla wrote:

My fry/fingerlings were supposedly pellet trained, but I never did get them to eat pellets, and after much expense feeding them blood worms, then ox heart over 15 months, they were mostly disappointingly small, and most of the remaining ~30 died recently, leaving me with just one, which is about 20cm long... and still not eating pellets.

Oh, I started with 150 of them- many died early on due to not eating anything when pellets were offered, and the big ones got big by eating the smaller ones.

All I can say is: good luck!

Did you have the water heated between 20 - 22 degrees? The hatchery guy at Glenwaters said to get them to take pellets the water needs to be about 20 degrees or they wont even look at it.

When I bought mine, it would have been water temps around 20C, maybe slightly less, but not by much.

I was told they were semi weened. Nope, wouldn't touch them at all.

Then I was told they needed to be fed blood worms, and slowly add more pellets to the mix, until the blood worms are gone.

I think they ended up eating each other, and very minimal pellets. But very, very little feed was taken by them. Most people seem to have similar experiences with them. Mine just seemed to hide all the time, weren't social at all. I'd show friends, and they couldn't see any fish in there.

However, Mr Damage has a big Murray Cod, and it eats everything, including those magnetic glass cleaners.

I compare the cod with my new trout, I had the trout for a day, they were gobbling up the food straight away, two weeks and they were breaking the surface, and now they are doing full leaps out of the water. Way more fun.

Duely noted mate, thanks.

Gunagulla

The water was in the range 19-23C much of the time, with a few days up to 25-26C, for the first 3 months I had them, no need for heating, and cooling down later in autumn and winter, and warming up over spring-summer. They definitely ate less when it was colder, but pretty much every pellet I put in the FT had to be scooped out of the ST.

I wouldn't want to be paying for the electricity to keep an uninsulated IBC at 20-22C over winter.

Soulkreed

Gunagulla wrote:

The water was in the range 19-23C much of the time, with a few days up to 25-26C, for the first 3 months I had them, no need for heating, and cooling down later in autumn and winter, and warming up over spring-summer. They definitely ate less when it was colder, but pretty much every pellet I put in the FT had to be scooped out of the ST.

I wouldn't want to be paying for the electricity to keep an uninsulated IBC at 20-22C over winter.

Thanks mate, duely noted.

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Heating a 1000 litre IBC

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