How Would You Heat 5000 Gallons?

[urbanfarmer]

Wow, great ideas guys. This will give me a lot to think about and research. Thank you!

So UF, do you have any pictures of the 5K water tank?

Starting to look like a 14' pool from WallyWorld

[foodchain]

Because, a "portion" of a sea land container is about 6'x6' or so. Two ways you can harvest your fish. 1) when you put them in, you put them into rotational net cages allowing you to polyculture multiple species and maintain a symbiotic relationship resulting faster growth and less disease, etc.
or 2) when your ready to harvest pump it out. This is practical if you're running a once a year crop. But costs more due to fuel, water, etc.

For me, option one and two are not really practical just yet. My plan was to set up auto feeder at opening, then when fish are used to the regular feedings, wait till it kicks on and throw the cast net. No sense in making this harder than it has to be. Or spending money you don't have to.

For me, this isn't a commercial operation yet. I don't have to harvest all the fish, just the amount I wish to eat. IF I am worried about size grading or stunting growth due to over population a grading rack will resolve OR a handfull of large mouth bass or blue cats should resolve the problems of smaller fish over populating. This process of using predators has worked well for me in my existing ponds. Fish only eat other to a size that the spines etc motivate them to leave that fish alone and look for a smaller one.
Kinda using feeding instinct to grade my fish for me. This also increases urgancy at feeding and helps to have more of the food consumed regardless if hungry or not, my fish seem to try and eat it just to keep the other one from getting it. This forces faster growth.

[jackalope]

We're planning to experiment with a 'rocket stove' heating system - but that's probably a year or so away.

[bretthogan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IRLVCJ1olA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP8H5IOTwYU

[rutan]

If you're using a home heating system you can collect the waste heat, flue gases, and let it pass in a heat ex changer that is submerge in the water to be heated, You can also collect the waste heat from cooking. In winter the temperature underground is higher so you might be able to pump the water back and port from tank to buried pipes. You're not going to need a big pump as the suction and delivery head is of the same level. The only energy required is overcoming the friction between the pipes and water, so using a polish pipe (inside) might help. and then of course a good insulation is a worthy investment.

I haven't tried yet or seen in real practice only a product of imagination.

[15mules]

Most all good ideas start with a little imagination.

[JCO]

There are so many different ways to heat a tank, to begin with, what temperature do you want the water to be? Water pumped directly from a deep well will keep the temp above 50 degrees. Here in Fl., they use and air conditioning unit that pumps water from a deep well through the unit to cool and heat and then the water is pumped back into the ground to be recirculated.