Heaters

[davidstcldfl]

What do you use to bring your's up?

Keith_r wrote ...... it plummeted almost 2 full points to the low 6's where it stayed until i added some shell grit, right now it's right around 7...



11:11 A mature system 'usually' starts to drop the PH.....adding something like shell grit (or clean egg shells), like Kieth has, will slowly buffer the water and bring the PH 'up' again. With fish....'slowly' is the key word, whether your raising or lowering the PH.

Some folks add it in a mesh bag, incase they want to remove it easily.

[keith_r]

the maxicrop is just to add some micro-nutrients that the plants are lacking, or can't get because the ph is high.. it's actually the nitrification process that causes the ph to drop
i avoid most pool or aquaria chemicals...
shell grit and/or egg shells will naturally dissove if the ph drops below 7 or so.. maybe a little higher.. but then stops buffering when the ph is i think around 7.4.. eggshells have the added benefit of putting calcium into the system..
some folks bury a banana skin to add potassium, but did you know potatoes have more potassium than banannas?

[Eleven11]

I'm gonna give my 1500 watt electric heater a try. I'll let you know how it works out.

Here are some pics.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/51/dsc05790l.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/202/dsc05791t.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/43/dsc05789bx.jpg/

The thermometer shows 69F but after ten minutes the 5 gallons of water went from 56F to 71F.

I still plan to build a rocket heater and solar collectors but this was quick and easy to build and the weather has gotten really cold all the sudden.

[Shas]

did you know potatoes have more potassium than banannas?

I had never heard that.
Thanks for the tip!

[foodchain]

Not familiar with your heater...that's some serious wattage though. Is it a DIY or commercial unit?

[Eleven11]

Not familiar with your heater...that's some serious wattage though. Is it a DIY or commercial unit?

Yeah, it's a DIY deal. $10 replacement element for an electric hotwater heater. I mounted it in some 1" pvc and sealed it with silicon. The tube is about 20 inches long so it's close to the bottom of the tank so the heated water will flow to the top and help with circulation. The fish tank is on it's own water apart from the grow beds for now. I have a 20 gallon tote acting as a sump with the fish in it so I can monitor them too. 6 comets about 2 1/2 inches long... the small pond pump sends water to the big fish tank and I set up a SLO to bring the water back to the sump where it pours into a DIY gravel filter in the tote so the tote water stays more calm for the fish... plenty of bubbles too as it hits the surface.

I put it in the fish tank at 10:40am. The temp was 54F.

I last checked it at about 3:00pm and it's up to about 65F. It's 45F outside and mostly sunny today.

I'll update some more as I monitor it's performance.

[foodchain]

I wonder if it wouldn't be more effective putting a small powerhead at the bottom of the pipe to circulate the water past the element? I never thought of using this, but like the idea. Where did you find just the element? One concern though, if it's just the element how do you control the on/off cycle with no thermostat? Otherwise it's on all the time and you will end up with smelly fish soup slowly broiled.

[Eleven11]

I wonder if it wouldn't be more effective putting a small powerhead at the bottom of the pipe to circulate the water past the element? I never thought of using this, but like the idea. Where did you find just the element? One concern though, if it's just the element how do you control the on/off cycle with no thermostat? Otherwise it's on all the time and you will end up with smelly fish soup slowly broiled.

Here's a link to Lowes' for the heater element.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_26371-135-69104 ... facetInfo=

There is no thermostat yet.... that would be part 2 of the design. For now, it's still in beta test mode. Not sure what to use for building the thermostat yet.

I thought about circulation so that's why I have the 1" pvc cross connector at the top of the element. I can add a fitting for a hose there but the powerhead on the bottom is a good idea too. Since the heater is at the bottom of the tank and the warm water rises, it does pretty good for circulation so far.

This morning the temp is up to 80F so I switched off the heater. The fish seem to be having a party... very lively for some reason . Now that the tank is warmed up, I'll check and see how fast the temp falls and try to regulate it.

The fish tank algae seems to be having a party too unfortunately. Not sure what to do about that yet. I don't have a good filter in line. Guess I'll see about building one of those too. I am considering dosing with peroxide after watching some aquarium videos. It seems to be really effective on algae without hurting the fish.

[keith_r]

don't dose with peroxide, it will interfere with the cycling of your system at the minimum, completely stop it at the most..
cover the tank so that no light gets in, and add aeration if you don't have any - the algae will consume oxygen, but the "bloom" will die off after a few days, which releases some chemicals that inhibit further blooms

[Eleven11]

Thanx for the tip. Covering the tank has been on my list.

I just added an AP 20 air pump yesterday and it's going like gangbusters... bubbles galore.

Strange about algae, since it's a plant I assumed it would consume carbon dioxide.

don't dose with peroxide, it will interfere with the cycling of your system at the minimum, completely stop it at the most..
cover the tank so that no light gets in, and add aeration if you don't have any - the algae will consume oxygen, but the "bloom" will die off after a few days, which releases some chemicals that inhibit further blooms