Hi everybody,

I am new to this but I have been doing a lot of research and experimentation. I have looked a many heaters, and I like the 3-5 kw per gallon. Also the other reccomendation I appreciate is it is better to use several small heaters rather than one large one. I have a 900 gallon tank, the minimum reccomended amount was 3,000 kw. But they reccomended six 500 kw heaters on one controller rather than one large heater. The rationale was that should a heater fail I would still have five heaters functioning unti I replaced the failed unit.

The other thing I have been researching and experimenting with is a wood fired snorkel stove. The firebox sets in the water heating directly, and in the greenhouse you also get heat from the top of the stove and chimney heating the air. I am going to use this in conjunction with the electric heaters to offset electric costs. I am building my fist stove out of mild steel, then having it powder coated to cut down on corrosion. These stoves are currently used to heat wood hot tubs. The nice thing about this stove is that it is an open system. Whereas a closed system (boiler) has pressure issues. Temperature control is more difficult, but as an augment to the electric heaters, a good way to cut down on electric consumption. You can buy the stove for about $7-900.00. I have priced my material for the stove and can build it for about $100.00. I have a complete wood and metal working shop so I have access to all the equipment. Should it work out as planned, I will market the stove for about $300.00 plus shipping.