Natural gas water heater for reef tanks-testing phase

CamelMD

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#1
So after a really busy winter, I finally got down to working on this project. Most of the credit goes to Steve Garrett. I think I harrassed him way to much but he was patient about it. Thanks also to Hernandez101 (Luis) for all the heavy lifting and second opinion. Right now I'm using 50 feet of 3/4 inch tubing thats connected to barbs outside the sump. Its rated for 140 degrees so it should be fine and it was only 20 bucks for the 50 ft of it. I used a heat gun to make sure the barbs were placed securely. I'm still not confident about this but I have a back up pvc radiator I made that will work. this just allows for easier placement in the sump for now. I used unions to connect the pipes to the top off container which is just an ice chest which i drilled two bulkheads into.

Cost:
40 gallon water heater $350
plumbing $150
misc : approx $100-150
circulation pump Iwaki, had from an old tank set up. IMG_1141.jpg IMG_1148.jpg IMG_1146.jpg IMG_1143.jpg IMG_1144.jpg

I still need to insulate the pipe and glue some of the joints. I doubt this will get much use until next week and I'll still have my 1000watt heater as back up. so far in just 20 minutes of testing it and that includes heating a cold water heater it managed to raise the tank temp one degree which was higher than my 79 degree set point so it will be interesting to see how fast it cycle. I've got a iwaki mdl 20 on it and its dialed down for now.

I'll update over few days/weeks


nik
 
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#2
What's the purpose, aka goal, of this overall? You are just trying to heat your aquarium? To what temp? What lives in the aquarium? Doesn't the water heater still have galvanized fittings on top? I thought any metal was a no-no. Also, what's what in these pictures? I'm not getting what #1 is at all.
 

CamelMD

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so basically I have fresh water circulating through a pvc pipe coil that radiates into my sump. Ive got about 650-700 gallons of water and my sumps are outside during the winter my 1000watt heater was running non-stop to keep up and thats a lot of juice. natural gas cost a lot less than electricity. i'll take some better pictures but its not really hard to figure out how this works. instead of a titanium heater I'm using hot water to raise tank temperature. the iwaki pump turns on when the tank gets below 77 and off when it hits 79 degrees. There is NO salt water being heated through the water heater just fresh water that moves from it through the tank and back
 
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CamelMD

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#6
this can be done for a lot less, you could just tap an exiting hot water line and loop it back but for my set up setting up a separate tank was easier. This only really make sense if you have a large water volume and a lot of it outside. Garrett's been running his for around 8 years no problems, even in 30 degree weather his tank will sit comfortably at 78 degrees. keep in mind that he's got all 1200 gallons outside. His efficiency is amazing the whole tank runs on 600 watts. Right now with my electric heater on I'm around 2200 watts at peak and I'm running half half his water volume. Granted he's doesn't use a lighting system but still pretty impressive.
 

pgr11

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#7
Great work camel man. Ever since I first saw steve garrets system I've wanted to do this myself. For you non believers don't be fooled this is a great way to heat your tank and not use a ton of electricity.
 

CamelMD

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#8
thanks man, there are a few other threads RC , most have tapped there existing tankless/water heater and just coiled it back a water line.
Zachos on RC has a great thread. he even caluculates cost per watt.
 
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#9
is that a cpvc or a pvc fitting on the water heater hot line?
So after a really busy winter, I finally got down to working on this project. Most of the credit goes to Steve Garrett. I think I harrassed him way to much but he was patient about it. Thanks also to Hernandez101 (Luis) for all the heavy lifting and second opinion. Right now I'm using 50 feet of 3/4 inch tubing thats connected to barbs outside the sump. Its rated for 140 degrees so it should be fine and it was only 20 bucks for the 50 ft of it. I used a heat gun to make sure the barbs were placed securely. I'm still not confident about this but I have a back up pvc radiator I made that will work. this just allows for easier placement in the sump for now. I used unions to connect the pipes to the top off container which is just an ice chest which i drilled two bulkheads into.

Cost:
40 gallon water heater $350
plumbing $150
misc : approx $100-150
circulation pump Iwaki, had from an old tank set up. View attachment 32634 View attachment 32635 View attachment 32636 View attachment 32637 View attachment 32638

I still need to insulate the pipe and glue some of the joints. I doubt this will get much use until next week and I'll still have my 1000watt heater as back up. so far in just 20 minutes of testing it and that includes heating a cold water heater it managed to raise the tank temp one degree which was higher than my 79 degree set point so it will be interesting to see how fast it cycle. I've got a iwaki mdl 20 on it and its dialed down for now.

I'll update over few days/weeks


nik
 

CamelMD

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#10
Cpvc, but Im only run the heater around 110 degrees maybe less. I'll have to play with the flow of the pump too
 
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#16
Oh. That's pretty cool.

so basically I have fresh water circulating through a pvc pipe coil that radiates into my sump. Ive got about 650-700 gallons of water and my sumps are outside during the winter my 1000watt heater was running non-stop to keep up and thats a lot of juice. natural gas cost a lot less than electricity. i'll take some better pictures but its not really hard to figure out how this works. instead of a titanium heater I'm using hot water to raise tank temperature. the iwaki pump turns on when the tank gets below 77 and off when it hits 79 degrees. There is NO salt water being heated through the water heater just fresh water that moves from it through the tank and back
 
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