Cali Kid Corals

Wife decided to save money by turning off the heat to the house over the weekend.

sfsuphysics said:
Yeah looks like you have maybe a 0.5° hysteresis on your heater, BRS just did a show and they set theirs to 0.1° and man that thing went on/off so much throughout the day it "prematurely" killed the Apex relay. Curious what kind of lights you have over your tank, LEDs? Inside of a hood? Or any sort of direct sunlight? But going to 77 isn't anything to worry about, but if you were away for a week, looks like about 1 degree per day drop in temp, so a week and you're at 71. I assume the power view of this heater turned on somewhere around the 18th and stayed on constantly.
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Forgot to mention. Lights are LEDs, so no heat help there. It’s an open top so the netting isn’t going to keep the heat in.

Also, the heater was one of two off my 40 gallon (plus another 10 in the sump). I thought it would be more than enough for the new tank, but the old tank was acrylic which I think also insulated better.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Reminds me of a guy over in the east bay, he had I dunno how many gallons, maybe 1000 total. Plus he had a shed in the backyard with his sump, and when it got cold he paid PG&E through the teeth. He eventually got a tankless gas water heater and did the whole gas water heater bit with it.
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I think that’s Chris/Chiken
 
i personally dont use the heater inside the house and every morning when waking up its in the 50's. one morning i saw 47.

i noticed my tank was having a harder time keeping it warm so i added a second heater, now the tank stable and doesnt change temps.
 
jorahx4 said:
i personally dont use the heater inside the house and every morning when waking up its in the 50's. one morning i saw 47.

i noticed my tank was having a harder time keeping it warm so i added a second heater, now the tank stable and doesnt change temps.
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I definitely couldn’t go overnight without the heater. I’ve never seen it in the negative but it dipped down to single digits a couple times. I was surprised to see that the code for wall insulation is the same as CA (r-13). The attic is more though. I think it’s r-39. We keep our house at 65, day and night.
 
Flagg37 said:
I definitely couldn’t go overnight without the heater. I’ve never seen it in the negative but it dipped down to single digits a couple times. I was surprised to see that the code for wall insulation is the same as CA (r-13). The attic is more though. I think it’s r-39. We keep our house at 65, day and night.
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My house has no wall insulation and had only 2” of compressed old insulation in the roof when I
Got it. I went and added 30” of insulation in the roof now haha. Way more than suggested.

We keep it cooler because I prefer the colder weather. I can’t stand if the house is over 62. Plus I grew up with my parents saying “if your cold out a sweatshirt on”


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Sorry I’m late here but what is the volume of your system?
My tanks are in tuff sheds that are not insulated
I’ve never frozen my fish
I have however melted corals during extreme heatwaves
 
Kensington Reefer said:
Sorry I’m late here but what is the volume of your system?
My tanks are in tuff sheds that are not insulated
I’ve never frozen my fish
I have however melted corals during extreme heatwaves
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I really thought about doing that idea. But have no idea how you keep it cool in summer. Unless a big chiller.


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Kensington Reefer said:
No chiller here
I do use fans

But you never answered my Q
How volume are you working with?
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Me? My tank is 180 gallons with 29 gallon sump, but of course it's not all water, I'd guess 150 gallons of water.

Sorry, I can't tell who you are asking about.

In any case, last night, the tank had moved up to 75. It's amazing how slow it is. I'm thinking the heaters are working overtime, but since the heat is back on (Fluctuates between 65-68 depending on time of day, since the thermostat is set to drop to 65 when we're not home) the water is not getting cooled as much by air temps. So I'm catching back up.

I bought the Ranco temperature controller and will wire in the heaters at some point.

V
 
I wouldn’t put anywhere near a kW on that unless your heating elements have their own internal thermostats too. If that temperature probe falls out you’ll cook your fish. With their own thermostats it does sound reasonable.
 
My 60” x 24” tank is holding me steady at 77 *F with 550 W in a 59-67 *F apartment, less than 50% duty cycle, with lids. Without lids it held temp, but worked harder.
 
Flagg37 said:
I definitely couldn’t go overnight without the heater. I’ve never seen it in the negative but it dipped down to single digits a couple times. I was surprised to see that the code for wall insulation is the same as CA (r-13). The attic is more though. I think it’s r-39. We keep our house at 65, day and night.
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I'm curious, what are the electrical rates in CO?
 
jccaclimber said:
My 60” x 24” tank is holding me steady at 77 *F with 550 W in a 59-67 *F apartment, less than 50% duty cycle, with lids. Without lids it held temp, but worked harder.
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Sounds about right, the most complicated "how much heating" formula I've heard is 1 watt per gallon per 5 degrees above the ambient temp, 1 x (assume that's a 150) x (77-59)/5 = 540watts.

Now of course the there are other factors, like ambient humidity, surface agitation, surface area, etc, but I like that formula as a good baseline.
 
A 170 (odd height), but that’s still only 612 W, and a pair of 300 W heaters wouldn’t be unreasonable.
Lids/no lids, open/closed stand and rear insulation are all pretty significant as well.
 
Yeah, the lids bit drops the wattage needed significantly since it creates an area of really high humidity and as a result less evaporation which is just physics kicking you in the dick after you spent all that money to heat it up in the first place :D
 
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