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Question on using heaters outdoors in the early springtime


wilkyb
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Heyo,

I have my planter aquarium I’ll be bringing outdoors once the overnight temperatures rise above 10’c. My question pertains to the heaters capacity to keep the aquarium warm without failure.

 

 Is there some kind of formula somebody could help me out with here? I have about 25gallons of aquarium with a nightly low this week of 10’c, and my Eheim 100w heater to boot.

 

I plan on adding an additional heater for safety when I take it out front, but in the meantime, I cannot be testing for something like this with guppies being tropical (cannot go below 72’fh).

 

But’d like to actually *know* if a solo heater could seal the deal. Can you guys help verify this for me?

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I don't know that there's a formula personally. And unlike inside, temps fluctuate a lot outside, so it's not just the low that will make a difference. Most heaters are sized based on needed increase over a stable indoor room temperature. Can you get a large storage tote of a similar size and place it outside with the heater and monitor temperature that way?

Edited by ererer
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9 hours ago, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

Everything I’ve read just indicated using the largest heater you could get your hands on. Several YouTubers were using two 300 w in 100 Gallon tub. How many liters is your planter?

Not to sound rude here, but you didn’t read everything because I mentioned the volume of the aquarium in the OP!

 

its 25 gallons

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1 hour ago, ererer said:

I don't know that there's a formula personally. And unlike inside, temps fluctuate a lot outside, so it's not just the low that will make a difference. Most heaters are sized based on needed increase over a stable indoor room temperature. Can you get a large storage tote of a similar size and place it outside with the heater and monitor temperature that way?

Yea I think the wind & surface area to the water is a thing; as well as how thin the plastic container is on its own. I think the problem is heat retention in this case.

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3 minutes ago, wilkyb said:

Yea I think the wind & surface area to the water is a thing; as well as how thin the plastic container is on its own. I think the problem is heat retention in this case.

Yeah, a storage tote isn't likely to hold heat as well as your pond, but it would be a cheap way to empirically establish a rough approximation for your conditions, and the pond is likely to perform better than a tote in heat retention, so if you designed your heating based on the tote experiment you should have a bit of extra wiggle room. Sorry, I can't suggest anything better at the moment!

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6 hours ago, ererer said:

Yeah, a storage tote isn't likely to hold heat as well as your pond, but it would be a cheap way to empirically establish a rough approximation for your conditions, and the pond is likely to perform better than a tote in heat retention, so if you designed your heating based on the tote experiment you should have a bit of extra wiggle room. Sorry, I can't suggest anything better at the moment!

 I’ll see what happens tonight in one of my Home Depot buckets which I normally use for water changes, and then I’ll report back! (Fingers crossed that the heater doesn’t fail)!

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Okay! So I left the 100w Eheim heater in a 10Gal Home Depot bucket set to 72’f and the result was without a busted heater! Thinking of it now, I will bring a timer with me & see how frequently the light goes on, and then use the timer the same way with my indoor aquarium. I’ll make some popcorn!
 

The overnight forecast was 8’C. The heater was put into the bucket initially at about 70’f

 

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