Fish room heating

[Ghost91]

Just got the fish room set up and I'm having an issue with the tanks not reaching room temp.

I read that heat is lost through evaporation and I've been running my dehumidifier at 40%. Just upped it to 60%. 

Room has been 76-80 for 2 days and water is 71.8 as of this morning.

Any suggestions, tips, or info would be much appreciated.

[Biotope Biologist]

Water has an incredibly high heat capacity. The short answer is your water will never be the temperature of the room. It will always be a few degrees lower than the surrounding room. If you want I can explain this phenomenon in more detail.

 

 

[Dwayne Brown]

I would get a heater for wach aquarium or a larger heater for the room

[Ghost91]

@Biotope Biologistthanks for the response!

I finally just dropped my temp controller probe in one of the tanks and it is currently 88 in the room. The max my radiator heater will heat to.

Could you give me any insight into the correlation between humidity and water temperature. I know humidity and air temp are highly regulatory of each other.

Would it be beneficial to keep the humidity as high as possible without getting to the point where I have to worry about mold/dampness. Would the temperature differential between water and air be impacted significantly by the humidity level?

Ie higher humidity, less evaporation, lower differential between air and water.

[Biotope Biologist]

The temperature differential will not be impacted significantly. I don't know the exact humidity value to allow the least amount of evaporation offhand. But you are correct higher humidity will lead to less evaporative cooling. You may be able to retain a degree or 3 but I couldn't imagine it being any better than that. Hopefully you insulated the room incredibly well so you minimize heat loss. If you have a door you will want rubber trim. But you will also want a vent to make sure that the air doesn't become stale. I assume you are essentially trying to create a greenhouse?

[Ghost91]

@Biotope Biologist

Yes I insulated it well.

2x6 studs r19 insulation on the walls and r30 in the attic. And I'm in texas on the coast so only a handful of days a year aren't at least in the 70s high.

They finally got to temp earlier and my temp controller shut off. Went to a wedding and came back and after 6 hours the tanks had only dropped a degree and the room was down to 82 from 88. And its 55 outside. 

I ended up putting the probe in one of the tanks and the room heated to 88 for a few hours and got it their. Keeping the room 76-80 wasn't cutting it I guess.

Edited April 3, 2021 by Ghost91

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

I don't run heaters in my tanks (thanks @Cory for your videos about that). My 2, 20 gallon tanks are in my kitchen, the heater that I keep on in the colder months is at 79 (I like the heat too), my tanks today were 76.2 (fish don't mind it, as evidenced by the breeding going on in one tank). Summer months I run my air at 75 and the tanks are in the 74 degree range (fish still don't mind, kitchen always warmest room in the house and has a stove that has an always on pilot light so it's probably more like 77 degrees in the kitchen during the summer). I don't have any trouble with evaporation, I have tight fitting glass Aqueon lids with airlines out the very back (but I also change water 1x a week). 

[Samanthabea]

Don't have the humidity at 60 prevention of mold is at 30-50 trust me when I say mold is very expensive to remove after it gets started

[Cory]

What's your insulation like? Also the more water you have, the more thermal mass you'll have. Getting tops on the tanks slows evaporation and helps trap in heat. Basically the more tanks with lids you get put in there, the more stable it'll be at holding heat.

As a side note. I just got R49 insulation blown in on Wednesday to my new fish room. Before, I had the heater set to 80, and it would drop at the lowest to 65 degrees at night high of about 76 during the day.. Once the insulation went in, it's not dropping and staying at about 79 degrees.

[Ghost91]

@Cory

I did 2x6 studs with r19 in the walls and r30 in the ceiling.

I was able to get the tanks up to temp. I put the temp controller my heater is on in the tank instead of the air and It held at 88 for a few hours. 

I took note from your heater video and have my radiator heater set  to kick on at 76 and off at 79. The heater has an 88° thermostat built in. It took it a few hours to get to temp but then held for a long time while the heater and then the room cooled. So at least it's slow swings back and forth in the temp range.

Do you control humidity in your fish rooms? If so what is a good level to maintain it at?

 

[gardenman]

To some extent where the tanks are relative to the room matters a lot also. Tanks closer to the floor tend to be cooler. Tanks closer to an outside wall tend to be cooler than tanks in the middle of the room. The warmest tanks tend to be those closest to the ceiling in the middle of the room. (Assuming you don't have fans blowing directly at them.) If you go to supplement heat in any of the tanks, it's typically best to toss in heaters on the bottom tanks as the heat that escapes will rise up to the tanks above helping to heat them, Having heat generating appliances (hot water heater, clothes dryer, home furnace, etc.) in the fish room can help to heat the fish room for you. If someone in your family regularly uses a toaster oven, air fryer, crock pot, etc. putting it in the fish room can also help to heat the fish room. (It may annoy the user having to go to the fish room to cook something, but the heat is good for the fish room and likely not needed in the kitchen.) If you have a home server for your family's computers, a fish room is a good placed to install it. (Not so much for the server as the humidity can be an issue, but the heat from the server can help to heat the fish room and a big server can generate a lot of heat.) Using the older incandescent light bulbs for room lighting can add extra heat to the room if your lighting fixtures can use them. Solar pool heaters (like the SunHeater Pool Heating System you can find at Amazon for $300) can be adapted to toss in some supplemental heat when needed if your fish room is near a south facing area.  

[Jimmy]

On 4/2/2021 at 8:38 PM, Cory said:

What's your insulation like? Also the more water you have, the more thermal mass you'll have. Getting tops on the tanks slows evaporation and helps trap in heat. Basically the more tanks with lids you get put in there, the more stable it'll be at holding heat.

As a side note. I just got R49 insulation blown in on Wednesday to my new fish room. Before, I had the heater set to 80, and it would drop at the lowest to 65 degrees at night high of about 76 during the day.. Once the insulation went in, it's not dropping and staying at about 79 degrees.

R-49 is certainly not in the budget for my small room that will be 8x8 or less. I live in the same zone as you Cory. With a 2x4 framed in room in my detached shop what’s value should I look for? Someone said that PNW walls should be 5 and ceiling 10-15.

[Jimmy]

On 4/2/2021 at 8:38 PM, Cory said:

What's your insulation like? Also the more water you have, the more thermal mass you'll have. Getting tops on the tanks slows evaporation and helps trap in heat. Basically the more tanks with lids you get put in there, the more stable it'll be at holding heat.

As a side note. I just got R49 insulation blown in on Wednesday to my new fish room. Before, I had the heater set to 80, and it would drop at the lowest to 65 degrees at night high of about 76 during the day.. Once the insulation went in, it's not dropping and staying at about 79 degrees.

Side note I understand the ceiling is most important with a room that small one bag would be enough. I’d probably do r38 and instead of finishing the room with drywall I will do foam board which at a inch thick would add on another 4 to the r value