heating with natural gas

S

Sparkss

Active member
is anyone out there heating their tank(s) with natural gas (versus the conventional electric heaters) ? I have searched both RC and online for gas powered aquarium heating solutions and so far have come up empty handed. We are moving to a larger tank shortly and putting it inwall in our garage. Even now, with just he prop tank and sump in the garage the over 1000 W of electric heat we have struggles (and fails) to keep the temperatures up at night (and it is not really even that cold yet).. and that is on a measely 250 total gallon system... when the new tank comes online we will be looking at over 550 gallons, and all of those located in our insulated garage, including the door (as insulated as a garage can be anyways).

Natural gas is significantly cheaper than electric here, so any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks :)
 
yea, it is just such a large investment to get it rolling for gas heat + a heat exchanger ($2k or better). I guess I was hoping for a nice tankless water heater that used natural gas and had a titanium tank (w/ no copper tubing), but so far I am having little to no luck finding one. If I could luck into one that would reduce the cost to around/under $1k (which at our electrical prices would pay for itlsef within a couple of years, easy).

Thanks for the links to AquaticEco, I had forgotten to check them out when I started my search (silly me :)).
 
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well, if I could find a tankless unit with a titanium internals then I could run the tank water through it and save a whole bunch of money and time, otherwise I would need 2 pumps plus the heat exchanged and gas water heater. Unless I find a small enough boiler system where I would guess the steam generated would circulate itself so then I wouldn't need a pump to circulate the heated fluid through the heat exchanger ?

Right now the only option I see is buying a separate heat exchanger and pushing water (or some other liquid) through it from a gas water heater. Trouble with that solution is that so far the parts that I can find total over $2.5k, and still would require quite a bit of DIY on my part (for that $$ figure I was hoping for a more complete solution). I am honestly surprised that there isn't some "pre-packaged" gas reef tank heater setup.

If I go with a tankless + a heat exchanger, it still comes our to between $2k and $3k, which stops being cost effective compared to an electrical solution, even for the next 3 - 5 years (I can always drop in a new breaker, or even go with a 2 pole for higher wattage).
 
The heat exchanger could be gravity feed from the overflow to eliminate the pump. Did you look at swimming pool heaters? You coould also DIY your own heat exchanger to save some $$.
 
the cheapest swimming pool heaters I found were still in the $1k - $1.5k range... add a commmercial heat exchanger and I am up in the $2k - $2.5k range again, and still faced with some DIY yo get them connected up (should I sweat in the connections between the heater and exchanger or should I just use compression fittings ? should I use RO water or some sort of oil through the heater and heat exchanger ? how do I circulate the fluid between the heater and exchanger ? and a few other questions that come to mind :(). Just so many variables that I had hoped would have already been answered with soem sort of "package deal". It is not that I don't have the ability to handle the DIY, it is more a matter of time right now. By the time I have the time, it will be out of the winter months and I won't care again for another 6 months. *sigh*

BTW, thank you very much for all of your feedback, suggestions and direction, I truly appreciate it all :D
 
No problem. I've been thinking about this for some time now because I want to upgrade from my 125 to a 450. I've come to the conclusion it may be best to convert my whole house to gas fired hydronic heat and just add a separate zone for the tank.
 
is that type of heat that much more efficient (for your house) than air forced heat ? Is your house 1 or 2 stories ? and does that factor into the viability of hydronic heat or not ? (ok, google here I come :)).
 
In NJ the gas companies are offering rebates to switch from oil to gas. I currently have a 30 year old oil burning furnance and electric water heater, so they are both very low effciency. The house is a 2 story victorian built in 1880 that I am slowly restoring. By switching to gas I can take advantage of the gas co. rebates and the Energy Star rebates offered by the state while upgrading to higher effciency units. I can also get rid of the 250G oil tank in my basement which my insurance co. just started charging me for. I then can get gas appliances (dryer, water heater and stove) which will be more effcient than the electric ones we have now and again get the rebates. So it's pretty much a no brainer for my situation. Now all I have to do is come up with the money. LOL
 
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