# Heating a fish room vs heating each tank?



## Firestarter (Dec 28, 2009)

Easiest and most safest would be an electric baseboard unit but you may want to find out how much that will cost you by looking at how much you pay per kw hour. If you heat with gas maybe you could make it so that room gets most of the heat. If you do decide to us some sort of propane heater use a sealed combustion one because the vent free ones just add moisture to the room. I was talking to someone that build a large shed refugium and it was suggested that he use a vent free heater and was talking about his moisture issues. After suggesting he switch to something else he was fine.


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## Burks (May 21, 2006)

I believe it is $0.16/kw, or there about.

Good thing is I am taking down my reef system which using a 250w MH, 320w VHO, 400w heater, and about 150w in powerheads/pumps. So that's a lot of energy being saved. Plus if I take out the other 400-500w of heaters, even more. And I may be able to cut out some lighting power as well since I am downgrading from medium to low light in a majority of my tanks. 

Going more toward fish/shrimp breeding than display tanks. I'll just keep a 20g long as a display. Cheap and easier to manage.

What about those oil burning heaters that use electricity? Is that the vent free ones you were mentioning? Moisture isn't a problem NOW, but it might be then. Then again all my tanks are open topped (including the four 75g coral tubs). So I do get a bunch of evap. I will be covering all my tanks with glass when I redo the room (saves water/heat).


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## Firestarter (Dec 28, 2009)

If you heat the aquariums you will have much more evaporation than if you just heat the whole room. So if you cover the tanks and heat the room evaporation will be reduced a lot. You can use sealed combustion heaters they heat the room and use outdoor air for combustion and exhaust it back outside. The vent free heaters just burn fuel inside and propane burning releases moisture. I would just use a baseboard heater unless you can find a way to use your existing furnace to heat the room warmer than the rest of the house.


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## Burks (May 21, 2006)

Maybe when we get the new furnace I can look into that idea. But if you look in the general chat area, you'll see my issue with my furnace. It's.......well......junk. That's the big issue right now. Heating the room is hopefully a temporary fix!

But the heater can be used other places. I'm building a (insulated) shed out back to house gym equipment. So I'll need to heat that baby in the winter!


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