Water Ageing & Heating

[TW]

Hi there

For both the benefit of my discus & for the convenience of having pre-heated water, I keep a 1,000L, water tank in my garage.

I was wanting to heat it in the most economical way I could, so the costs don't break the bank. I have 1 x 300W jaeger heater & after testing the temps, I know that this can bring the water to 28 degrees in 24hours (even though I think the Jaeger's are only rated to 600L - it definitely can do the job).

I do water changes twice a week.

Does anyone know if:-

* it would be cheaper to turn the heaters on 24hrs prior to a water change, then turn them off again

* leave them on 24/7

I guess this seems a silly question, but I wondered if it took more energy each time to heat the water from cold, than it would for it to only have to maintain an already achieved temperature?

Thanks in advance for any opinions?

Cheers

[mistakes r crucial]

Hi TW,

When I was breeding I went through the same process you're going through as it can get very costly. We had a 3000 litre aging tank plus about 3KW of pumps running 24/7 so we were always eager to learn how to save on electricity, our account was always up around $1400 a quarter. We found one of the best and cheapest ways was to insulate everything you can and the more you're prepared to spend upfront the more you will save in power.

To answer your question directly, I found that leaving the heaters on 24/7 seemed to be more efficient. Nothing scientific or conclusive there but I just felt that the heater seemed to be on less when looking in the tank than when starting from scratch all the time. There again, there are so many variables and especially living in Qld. I can remember sitting there with my fish partner many times over a couple of beers thinking how the h*ll do we get this water down from 36c to change water today!
Cheers
MAC