# DIY: Insulating Your Aquarium



## CoryWM (Mar 26, 2008)

Depending on your level of obsession in the hobby, heating your aquarium(s) is a cost that can quickly add up on a monthly basis. Unfortunately, glass and acrylic are not the best insulators but are necessary to be able to see into your tank. Assuming you're not simply heating the whole room to 75+ degrees, insulating your tanks is a cost-effective solution to keep those aquatic heating bills down so that you can spend more of that disposable income on other areas of the hobby that are less boring. Continue reading "DIY: Insulating Your Aquarium" »


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## killacross (Apr 29, 2010)

sounds a little paranoid IMO...and I dont like the looks of the finished product...my tanks were not meant to be wrapped in foil

unless you have a monstrous tank or keep your house 50 degrees in the winter...I think youre over thinking this (tho a garage/basement tank is a possibility)...

not to mention that the specific heat capacity of water (higher than most things I believe besides ammonia) works both ways...heat the water up once...its very hard for it to lose its energy one way or the other

...a swing and a miss

outta curiousity how much have you _really_saved so far? i refuse to believe you can notice a difference of $4 in your electric bill monthly

i would think that just like tankless water heaters save money by going hard and then shutting off as opposed to trickle heating all day...a larger heater would work out better


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## vicky (Feb 18, 2010)

killacross or killjoy? Really, don't like it, don't do it. Some of us have more tanks than others, and not all of them are show tanks. I noticed a definite increase in my electric bill the year I got back into aquariums. The article was geared for fishrooms - especially those in garages and unheated basements. Look at the photo. I highly doubt that is a living room. Fish are a totally different situation from tankless water heaters. The idea behind tankless is to only heat the water once - as you use it, instead of heating the same water over and over, which is exactly what we do with our fish. This is a good idea for the right situation, as stated in the article.


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## joshvito (Apr 6, 2009)

If you don't like the look, you could always paint the glass prior to adding the insulation. Also, even if it is a small difference, every little counts. Don't think on such a personal level either, think of every hobbyist with a fish room. (join an aquarium society! there are many). Many hobbyists have a hundred tanks.

*Now think of the energy we can save as a group!*
I ran some numbers, and attached the spreadsheet if anyone wants to compare.
I used a 100w heater as an example, assuming it runs 8hrs per day. This will obviously vary depending on your environment, but I live in NY, and this is about average to low IME.

I stopped at 5000 tanks, because that is my conservative estimate for # of tanks in my fish club of ~100 members.

((#tanks * days * hrs_per_day * watts_used)/1000)*cost_per_kwa(cents) = yearly_cost 
1	365	8	100	0.1755 $51.25 
1	365	8	50	0.1755 $25.62 
5	365	8	100	0.1755 $256.23 
5	365	8	50	0.1755 $128.12 
10	365	8	100	0.1755 $512.46 
10	365	8	50	0.1755 $256.23 
20	365	8	100	0.1755 $1,024.92 
50	365	8	100	0.1755 $2,562.30 
100	365	8	100	0.1755 $5,124.60 
1000	365	8	100	0.1755 $51,246.00 
2000	365	8	100	0.1755 $102,492.00 
5000	365	8	100	0.1755 $256,230.00

source:http://www.eia.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_a.html


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## killacross (Apr 29, 2010)

i "get" what youre saying...but your example is wrong because youre over simplifying...NY is cold no doubt, but your heater probably doesnt run 8hrs per day and it definitely doesnt run 365...im sure NY gets over 70 degrees sometime (thinks about the 100+ heat waves you all had last year) throughout the year

those $$$ saved are significantly lower...id have to break out a thermodynamics properties table for water values to get correct numbers...I just remember that water is 4.186 J/gram*C glass is probably <<1... anywhoo...converting Watts = Joules/sec...but just dont care enough

and "technically speaking" glass is already an insulator...a "better" option would be to DIY your tanks with thicker glass walls...but again since the water is the main concern...its not cost effective


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