DIY External Heater Housing?

[madman280]

I just joined this forum today and Holy crap talk about deja vu...I built a very similar combination external heater and co2 reactor for my 75 gal bow front. Eheim filter, black stand, reactor heater even on the same side of the cabinet. I built mine from components I picked up in one trip to Home Depot.
Its a combination of white plumbing and grey pvc electrical fittings.
The main body is 4" pvc drain pipe. A standard cap on the bottom with a cleanout cap and fittings on the top.
The inlet and outlet are 1/2 pvc electrical conduit to electrical box adapter fittings. They're threaded on one end and have a spigot on the other that fits the 5/8" tubing of my external filter outlet.
The cheap standard glass tube heater passes through a compresion type pvc electrical fitting (used to pass cable into an electrical panel) It's glued into a drilled and tapped hole in the cleanout cap.
The CO2 inlet is a small (1/8" or 1/16" I believe) lawn sprinkler head and extension that passes though a similar fitting to the heater but smaller.
The inlet and outlet pass through drilled and theaded holes in the side of the main tube top and bottom.
It's filled with 1" to 2" long peices of 1/2" pvc conduit to mix the co2 and create a turbulant flow to allow eficeint heating of the water.
I stuck it all together with standard PVC solvent cement with aquarium safe silicone for extra security at the compresion fittings for the heater, Co2 inlet and the external parts of the inlet and outlet.
It's worked fine with no leaks in the past 2 months of operation.

[scolley]

Originally Posted by madman280

I just joined this forum today and Holy crap talk about deja vu...I built a very similar combination external heater and co2 reactor for my 75 gal bow front. Eheim filter, black stand, reactor heater even on the same side of the cabinet. I built mine from components I picked up in one trip to Home Depot.

Cool! And welcome to PT!

Do you have pictures? That would be great.

[markdem]

Hi All, i built a external heater one month ago. It has two heaters in it as my tank is 780L. I have found that the bigger i made it, the better it worked. It must have something to do with how long the water spends in the pipe. i will post some pics later tonight.\

Mark

[madman280]

nope ..sorry no digital camara right now. Its still going stong, keeping things warm and the plant pearling nicely..now if I could just keep up on trimming the hygro :S

[questor]

Well, I just had a bout of ich, and needed to toss a heater in my 10g to get rid of it.
The only one I had I hand was 150w Ebo Jager that was way to long for the small tank.

I had been meaning to make a DIY Co2 reactor, and then I see this thread, so I combined the two.

Here is a picture of it on the side of my tank/table. I didn't bother tucking it away out of sight behind, as I am going to transfer this over to my 75g, and make another smaller one for this tank. I also plan on moving the co2 tank to the basement and plumping lines up through the floor to all the tanks.

It's "L" shaped, with Co2 coming in at the top, and the heater in the bottom leg. I used PVC compression fitting from Lowes that I had modified to fit into a 2 x 1-1/4" bushing.

The second pix shows the fitting after I did the mod.

The heater fits snuggly in this and the temp adjusting dial is right at the end. The third pix shows that.

All works extremely well, and the Co2 levels along with the tank temp are right there, quick and easy.

Thanks for all the great insperation from all the DIY'ers here.

ps: I have these modified fittings available if anyone is interested.
I also have some of the clear 2" PVC available.

[questor]

Wanted to add a shot of the tank this reactor/heater is feeding.

[swylie]

Originally Posted by questor

It's "L" shaped, with Co2 coming in at the top, and the heater in the bottom leg. I used PVC compression fitting from Lowes that I had modified to fit into a 2 x 1-1/4" bushing.

The second pix shows the fitting after I did the mod.

The heater fits snuggly in this and the temp adjusting dial is right at the end. The third pix shows that.

That looks really nice, and it's certainly more easily available than the cordgrips that other people are using. Do you think it's coincidence that you were able to get the compression fitting to clamp down on your heater, or do you think other people could get this to work too? I'm not sure about the diameter of the ebo jager, but I assume it's pretty close to other heaters.

[scolley]

Originally Posted by swylie

That looks really nice, and it's certainly more easily available than the cordgrips that other people are using.

Agreed. And a WHOLE lot cheaper than a Pentair heater module!

I hope people are paying attention to this... it looks like a great external heater solution. Cheaper than a Hydor too, and not so limited in the mounting angles, or stand mounting possibilities.

Good job! Thanks for sharing that!

[questor]

Originally Posted by swylie

That looks really nice, and it's certainly more easily available than the cordgrips that other people are using. Do you think it's coincidence that you were able to get the compression fitting to clamp down on your heater, or do you think other people could get this to work too? I'm not sure about the diameter of the ebo jager, but I assume it's pretty close to other heaters.

I was ready to go the cordgrip route, but saw someone else use this thing. I looked for the thread to give them proper credit, but couldn't find it.

It's a compression fitting that I think is meant to join two pieces of pipe. The other gentleman cut it in half and used a dremel to reduce it down to fit in a bushing. I have a lathe and it made short work of that job. I turned it down to a nice slip fit that glued right together. If anyone wants one to make one of these, let me know.

They come in different sizes, I guess the smaller ones may fit on the glass tubes like the cordgrips do, but I like it better on the top piece. On the Ebo that is a harder sturdier plastic that seems to take a tight grip well. Not sure about other brands, or their diameter. I'll take some measurements next time I'm at the LFS and Lowes.

I like the mod someone did with the colored acrylic tube lined up with the indicator light to let you know the heater is powered. I am going to add that to the second one I make.

For this 10g, I can get away with a smaller heater and a shorter reaction chamber, so it could be a lot smaller/shorter. This one will be perfect for the 75g. I would guess it would do a quite larger tank that that too.

[kasslloyd]

Heyco makes cord grips in the size you one, model M4524 for example is for "cords" .875" to 1.260" and has a NPT fitting of 1 1/4", it's a little harder to come by but if you request free samples from the company they may send you a couple.