Water tank insulation

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Anyone have ideas on how to insulate water tanks that are above the ground... I've heard that some folks use livestock tank heaters... Will they work on tanks that are big...say 1000 gal to 1500 gal? If so... where can they be purchased?

-- Richard Armstrong (rickarmpit@yahoo.com), November 06, 2001

Answers

yes they will work,, but if you have an abov ground tank?/ where do you live? whats it used for? Maybe some straw bales around it.,,just to retain the warmth it has will be enough. Tank heaters can be bought at most any feeed store,, or jeffers (have a website), there are others

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), November 06, 2001.

I have a small above ground tank for the horses. I used a tank heater one month--it added almost $50.00 to my electric bill! Now I haul one large bucket of very hot water to the barn morning and night. I dilute the hot water in everyone's bucket (horses, goats, and chickens) to the point where it's just warm. When the horses are outside during the day I move two buckets out by the gate and they drink from them. I check the outside buckets twice while the horses are out and the water isn't usually frozen solid.

I'd be interested in any ways of keeping the stock tank open in the winter (Upstate NY weather) that doesn't involve massive amounts of electricity.

Stacy in NY

-- Stacy (KincoraFarm@aol.com), November 06, 2001.


Just wondering if this would work. Could you add a bubbler to the tank. It would keep the water moving and reduce the ability to freeze. Since it is just blowing water into the tank and not actually heating the water, it should use alot less electricity. This is what the city does to keep parts of the park pond open for the fish and the resident ducks. Of course they use a very large one, which you wouldn't need to do. Using both the bubbler and straw bales may make it so only on the coldest nights it would freeze. I would think you could get something like that at a gardening center,etc.

I use a heating device to keep my bird bath from freezing and it hasn't added anything that I noticed to the electric bill. It only turns on when the air/water reaches a certain temp.

Hope this helps.

-- Chris in PA (CLMngs@aol.com), November 07, 2001.


Check out answers on thread below 'keep stock tank from freezing' for more info on Chris's answer, regarding putting a bubbler in the tank and keeping surface from freezing over.

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), November 07, 2001.

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