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Comment by Dave Mannina on April 29, 2012 at 10:31am

Thanks Matt. The tank is only 6 feet long x 3'-7" wide and 3'-4" deep. I never built a solar panel before. But I did look at some websites about building your own. I might try it some day. I would like to have a back up heat system using natural gas. Also have a fire place of some sort to heat on cloudy days and to save money on gas.

Comment by Matt Rosso on April 29, 2012 at 8:48am

Heat it with Solar Thermal.  You should have no trouble building one. If that tank is 20' long, from this picture one 3' X 5' panel should warm it nicely.  Two will do it faster but on a real sunny day it will probably be too much.  Run some piping around the outside of the tank underground to heat the mass around it and bleed off excess heat from the panels during the day.  You don't want your fish to sweat!  :-D