Solar Hot Water Heater for Fish Tanks

OK...so I got the great idea of building a solar hot water heater out of black poly tubing and having that connected to one of my fish tanks in order to cut the electric bill down on the aquarium heaters I run. I am having mixed results, with a net gain of 4-5 degrees over the ambient temperature of the fish tank water. I was expecting much more.

Initially, I placed 75ft of poly tubing into a 4x4 box (2x4s) made out of Dow blue board and clear / white poly carbonate panels with the inside painted black as shown in the video.  This is all connected to an Aquatop 496 GPH submersible pump which has been choked down to about 250 GPH to give the water enough transit time through the pipe to heat up. I found that I did not have enough pipe so I added another 100 to the existing pipe, I am in the process of sealing the box, and I will need to use glass on the front to better trap the heat as the poly panels dont do a good job. I have a resource to buy cheap used windows and will be heading down to look for one soon.  I have posted some pics of the unit as well.

 Until next time....

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