heating substrate with ballasts

[Ric Otte <otte at cats_ucsc.edu>]

Hi,

This may be a really stupid idea, but I thought I'd ask.

I have a 240g tank that I'm beginning to put plants in.  I have 3 of the
wizzard ballasts running 6 40watt t12s (and hope to move a 4th to it from
another tank soon).  The ballasts put out heat, and since my house is on
the cold side, I also run the heaters (in the sump) quite a bit.  I was
wondering if there was a way to use the heat from the ballasts to save on
the heating bill, and preferably to encourage plant growth.  One way to do
this would be to put the ballasts underneath the tank directly on the
glass, and perhaps the heat would heat the substrate.  But I wonder if this
might have possible bad results, such as causing the glass to crack (which
would be a HUGE disaster, given the size of the tank).

Another option that would help with the electric bill, but not help the
plants much, would be to simply put the ballasts in large thick plastic
bags and place them in the sump, where lots of the heat would be
transferred to the water.  I suppose I could have the wires come out of the
bags above water line, in order to minimize the possibility of leakage.

Is there anything obviously bad about these ideas.  I get many ideas that
in retrospect were obviously bad, and I thought I'd see if anyone had
advice on this.

Thanks very much,

Ric Otte

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