Just a brief FYI type post. Last year we started using a wood burning swimming pool heater on our Niles. This proved so effective that we purchased two more. The company has improved the efficiency of the heaters and the temp gain is even greater.
I like them for several reasons:
1. They are portable
2. They require no 'gas' tank or line
3. Inexpensive compared to fossil fuel setups
The heaters also give an immediate 6-10 degree jump in water temperature which accompanied by a 50-60gpm through the heaters makes a big difference in even big ponds as opposed to other pool heaters which heat more gradually.
As an example of how we heat our pools we have a small spectacled caiman enclosure for a pair of animals. It's a 24ft x 24ft enclosure with a 10 x 10 pool that has maybe 1500 gallons of water. We turned the heater on, started the fire in the firebox and raised the water temp nearly 20 degrees in less than 3 hours and that was without an attempt to keep the fire roaring. I lit it and pretty much let it cycle once.
Water is such a heat trap that even with a night into the mid 30's last night we lost only a few degrees of the temp increase.
Cost to us? A few logs and the electricity for the pump.
We also use a chemical 'blanket' to seal the heat into the water which slows the heat loss to the atmosphere.
Together these two items make heating crocodilians alot easier and less stressful. I've also found it to be alot less labor intensive than I previously thought simply becuase they heat so well you can use them and let them sit for days until the temp drifts back down again.
In short it's a very useful tool for the croc keeper.
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CDieter
'Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.'
