Garage tank question
 

Ok here goes a stupid question. I have an un heated garage,it gets as cold as outside and heating it is not an option. Do you think a buttload of tank heaters would keep a 300g tank in the liveable range? Keep in mind last night it was -6 in there.
I would assume the answer would be no but I figured I'd ask because alot of people do keep tanks in the garage. It will be lit by 3 250w halides 6'' above tank by the way

I don't see why is couldn't be done, might cost a fair bit in electricity though. You could always see if you can find a large cheap container and see if you could maintain a chosen temperature.

Good idea thanks. Im more concerned about getting my monster tank than I am with hydro bills lol, my wife wont let me keep it inside:(

What about finding a used furnace to heat the garage?????

Just thinking out loud, would you continue to use the garage as a garage or would you dedicate the garage to the tank?. I might be concered with fumes from the car or various other chemicals in garages, saw dust from the mitre saw etc..

my truck doesnt fit in my garage,and I have a seperate work shop. Basically thats where I smoke and keep my ride on and dirtbikes none of which get started in there. I cant heat the garage because its open through the soffit for ventalation on the deck above it. If I was to close off the ceiling it would rot out my deck. Trying to heat it would be far too impractical. I think I may build a little room in there that doesnt go all the way to the ceiling if I absolutelly must. I was just curious if anyone had ever attempted a basically outside tank on aquarium heaters alone.

In Calgary it was -31 outside last night and I keep all my sumps in the garage! I surrounded it all with styrofoam insulation and poly to keep the cold out. I've got a garage heater but a small space heater would be fine for you.

I did that for a while in Victoria, if you are realy worried about the cold you can do thing like wrap 3 sides of the tank with styrofoam to help lower heat loss, but it would be best to try a big container of water with a couple heaters, then wrap the container in styrofoam and see if it gets hotter.

Steve

I am doing that as well, I have two 10 gal tanks in the unheated garage with 1" stryofoam on most of the 3 sides. Temperature is stable in this cold weather we are haveing.

The bigger problem is in the summer HEAT. In the winter you can heat the tank and insulate the sides. In the summer you will definitly require a chiller.

Tom R

I can only speak for mine. For the last two summers, mine has not overheated. It is a 3 car garage with only room for one car. We always leave the car outside for a couple of hrs before bringing it inside, as it is the sec. car, it does not drive too often.
Must be the massive amount of concrete that keeps the temp stable, and the garage only gets about 3 hrs of sunlight in the morning. Hey, but things can change esp with global warming

you could pick up a used hot water tank, run it on low, use your return pump as the hwt input and the hot line on the hwt directly into your tank ...

Just a thought

That would work on FW
However, all hot water tanks have a sacrificial anode, made out of zinc, inside of them. A long rod, that is changeable by the way. Just like aluminum fish boats and lower legs on boats, they all have a sacrificial anode. So I don't think that this zinc would be any good for the inhabitants of the SW tank.
FYI If you want your hot water tank to last longer, then change out that anode every 5 years. Not everyone will tell you that. My last tank went 20 yrs and longer, I sold the house before the tank went.

Heres a solution, put the wife in the garage LOL

sorry, I couldn't resist

Hmmmmmmm lol

I'm just starting the process of moving my sump to the garage then adding a large fuge and most likly some sort of a prop tank. As Tom mentioned I am more worried about heat in the summer, I think with wrapping the tank and heaters the cold should not be a problem.

I will most likly have the MH's on the prop tank come on at night so the MH's are heating the water 24/7 to help with the cold at night in the winter. I'm hoping that will be better in the summer not having all the MH's on during the hot days. I will need a chiller for the summer anyway but hope that will keep the heat down so the chiller doesn't have to work as hard.

I will be building a enclosure around everything like a closet to keep fumes and dust out.


What are you doing for a sump/fuge/prop tank/water storage? Can you build something around them to keep the heat in?

I would hold off on putting the wife out in the garage for now as I am....there's probably a down side that we don't see. :wink:

I have this idea of enclosing the sump in a insulated box and putting a small thermostat controlled space heater in there,I would then vent the box to blow air up the display side in front of the glass. Im thinking spray foam on the other 3 sides,hoping my vent idea would keep the un insulated side warm. Another idea I had was to duct the exhaust off of the halides to blow on the display side of the tank,this would save a little more power by reusing heat I'd be wasting anyway. I'd like to hear more opinions if you got em,thanks

p.s summer heat doesnt worry me I have a chiller in mind

I don't see an issue keeping the temp warm, why insulate and heat a garage when you can insulate and heat a small box. An extra heater just to be safe for sure but if you use and acrylic sump and insulate a container around it you'll have no issues. Plus -6!! That's summer weather, you guys don't even know what cold is.

I second an over heating issue though, most garages I've been in get pretty hot in the summer, so oversize the chiller just to be safe. It won't cost more on electricity as the duty cycle will be reduced.

Lol I was born and raised in Regina I have a pretty good idea of what cold is lol -6 is the temp in the garage by the way it was -10 in there this morning,im not sure if everyone is picking up on that. Thanks for all the opinions,keep em coming if you have them

I think Lance in Powell River is using an old freezer as the holding container for his outdoor sump & it keeps the temp steady.

If your garage is uninsulated & there's no way to keep it from getting that cold in the winter, how much time are you actually going to be spending sitting or standing in your freezing cold garage looking at your monster tank? We had a friend, Jesse, who had a beautiful 90g sps tank but once he moved it into his garage, he rarely spent any time enjoying the tank & ended up shutting it down iwthin months of the move outside.

Something to think about.

Does he plug it in in the summer? :lol:

Good idea with the freezer. As for the cold I'm from saskatchewan -10 isnt that bad,I dont smoke inside so I'm out there about every hour lol
I've been sweet talking the misses she's going to let me keep a 120 inside...since she doesnt know how big one is i'm going to sneak in a 200lol

[quote=SeaHorse_Fanatic;369363]I think Lance in Powell River is using an old freezer as the holding container for his outdoor sump & it keeps the temp steady.


Not a freezer Anthony, just a well-insulated plywood box. Works real well, never had any heating, cooling issues.