Keeping a tank in a cooler garage

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gsk177

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Feb 12, 2003
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I've got an extra 20g tank lying around with no place INSIDE the house to put it. I have an attached unheated and uncooled garage at my house. The garage is not insulated and gets rather cold in the winter months (id say, but haven't verified, somewhere in the mid to upper 40's low 50's) and seems to stay in the mid 60's lower 70's in the summer.
I was wondering if I could properly and safely keep any fish in this tank. I am worried about the load put on the heater in the winter months. Would one heater suffice or would I need to put 2 heaters in during the winter and take one out during the summer?
Would I be limited in my fish selection in any way or would this simply not be a good idea at all?
 
how cold are your winters? up here in seattle i would not advise it but perhaps where you are at two heaters would work? i would not advise it if you get freezing tempatures in the winter.
 
Our winters are a bit more mild than other parts of the country but so far this winter we have have several below freezing nights, one as cool as 10 degrees.
Would multiple heaters remedy this problem? Or is the temperature just too much for ANY tank heater to compensate for?
 
The amount of heat that your heaters must add to the tank must equal the heat lost to the outside from your tank. The heat lost is generally proportional to the temp difference between the tank and the surroundings. As the 5w/gal rule works up to about 15 degrees temp difference, and you have a max 70 degree temp difference, then i would say you need about 25w/gal or about 500W for your tank.

However, one heater of this size would cause a quite large temp difference between different areas of your tank, so you would probably need to go for 3 x 150W, spread out 1 at each end of the tank, and one in the middle.

You would also have to ensure very good circulation in the tank, to stop hotspots and coldspots forming, say 250gph+, but you may have problems with cooling in a HOB or canister filter, so you might have to go for underwater filters, such as a 2 x fluval 3plus filters or similar, at each end of the tank, and maybe another 2 small powerheads to keep the water circulating around the bottom of the tank.

In the summer, because the heaters are thermostatic, you would find that they would just spend hardly any time heating the water, but wouldnt cause the water temp to increase over the set level, but if it made you feel better, you could always unplug 2 of them when the weather warmed up a bit

You would be restricted to fish that didnt mind a fair bit of current with all of this water circulation, but im a fan of active fish anyway.

It sounds like a challenge, why dont you try having the tank set up with no fish in first of all, and 3 or 4 thermometers placed at different points around the tank, and check that they all read the same temp, before adding some fish later.

regards

geoff
 
Insulating the bottom, back, and sides would help alot.
 
beviking said:
Insulating the bottom, back, and sides would help alot.
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good advice..........I have two tanks in my unfinished basement and I now have over 7 watts/per gallon. The basement is not warm close to the 50's when its bellow zero out. These tanks are fine and the temp has not gone bellow 78........I also use Ebo's these made a big difference too.
 
N8DOGG said:
good advice..........I have two tanks in my unfinished basement and I now have over 7 watts/per gallon. The basement is not warm close to the 50's when its bellow zero out. These tanks are fine and the temp has not gone bellow 78........I also use Ebo's these made a big difference too.
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Have you ever thought of just doing a Native fish/cool water tank? A tank with pumpkinseeds would be cool.
pumpkin_seed.jpg
 
I had given thought to the cooler water fish but, when the summer hit, the tank waters will need to then be chilled.
So n8, you are running 7wpg, and I am going to be at 20g Tall so would 2 75w heaters be more benificial than 1 150w heater?
And about the insulation, how could that be done in a manner that would look somewhat asthetically pleasing? I know I could put regular fiberglass insulation boards on the sides and back, but wouldn't I lose a lot of heat out the top of tank? Or are you suggesting insulating the sides and back AND use multiple heaters?

What I may do is keep my breeding pair of Convicts that currently house this tank which is currently in my office. I will be using the fry as feeders for my other tanks which are indoors at my house.

If I use an Aquaclear 500 a 200W heater and a 150W heater, all of which I already own and are spares, cut to fit some insulation boards, spray paint the backs of them black (for background purposes) and silicone them to the back and sides does this seem like a safe way to go?
 
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