I was wondering if it would be okay to keep a fish tank outside? I have this shack if you want to call it outside my house but it is open to the air/wind/cold. It does have a roof but no dry wall on the sides ( pic will explain it better). was thinking of getting a new tank and setting up here but not sure if it would work.
i keep a 60 gallon in my backyard.. nothing fancy just plant clippings, duckweed and some guppy/platty/molly.. i run a UV on it for 12 hours a day(timer) and a heater(24/7)..
i cover it at night with a rubber backed blanket.. other than that i do a water change on it once in a while.. thats about it... all the fish eat duckweed so once or twice a week i throw in some real food just to keep them happy... they breed like crazy.. only algae i get in the tank is some basic green algae on the rocks.. the fish take care of any hair algae that shows up..
am thinking of putting a 240 CA community tank 8*2*2 . am not worried about alge beacuse the tank won't have any direct sunlight. Am just afraid about the cold nights we sometimes get or when the temp drops which is very few days in the year but you never know. It will have two to three heater. i probably could close everything of with drywall and make it into a room but if i can keep it as is it would be best so my dad won't have a fit.
I've kept a 10'x4' acrylic fully stocked with cichlids all year here in Virginia. I insulated three sides of the tank and used a 1000 watt heater in the winter, and I never had the temps drop out of the 70s. A backup generator is a must though in the event you lose power.
If the tank is covered at night you'll lost very little if any temperature on a large volume of water. With my setup (almost 1000 gallons total in the system) the temperature has to be in the 40's before I even insulate the tank. If the outdoor temp is in the 60's, the heat from the circulation pumps and sunlight is enough on its own. I have much more trouble with heat in the summer than cold in the winter.
ive been heating my 60 gallon with a 150w heater.. its yet to dip below 75 in the tank even when its gotten to the high 30s overnight and low 60s all day.. the tank is not at all insulated durring the day..
what did you cover the tank with at night. Bed Sheet or blanket? one more thing am pretty sure the floor out side isn't perfectly level will this be a problem?
I cover it with a sandwich of two fluor light lenses (2'x4") with a sheet of egg crate in the middle. I was looking to create a dead air space while still letting sunlight in. Also, the four openings in the top of my tank are fractionally less than 2'x4', so it seemed those materials were a good solution.
An alternative would be a sheet of bubble wrap (perhaps a couple of sheets). The bubbles would provide the dead air and insulating properties.
