So I am moving out of my apartment at the end of July to my friend's house, but there's not enough room inside the house to put my tanks. I am wondering if my fish will be okay if i set up the tanks in the garage. I live in Las Vegas, NV and during the summer it can get upto/greater than 115F during the day. I mainly have arowanas and peacock bass.
Aquarium in garage question
- Thread starter Chizzle
- Start date
I keep a 180g in my garage and I'm in socal. Summers not even in full swing and I have had the tank reach temps above 85F. Not too bad...but it is getting there. I don't have a heater on the tank either, just for the summer. The problem with my garage is that there is little ventilation so it gets hotter in the garage than outside. Keep in mind too that the smaller the tank the easier the temperature will fluctuate.
You could buy a cheap AC unit for the garage. How hot does it actually get in there? 115 degrees is a lot. 
You could also try the old school trick of putting a fan blowing air directly on the surface of the tank water. Should drop the water temp, but at 115 degrees I don't know how much it's going to help. You probably just want to invest in an AC unit, to protect your investment in livestock. You also don't want to be caught off guard in the middle of a heat wave trying to float ice in the tank, just not worth the risk IMO when you spend all that money and time keeping your fish healthy.
My tanks are in the garage. Tanks have gotten in the 90's. I have a few ice wands that I'll throw in or do a water change. As mentioned earlier, a fan at the surface would also help. As far as I remember with my Pbass experience, they loved the heat. I currently have Dats and Polys. You can also use a power head to agitate the surface or lower the water levels and have the filter output agitate the surface (providing you are using a canister filter).
The reef guys have trouble keeping temperatures down in their tanks because of all their metal halide lights and whatnot. Many of them run chillers on their tanks to bring the temp down. I would look into that if I were you. They are expensive, but sounds like they might be needed in your case.
