have been thinking about an indoor pond for a long time, however dont really have much space for one without screwing up my house.... I have a two car garage with wide open space on the left side , probably have at least a good 6 foot wide by 12 foot long area. The garage is a finished room but has no heat etc. It can get very cold in the winter(avg temp for winter 30 degrees F but can get down to 0). Is this a possible project with out going broke?? What would i have to do to make this work?
garage indoor pond?
- Thread starter yolkhead
- Start date
yeah the project should not be to hard if you take a leaf out of koi keepers and use gas heating systems and when building the pond use a double layer of house insulation and make a cover and do your best to make it retain heat and you should be able to heat it for very little depending on gas prices .
if this does happen take loads of pics and keep us updated .
if this does happen take loads of pics and keep us updated .
Just found a plastics manufacturing company here that makes tanks and stuff. Custom and standard sizes. They make insulated tanks for potable water. £370 for a 1000 UK Gal (1200 US). There must be something similar on yourside of the pond.
thanks for the info i will be doing more research. One other question i did have is during the summer it might get hot in there at times .. usually doesnt since my bedroom is right above it and the cold air sinks down into the garage staying cool except for really hot days.would i also need a chiller ?? I plan on keeping my rtc in this pond.
Not only the pond would need to be heated in the winter, but you also have to concider what the cold will do to the type of filter you have?
I have seen topics on the forum where guys show how they keep their above ground ponds heated in the winter.
It takes a bit of work, and you have to learn how to build the right stuff to make it work but it can be done.
However many other people with indoor ponds in unheated rooms in the winter will find a way to get a smaller pond or a large tank set up for the fish to spend the winter inside the house.
If you do try to make a indoor pond in your garage here is an idea for you:
"Wheels"
I have never seen anyone build an indoor pond that had wheels under it so it could be moved around.
But a pond thats in a garage would really be nice to have wheels on it so it could be moved around to make room for different projects and working on the car.
I have seen topics on the forum where guys show how they keep their above ground ponds heated in the winter.
It takes a bit of work, and you have to learn how to build the right stuff to make it work but it can be done.
However many other people with indoor ponds in unheated rooms in the winter will find a way to get a smaller pond or a large tank set up for the fish to spend the winter inside the house.
If you do try to make a indoor pond in your garage here is an idea for you:
"Wheels"
I have never seen anyone build an indoor pond that had wheels under it so it could be moved around.
But a pond thats in a garage would really be nice to have wheels on it so it could be moved around to make room for different projects and working on the car.
Or, switch to an "In-tank" type filter system during the time when the temps drop to the point where ice could form in water lines.
Fish tend to slow down, stop eating when it's cold anyway.
so with luck there will not be much to filter .
But if you have an out of pond type filter then you got to factor into the design that the colder air of the shop outside the pond will effect the temp of the water.
Now I have seen a few topics on this forum where above ground ponds were left outside in the winter in areas of the USA that get several feet of snow.
This means that no matter how cold it gets for most of us you can cover a pond up well enough to make heating it work.
What state do you live in?
Fish tend to slow down, stop eating when it's cold anyway.
so with luck there will not be much to filter .
But if you have an out of pond type filter then you got to factor into the design that the colder air of the shop outside the pond will effect the temp of the water.
Now I have seen a few topics on this forum where above ground ponds were left outside in the winter in areas of the USA that get several feet of snow.
This means that no matter how cold it gets for most of us you can cover a pond up well enough to make heating it work.
What state do you live in?
I have seen that idea posted here before when talking about heating ponds in the winter, but Im not sure about that.Kobeclone;1720937; said:
I live in the northern most section of North Dakota, USA and it gets down to about -45 to -50 below zero here in the winter.
My garage is darn cold in the morning, so cold that just to get the car started I have to make sure I plugged it in the night before.
If I were to attempt to heat my garage up warm enough to keep water from turning to ice I would need to totally reinsulate the garage top to bottom.
It would have to become as well insulated as the main house.
Even the floor would need to be redone or I would never hear the garage heater turn off.
It just seems to me that the money I would spend just to get the whole 2 car garage warm enough to not need the heat the indoor pond out there would make the attempt out of my reach $!
It just seems to me that the best, cheapest way to heat a indoor pond in a unheated room over the winter would be to cover the pond in thick blankets of insulation.
It just seems to me that if you have the pond covered up well enough that the result would be that you might not even need that big of a underwater heater to keep the pond at a nice temp for the fish...
Am I wrong about thinking this?
Im interested in this topic myself as i also have just added a new indoor pond to a unheated porch on the side of my house.
My porch is totally without any insulation at all, and has mostly single thickness glass for walls.
I had the hope to just wrap the pond in a covering of insulation during the winter with only a few underwater aqaurium heaters heating the pond's water....
i live in ohio. dont think i could ever let the pond get down to a low temp. I plan on keeping my red tailed catfish in it. Our coldest temp drops are usually in the -20s. I really dont know if the garage is well insulated or not....probably not, even though its a brand new house the garage was fully finished even has base boards lol.