saltwater natives in tha garage

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gman

Candiru
MFK Member
Dec 28, 2005
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I was thinking of setting my 200 up in my garage. The garage isnt heated and I live in northern NJ so it gets pretty cold in the winter. If i did this I want to keep some saltwater natives like a few seabass, a blackfish and a few cunners. Does anyone think this is possible or is it going to get too cold in the winter?
 
It will prolly get too cold, but you could do it. Not that many fish, maybe on Seabass or a croaker. Not too many fish, and you are gonna have a hard time finding live rock for it unless you collect it yourself.
 
It depends on how cold your gargage gets in the winter time you might have to use some supplimental heat during your coldest periods. I'd be more concerned about keeping it cool enough in the summer time fwiw.
cheers
Max
 
:iagree:
I would not worry about how cold it would get unless you start reaching into the 30's F. Have you felt how cold the water is right now outside? But in the summer you would need to think of getting a chiller to keep it cool enough for the fish.
 
when i lived in mass i had a 33 gal native salt tank it was cool for years we never let it get cold enough to freeze... even teacher today keep such tanks in the classroom
 
yeah.... it's definely possible, but i'd out it in the basement.
 
Fwiw, a lot of the species from cooler waters are quite colourfull. The only problem for most of us is that most of the species there don't like water to be much over 65f for the long term. That having been said a lot of the inverts look like they belong more in a flower garden than they do in your tank.
It would require a chiller and careful selection of fish and inverts. Anyway, do able yes, practicle depends on how much you like your native fish .
Hth
Max
 
I would suggest running a chiller/heater combo. With internal thermostats, they know what should be on when. We have one at work, and you can drop the temp of the tank down to 55 if you really wanted to with a push of a button. It is an Artica chiller, and I don't think we have a heater since the room is hotter than the temp we want. A coldwater setup would look awesome, do some research. There are some really cool native salts. I even think we have some type of tang/surgeonfish.
 
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