Tank in the garage in winter?

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stavs

stavs

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 11, 2004
205
1
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Allentown, PA
I am looking to put a tank in my garage and was wondering it would be ok. Here's the problem. May garage is unheated (attached to the house) and I live in the northeast USA...am I asking for trouble? There is no insulation behind the drywall, and I dont know exactly how cold it gets in the winter...its cold, but I dont have an exact temp. Anyone else have a setup like this?
 
My garage is the same way, and I went in in December and took the tempature since I was wondering the same thing; turns out it's about 49 degrees in my garage. I guess you could keep Goldfish if yours is the same as mine. Any pond fish I assume would be alright in a garage.
 
yeh use heaters lots of em. the general rule is 1watt per litre. so 4 watts a gallon. you may want to double that depending on how cold it gets.
 
You'll definatly have problems keeping the temperiture in the safe range during the winter but that can be solved with heaters. having a hood on the tank can help with heat loss as can wraping the tank in a blanket when your not actully looking at it. Larger tanks gain and loose temperiture a lot more slowly than smaller ones. In most cases fish can handle a wide temperiture range as long as the change is a slow controled one.

Might be a good excuse to finish the garage...roll insulation is simple to install and will only add to the value of your house.
 
You can do it, but electricity would be expensive.
 
A hood plus 1-2'' thick styrofoam on the sides and back of the tank (with a removeable peice for the front) will go a long way to conserving energy (the tank becomes a big ezky essentially)
 
I like the insulation on the side of the tanks idea.

I cant put roll insulation up in the walls-I'd have to take out all the drywall, which I dont really want to do. I didnt consider the filters though. I guess I could just wrap a canister with some insulation.
 
I don't think regular aquarium methods would work. What I would do is build a enclosure from floor to ceiling with wood studs, sheetrock and insulation. Install and electric space heater at the bottom, this with typical aquarium heaters should keep the tank heated. Any doors or access panels would also need to be insulated. An insulated door or panel that could be place in front of the tank when not veiwing would help retain the heat also.

You would need to install an exhaust fan on the enclosure for the summer though in case the temp got to high.

As a note, last winter I got a 120g tank and wanted to test for leaks. I placed it in my garage added water and 450watts of heaters. Temp outside was in the 20s and the water in the aquarium had a thin layer of ice on it.
 
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