I have two tanks in my garage, which is insulated but not heated. One is a 90 gallon glass tank, the other is a 185 gallon fiberglass tank with three glass windows. They both have 250W stealth heaters, which are fine most of the year. During a recent cold snap they were having trouble keeping temperature, so rather than use more heaters (and power!) I decided to insulate the tanks.
I had a partial roll of "bubble-wrap" style insulation laying around (expensive stuff to buy new) so I used it along with a bunch of blue masking tape to insulate 3 sides of the 90 gallon. The AC110 was a major source of heat loss, so I used 1 1/2" foam board and siliconed it to 3 sides. The top piece of foam just sits there.
I used foam sheets to insulate the fiberglass tank, the top is made from a double-paned storefront window. I also used some pieces of leftover "bubble-wrap" insulation on the front. It doesn't look great (it'll come off when it gets warmer) but it keeps the tanks at 79 degrees when it's 40 in the garage.
Anybody else winterized their tanks?
I had a partial roll of "bubble-wrap" style insulation laying around (expensive stuff to buy new) so I used it along with a bunch of blue masking tape to insulate 3 sides of the 90 gallon. The AC110 was a major source of heat loss, so I used 1 1/2" foam board and siliconed it to 3 sides. The top piece of foam just sits there.
I used foam sheets to insulate the fiberglass tank, the top is made from a double-paned storefront window. I also used some pieces of leftover "bubble-wrap" insulation on the front. It doesn't look great (it'll come off when it gets warmer) but it keeps the tanks at 79 degrees when it's 40 in the garage.
Anybody else winterized their tanks?
