Kessil

to those who keep tanks in garages

I was wondering what kind of heater you use in the winter? I have a 50g tank & I have a 125w heater in the sump, worked great for a long long time until now, this is going to be my tank's first winter in a garage and this morning i had a big "oh my god" moment when I looked at my controller & noticed it reading 72.5 degrees :eek:

I'm going to throw a 150w heater in the sump later today and hope that it can cut it, I could go bigger but the sump isn't even tall/long enough to fit a huge heater like that so I'm thinking I need to work on weatherproofing my garage. In any case, just wanted to see what your experience was with cold nights...

Thanks.
 
I wish I can get my temp that low for the winter. I don't have heaters in all of my tanks in the garage. I would run a 200w heater given the sump, too.
 
I could go bigger but the sump isn't even tall/long enough to fit a huge heater like that...

Thanks.

You could put several smaller heaters in to get the wattage up (short term solution). If you spend much time in there you might want to heat the garage or a section of the garage. Rigid foam around the tanks, sumps and hoses helps but looks awful.

Lots depends on where you live, how long you are going to be a garage aquarist and how much you want to spend on improvements to the garage.
 
The garage is getting some improvements pretty soon, was going to work on it today but couldn't get my hands on a vehicle to bring supplies from Home Depot. No plans to heat the garage but after some improvements it should be warmer than outside and a little cooler than the rest of the house.

I already have a 150W if it doesn't cut it I'll runn 2x125W
 
Do you know how hot (or I should say cold) it actually gets in your garage?

The rule of thumb I remember is 1 watt per gallon per 5 degrees below your tank temp. Now obviously there is a bit of wiggle room since larger volumes of water will tend to hold the heat longer, and some drop in temp is ok, 72 is a bit chilly though. But for a 50g tank in a garage that's maybe 50 degrees (it has been cold, so maybe even colder?), then you'll want 300 watts (80-50 = 30, divided by 5, times 50). If it gets colder then even more. You could also make a cold frame as well.

Also are you recording the temperature data with a controller or anything? If your tank was continuing to drop and hit 72 versus being able to stay at 72 for a while. Either way prepare for a thank you gift from PG&E :)
 
150w jager did nothing, 72.5 degrees this morning.
2nd jager going in today.

I wonder how big of a gift PG&E is going to send me for 300w in heaters running constant during the AM.

I think after I get the foam I'll start covering the top of my tank with something and when I redo the plumbing I'm going to be wrapping all plumbing w/ thermal jackets like the one on my water heater.

I can seal the garage but I can't insulate it, there is an old rickety exterior door that's seen better days only 2 ft from the tank, this is going to be the first thing I fix, new frame, new trim, new seals & new solid core door. I hope that's the source of the cold air otherwise I've got a lot of work cut out on this one.

How long will my tank tolerate this? I've never ran a tank this low on temp so I don't know what the threshold is!
Also I have no idea if 2 heaters are going to work, the 150w was on overnight and it did nothing.
 
What city are you in? I'm in Castro Valley and it was 45 last night outside, 63 in the house, and 53 in the garage! BBRRR...very atypical but it is November. Glass lids really helped maintain heat and evaporation on my 120.... I think your idea of a water heater jacket is great but I think wrapping your whole tank in it at night would really help. Keeping my tank at 78 in the house probably adds $50 to my monthly winter PG&E bill.
 
Covering the tank (even with rigid foam) and wrapping the sides with rigid foam will be your biggest wins. I did thermal loss calculations for a hypothetical outdoor tank and coping with the cool temps in winter definitely showed a need for foam insulation.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
 
oh yeeeaahhh I remember seeing your thread, you did a bunch of math on that topic & posted much of it. I guess it's settled, wrap the tank up for the next few months, I'm going to have to go with some velcro so the panels are removable because it's sounding like I'm going to have to cover all sides of the tank o_O
 
Again you could build a frame around the tank so that there still is airspace, just keep it wrapped up tight. Cold frames outside are literally nothing more than plastic around some one by material, it holds heat in.

That said I'm fully expecting my PG&E bill to get beefier too, I saw the November bill (for October) and yeah my electricity usage is almost 4 times as much now as it was in June. Part of that is because I make more energy with solar panels there but also the additional time the heaters are on.
 
solar panels are awesome.

apparently I had this stuff laying around and then this happened;

DSC00268.jpg


DSC00271.jpg


all thanks to recent furniture purchases I had huge pieces of styrofoam & thick cardboard.

so far 75.5f & climbing, 275w in heaters in the sump and everything but the back is covered.
 
Well I figured since the back of the sump is completely open things would be fine but I did notice my PH was down to 8.3 when I came home from work and removed the makeshift canopy. PH has been stable at 8.4-8.5 for a little while now.

I think I'm going to keep the top off except for those really cold nights I might throw it on, I just put chaeto in the sump a week ago so it hasn't grown in yet but hopefully once it gets going it'll be able to keep PH up when tank is covered. I really want to avoid having the heaters run constantly.

Just when I was settled into "garage reefing" now I have to seriously consider moving back in the house. BUT, I still need to replace that door/frame and seal up the garage a little, hopefully I get lucky after weatherproofing.
 
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