# Can you keep an Aquarium in your garage?



## blueMegaman (Jan 6, 2016)

Can you keep an Aquarium in your garage? 

If so, are there ways to cool it during summer? 

Has anyone ever heard on this? 

Thanks.


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## zerodameaon (Dec 2, 2014)

Yes you can if you can keep the temp of the tank somewhat stable. Either put more insulation in your garage or run a heater in the winter, or AC in the summer.


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## blueMegaman (Jan 6, 2016)

zerodameaon said:


> Yes you can if you can keep the temp of the tank somewhat stable. Either put more insulation in your garage or run a heater in the winter, or AC in the summer.



Running a heater is no problem. It does not even get cold enough to even snow in my part of the country however running an AC for a aquarium might be more complicated. 

If I keep the water a little low and have my hang on back filter act like a water fall with maybe a fan blowing air over the water fall, could this be used to cool the tank? 

I don't know how in the world people can keep goldfish in a pond when they are cold water fish. I would be interesting in keeping tropical fish or maybe cichilds in the tank however I am not sure how to address the heat issue during the summer. 

Does the water in the tank normally match that of the air around it or is there some kind of cooling effect with evaporation,etc..? 

What do you think of the waterfall/fan idea?

Thanks.


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## The Big Buddha (Jul 30, 2012)

Some more information might help. Where you live, exactly what the temperature ranges are in the garage.


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## blueMegaman (Jan 6, 2016)

The Big Buddha said:


> Some more information might help. Where you live, exactly what the temperature ranges are in the garage.


Fl, I would say in the summer time maybe in the 90's 

Do you have a aquarium in your garage? 

Thanks


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## Ukelay1 (Dec 22, 2015)

blueMegaman said:


> Running a heater is no problem. It does not even get cold enough to even snow in my part of the country however running an AC for a aquarium might be more complicated.
> 
> If I keep the water a little low and have my hang on back filter act like a water fall with maybe a fan blowing air over the water fall, could this be used to cool the tank?
> 
> ...


I know you can purchase chillers but there not cheap and I have heard of people using small mounted fans on top of there tank, but otherwise I don't know any other way of reducing the tank temp other than reducing the room temp

Bump:


blueMegaman said:


> Running a heater is no problem. It does not even get cold enough to even snow in my part of the country however running an AC for a aquarium might be more complicated.
> 
> If I keep the water a little low and have my hang on back filter act like a water fall with maybe a fan blowing air over the water fall, could this be used to cool the tank?
> 
> ...


I know you can purchase chillers but there not cheap and I have heard of people using small mounted fans on top of there tank, but otherwise I don't know any other way of reducing the tank temp other than reducing the room temp


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## The Big Buddha (Jul 30, 2012)

blueMegaman said:


> Fl, I would say in the summer time maybe in the 90's
> 
> Do you have a aquarium in your garage?
> 
> Thanks


I live in Canada, so no I don't do it all year round.
But yes, I did keep a 125g in there from April until October with no issues and I have also kept fish in a large kids pool as well in the garage. My garage can hit over 90 but not continually. Larger bodies of water will take longer to heat up and not be affected as quickly as smaller tanks. 
That is why I was asking for more details. If your garage sits at 90 24/7 I think you will need a chiller as I don't think fans will cut it. I ran the 125 with no top and tons of surface agitation, temps were fine but tons of evaporation and humidity in the garage.


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

Summer heat can indeed build up, though. 
If it is 90* every day, and poor circulation in the garage, plus the heat from pumps and lights, the tank could very easily overheat in the summer without a chiller. 
A large tank will take longer to initially warm up, but then it will also take a long time to cool off. 
Perhaps it might not cool off overnight, and will start the next day a few degrees warmer than the day before. Then a few degrees warmer the next day....


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

No, I can't keep a tank in the garage with any practical cooling or heating. But then it depends a great deal on the garage and how the weather may change in your area. My garage temperature exceeds 140 some summers and goes as low as 32 in some winters. That makes it totally out for my thinking as I could built a stand alone fishroom for less. 
Depending where you live in Florida, the temperature is likely to do much the same swings at times. The major problem is that what you are prepared for this year may not turn out to be the same. Radical weather changes are something we will have to learn to deal with over time.


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## theatermusic87 (Jun 22, 2014)

If your really serious about it you could do a ground loop cooling/heading system, but it's more than likely not practical

But the basic gist is you bury a very long length of pipe in the ground, and run water through it hooked up to the tank. You can also run it through a pond with stable temperature.. Basically a minature geo thermal setup, but it can be fairly extensive, but it is another option

Bump: If your really serious about it you could do a ground loop cooling/heading system, but it's more than likely not practical

But the basic gist is you bury a very long length of pipe in the ground, and run water through it hooked up to the tank. You can also run it through a pond with stable temperature.. Basically a minature geo thermal setup, but it can be fairly extensive, but it is another option


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## PhysicsDude55 (Oct 24, 2011)

There's quite a few "monster tank" setups in garages and exterior buildings.

A fan blowing over the water's surface with some agitation will cool the water quite a bit, what size fan and how much surface agitation depends on the setup. My tank has relatively little surface agitation, is 7 feet long, and I put (2) 120mm fans on either side of the hood to blow on the water, and it cools down my tank about 5 degrees, it would probably do more like 10 degrees on a smaller tank with more surface agitation (like a HOB), and you could get upwards of 20-30 degrees with a larger fan on some type of small fountain. Obviously the more cooling you get, the more water evaporates, so you'll have to constantly top off the water.

Heating is the expensive part. Heating a 50 gallons of water 20+ degrees gets quite expensive.

For what its worth, Acrylic tanks insulate better than glass ones, and more cube shaped tanks insulate better than long or tall skinny ones.


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

A fellow fish keeper here in Davenport, IA has between 26-30 tanks in his 2 car garage. He breeds many different type of fish. Summers have the tanks getting a little warm (80 maybe).
For winters there is a heater in the garage. He is running all air driven sponge filters for the tanks and the filters are connect to a single air pump. That pump is on a battery backup.


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## flight50 (Apr 17, 2012)

It really depends on where you live, but in a nutshell yes. You just have to prep properly for it. I am in Dallas, Ft.Worth and although it gets hot here, I keep them in my garage. You can check out the link in my signature for my project. I currently have a 125g growout and a 29g setup that house a few fish. Along with that, I have (3) out of my (8) 40g breeders in the works. Two of those three are flooded and the third is still in its dry start stage. Neither of my 40g tanks house fish like the 125g and the 29g. I will say that my 29g struggled last winter to hold 70 degrees although the (2) 150w heaters were set to 77. In the summer, I do have two small fans that does help. Evaporative cooling is not to be overlooked. My 29g is around 80-83 in the hottest months even though it gets to 100-102 in there on occasions. I installed a thermometer so I monitor it regularly to know my conditions. Luckily the hot months are pretty much July and August here. This past fall made it a full year of me testing out the seasons to see if my garage can house the project. I got my answer so my project will continue.

To add to that, my garage was prepped a bit. My garage door has batte insulation and the ceiling has batte. In addition to that, I have an exhaust fan. Once I add an intake, temps will decrease a tad more. Sometime in the future though, I will construct a keezer. It's basically a deep freezer guys build for kegs. There are diy chillers people make from small refrigerators but I need it on a larger scale so a keezer fits me better. Chillers are expensive and you can only connect one tank per chiller.


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## sohankpatel (Jul 10, 2015)

I dont think anyone mentioned a cool method to build a chiller for a tank. 
1. Find a mini-fridge
2. Drill 2 holes in the side of the mini-fridge
3. Find 50-100 feet of tubing
4. Put each end of the tubing through each hole
5. Seal the tubing in place with something like Great Stuff
6. Use a ball valve and a pump to pump water through the fridge and return the cooled water to the tank, remember: the slower the flow, the colder the water will get. You can get creative and use a temperature probe to shut off the pump when the tank gets to a certain temperature. This is a nice way to keep the tank cool in the summer, you don't need a good mini fridge, one that can just get cold works fine.


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## blueMegaman (Jan 6, 2016)

PhysicsDude55 said:


> There's quite a few "monster tank" setups in garages and exterior buildings.
> 
> A fan blowing over the water's surface with some agitation will cool the water quite a bit, what size fan and how much surface agitation depends on the setup. My tank has relatively little surface agitation, is 7 feet long, and I put (2) 120mm fans on either side of the hood to blow on the water, and it cools down my tank about 5 degrees, it would probably do more like 10 degrees on a smaller tank with more surface agitation (like a HOB), and you could get upwards of 20-30 degrees with a larger fan on some type of small fountain. Obviously the more cooling you get, the more water evaporates, so you'll have to constantly top off the water.
> 
> ...


So it sound like with a FAN/surface agitation, I might be able to get the temp down to 80 degrees.


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

Your fish are not going to die because it is a little hot. In summer 3 digit temps are common here, and I never saw it kill a single fish yet.
winters are the killers. Have lost almost complete ponds in winter time when it can suddenly be less than 40 degrees in the mornings.

If you want to go the fan route, make sure to get a dehumidifier....
It cools because of evaporation, that water in the air has to go somewhere, unless you like your garage rusted and moldy.


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## PlantedDiscusTank (Oct 27, 2014)

There was guy here locally who converted his garage to rows and rows of tanks and sold fish out of it. The garage was insulated and he had a furnace for cold months. I believe he had a large window AC for hot summer days, But because his garage was insulated, it didn't heat up like mine does in the summer. Mine is like a oven when the sun hits the shingles.


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## shrimpNewbie (May 6, 2011)

Using a thermostat controller with a heater and a fan aimed at the surface of the water is a very good solution to this. You likely won't need a chiller for tropical fish if your garage gets up to 90 to 95 during summer

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk


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## blueMegaman (Jan 6, 2016)

shrimpNewbie said:


> Using a thermostat controller with a heater and a fan aimed at the surface of the water is a very good solution to this. You likely won't need a chiller for tropical fish if your garage gets up to 90 to 95 during summer
> 
> Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk


I hope a fan can work. I think those chillers are like buying an air conditioner.


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## shrimpNewbie (May 6, 2011)

blueMegaman said:


> I hope a fan can work. I think those chillers are like buying an air conditioner.


Chillers are not necessary at those temps to bring it down less than 15 degrees bellow ambient temps. I'd be worried if it went over 105 in the garage but even then a couple computer fans on one of the sides of the tanks aiming at the surface can handle it. Another option is a tall trickle tower sump, they have a tendency to cool down tanks

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk


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