# Anyone have an outdoor fish tank? Expertise needed.



## jplove25 (Apr 6, 2008)

I would like to put a fish tank on my back porch but i'm concerned about keeping the water temperatures stable. My back porch faces North so it does not get direct sunlight. I'm concerned about the 95+ degree heat we get in Central Florida through out the summer. How would i keep the tank around 80 degrees? 

Our winters are not very cold but when the temperatures do drop to 32 and below are the standard tank heaters strong enough to keep the water temperatues at 80 degrees?

Any expertise is appreciated.


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

I think that keeping it cool would be next to impossible. A chiller would be necessary at those temps.

It would take several heaters to keep a tank warm at those temps in the winter, too.


Further, smaller tanks would fluctuate much faster than larger tanks.


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## msjinkzd (May 12, 2007)

I keep stock tubs outside spring through fall. I cannot overwinter them here though because of the temps. I find that if they are quite shaded, they don't get above 82 in the summer (even when temps are quite warm). Of course, I am in PA not FL.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

I kept a 29G outside for a summer. Keep it out of sunlight, completely. It did get into the 90s and 100s a few times that summer. Only the hillstream loach died. Everybody else was fine.


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## xmas_one (Feb 5, 2010)

If you have a big enough tank in the shade, it shouldn't get anywhere near ambient temp, unless its also staying hot in the evenings. It'll get up near 100 during the days here and my above ground 180 gallon pond will just get up to the mid 80's maximum. This is during the summer when its hitting high 60's at night.


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## warhead_71 (Mar 7, 2011)

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/Aquarium-chillers/

Also... you 'could' use a Geothermal heat exchange to regulate water temperature. The temperature below ground in Florida is usually around 65deg-70deg. So simply dig a 2-3ft pit, coil some copper tubing in it with the ends sticking out, bury it, then pump your tank water through it.


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## Solid (Jul 19, 2009)

Another thing you can do is have lots of aeration. When looking into ponds down here in South Florida many people recommended a water feature or fountain because the spraying water helps regulate the temperature by evaporative cooling. So maybe use HOB filters or have your filter output spray above the water. As large tank as possible also helps alot.


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## jplove25 (Apr 6, 2008)

Thanks for the tips guys. I appreciate it.


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## Safez (Mar 4, 2011)

That geothermal heat exchanger is golden... I am going to try this in Australia.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

Yeah, that heat exchanger is a great idea. You wouldn't want too much aeration because degassing CO2 would be an issue outside as well. I'm assuming you'd want some plants here. Even in the shade you'll still get 200 or so PAR of light.


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## BonesCJ (Jan 13, 2003)

The issue with aeration is that hot water holds less O2 than cooler water neccesitating keeping more O2 going into the water.


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## Olskule (Jan 28, 2010)

When I lived in Fort Pierce, I was thrust into tough times which put me in a solid-wall pop-up camper. Still wanting to keep fish, I kept several tanks outside, under an canvas awning, and even built a few myself. I had one 55gal. with a few native _fundulas, and the rest were_ 10 to 29gal with standard systems. A few things I can tell you are that lemon tetras do NOT do well at lower temps (all died in a cold-snap), and rosey barbs get FANTASTIC color if the water is very green with algea. In winter, I wrapped them all together with plastic and trusted the heaters in each tank (some double heaters) to keep the covered mass warm enough. It seemed to be sufficient, except for the poor little lemon tetras


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

The typical heating for an indoor tank is enough to raise the temperature roughly 10 degrees, from about 68 or so to the upper 70s. This is a heater rated at 5 watts per gallon of tank size. Indoors is a regulated environment. Stable temperature, and no wind chill factor. Some brands of heaters are not even capable of this much, and none will raise the temperature 40 degrees (from the 30s into the 70s) when they are used at 5 watts per gallon.


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## nalu86 (Oct 19, 2010)

warhead_71 said:


> http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/Aquarium-chillers/
> 
> Also... you 'could' use a Geothermal heat exchange to regulate water temperature. The temperature below ground in Florida is usually around 65deg-70deg. So simply dig a 2-3ft pit, coil some copper tubing in it with the ends sticking out, bury it, then pump your tank water through it.


You can't use copper tubing, your fish will die from copper poisoning, use pvc or nylon tubing.


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## farmhand (Jun 25, 2009)

warhead_71 said:


> ...use a Geothermal heat exchange to regulate water temperature. The temperature below ground in Florida is usually around 65deg-70deg. So simply dig a 2-3ft pit, coil some copper tubing in it with the ends sticking out, bury it, then pump your tank water through it.


Generally speaking, at what depth is soil a constant temperature year round?


nalu86 said:


> You can't use copper tubing, your fish will die from copper poisoning, use pvc or nylon tubing.


What material would have the greatest conductive value?


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

pvc or nylon would be cheaper than cooper or other metals too. 
Copper is seriously expensive these days. 
You can get 1/2"-3/4" pond tubings at the hardware store. They won't crimp on you and clog the filter.


There's nothing wrong with copper btw. You house pipes are copper  It's only a problem when it corrodes.


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## nalu86 (Oct 19, 2010)

mistergreen said:


> pvc or nylon would be cheaper than cooper or other metals too.
> Copper is seriously expensive these days.
> You can get 1/2"-3/4" pond tubings at the hardware store. They won't crimp on you and clog the filter.
> 
> ...


And when does it corrode... When it gets wet  and what is wet... water... and water that is slightly acid, will make corrosion in the pipes. 

Yes, they use coper pipes for water, but the lines are always under high pressure and constant renewing of water.

I would never use copper in the tank, I work with copper every day, and I can tell you corroded copper is crap!

Just use pond tubing, it will work fine.

Actually I wonder if this would work fine, The lines are warm and the ground is cold, but after a while, the lines give a constant heat, wouldn't it heat up the ground? ...


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## farmhand (Jun 25, 2009)

nalu86 said:


> Actually I wonder if this would work fine, The lines are warm and the ground is cold, but after a while, the lines give a constant heat, wouldn't it heat up the ground? ...


Yes it would work. The question would be what length of pipe/time does it take to lower the water to a constant temperature? One would need enough mass to overwhelm the water temperature with ground mass. Don't know what that might be.
This interest me because I would like to have a large tank in my garage and keep the temperature fairly even.


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## Granny (Feb 23, 2011)

farmhand said:


> Generally speaking, at what depth is soil a constant temperature year round?


Your actual depth depends on your frost line.

The ground where you find your average mean temperature is *below* your frost line. In Indiana the 2-1/2 to 3ft depth would be about right for that construction. The entire construction would have to be below the frost line. I'm sure there is coordinating info for warm areas where it is unlikely to frost/freeze. Hot areas have average mean temps, also.

http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/usclimate/tmp.state.19712000.climo


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## Riiz (Apr 30, 2008)

Aluminum tubing is another option, its safe for aquarium inhabitants, its used in aquarium chillers also. Plus its transfer energy really well too, not as great as Copper, but many many times better than plastic.


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## nalu86 (Oct 19, 2010)

Riiz said:


> Aluminum tubing is another option, its safe for aquarium inhabitants, its used in aquarium chillers also. Plus its transfer energy really well too, not as great as Copper, but many many times better than plastic.


I read that Aluminum in long run isn't good for acidic water, it didn't say anything about alkaline water.


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## Safez (Mar 4, 2011)

aluminium will eventually passivate. so acidity or alkalinity is a bit of a moot point.


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## SeaSlug182 (Apr 1, 2011)

granted, the pvc or nylon hoses wont corrode but you would need to significantly increase the ammount of hose you would have to bury in the ground because they have nowhere near the conductive properties of copper or aluminum


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