Aquarium in unheated area

[Mark...]

Just wondering if anyone ever ran a tank in an unheated area. The new house has a nice garage,, storage, and work shop below the main living areas but it is unheated. I was thinking of a 6 ft by 2ft frag tank on my old stand, but heating it would be a problem. Any thoughts?

 

[mnat]

Space heaters are an option but you are really at the mercy of the insulation and what else you want to add to your electric bill.

 

[deepblue68]

I would have a heater so you donr have temp swings.

 

[Cjk90978]

Risky in the dead of winter and summer. I've had the tank drop in temperature with a temperature of 60 in the room and heat off accidentally. There is only so much 1-2 heaters can do. Also, I have left the AC off in the summer and the tank temperature rose with the temperature in room up to 84. Thankfully nothing suffered. That's the last time I leave the AC/Heat off. I could only assume a garage would vary in temperature even more greatly. I would suggest 2 heaters and a chiller on the frag tank if your going to leave the temperature of garage up to nature and see if it can maintain the tank that way.

 

[pmarsh]

Haha I was just having similar thoughts about my garage. In the end I don't think it's worth it unless you can build walls around an area for the tank that you can insulate. Otherwise you really are going to be running up some crazy bills and also risking losing everything if during one extreme you cannot cool/heat enough.

 

[DangerDave]

@Mark... You can do it. I did in my garage for 15+ years. You need big heaters. The walls and garage doors were uninsulated at the time. Once I threw the wall up to isolate a fish room and insulated it (and new garage doors on the other side), I have the opposite problem. It's too hot. I'm going to be adding a mini split for heat/cool/humidity.

Dave

 

[Mark...]

Thanks Dave, there are two mini splits in the lower area not where I need them and everything is not insulated for any kind of flooding. I'm going to have to look closely. I wonder the cost of running the mini split versus large tank heaters.

 

[DangerDave]

I wouldn't run a mini split unless you insulate. Can you build a small room in the raised area that you could insulate? Something like 10x10 could work.

 

[Mark...]

I wouldn't run a mini split unless you insulate. Can you build a small room in the raised area that you could insulate? Something like 10x10 could work.

The raised area is the actual house. lol and I dont want to do a tank upstairs with so much room downstairs. I could isolate and insulate an area. Thats probably the way to go.

 

[Sponge]

Plus one. Isolate and insulate. Is you best option for long term safety comfort and affordability