# can you keep aquarium in garage?



## Rajan (Apr 21, 2010)

i want to set up a 180g aquarium in my garage but its really cold. If i have enough heaters to heat the tank can I keep the tank in there or is the tempeture going to fluctuate up and down and cause the death of my fish.


----------



## Rajan (Apr 21, 2010)

the garage is as cold as outside right now.


----------



## beN (Apr 21, 2010)

hmm.. good question rajan..

id say its probably not a good idea..but then again i have a 180G in my warehouse . the temp has dropped to 77 but nothing super cold.

im sure there is other members on here though that have tanks in the garage. it wont be long until someone post's something.


----------



## pieces71 (Apr 21, 2010)

insulate your garage..


----------



## jkam (Apr 21, 2010)

I've seen some peoples tanks in their garage. I can see the water steaming though...


----------



## Rajan (Apr 21, 2010)

hhmmmmm i was told as long as you got a couple of 250watt heaters it should be fine.


----------



## pieces71 (Apr 21, 2010)

Rajan said:


> hhmmmmm i was told as long as you got a couple of 250watt heaters it should be fine.


and during this time of the year you need jacket to veiw your tank and your visitors as well..


----------



## catgoldfish (Apr 21, 2010)

I was gonna do the same thing. But then I asked myself I would never get to enjoy watching them. It won't be a problem though. My friend has a whole bunch of tanks in his garage and it's not insulated. Only thing is in the summer it gets very hot. The cold isn't so much a problem the heat is. If your garage doesn't get direct sunlight during the day you should be ok. Otherwise it's like a sauna in there during the hot days. You may want to get a chiller.


----------



## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

Yeah, insulating the garage would be the first step. Alot of newer garage walls are likely already insulated, however the big garage door could be easily insulated and would help alot. It's a pretty simple thing to add heat from heaters but where you might find issue is the summer heat. I swear my garage gets to 35 to 40C in the summer so you would need to either find a way to cool it with ventilation or perhaps chillers which can get pricey. I never park in my garage anyways so I've always thought about converting it into a gym/man cave. Ah, one can only dream....


----------



## hondas3000 (Apr 22, 2010)

pieces71 said:


> and during this time of the year you need jacket to veiw your tank and your visitors as well..


I did this everyday when viewing or feeding and I have to put on warm pant as well .

Since it is in the garage and you don't want to have open tank view all the time since no one is around to look at; therefore, you can just insulate around tank to keep the temp inside to escape that way it will be cheap on your electric bill. You just have to take down the insulation for the front view when you need to view. I have a drip system for water change so in summer I get constant cold water drip so there won't be a problem with high temp for me but if you run canister filter then you might get a problem with it.


----------



## Rajan (Apr 21, 2010)

i am only going to do this for the winter until i set up my tank in the basement.


----------



## oscar (Apr 21, 2010)

i have a 50 gallon on my deck with 3 large goldfish. 25 watt heater keeps it from freezing over.


----------



## darb (Apr 21, 2010)

you could keep a tropical tank outside at minus 40, if you threw enough watts at it.

I would guess that you will need more than a couple of 250s at these temperatures though. Try this calc for a better idea about required wattage:

Aquarium Heater Calculator


----------



## Rajan (Apr 21, 2010)

thats ok I'm just going to sell the 180g cause I couldn't put into my basement and I don't really want to go out into the frezzing cold garge to look at my fish but thanks everyone for the response. Just for the record I did set it up in the garage with 2 big fish and they were fine but i had to put three 250watt heaters and still the water was kind of cold.


----------



## fraggalrock (Apr 21, 2010)

I have two cherry shrimp tanks in my garage both with two heaters just in case one stops working.My garage is covered and they do great
Sherry


----------

