Garage Tanks?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

chinoanoah

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Feb 1, 2007
Messages
263
Location
Tampa
I am getting my old Oscar (+ a few new friends he acquired) back from a buddy of mine but my parents don't want the tank in the house. So I thought I would put it in the garage. It's a 55 gallon.

Any Potential problems? I am living in the East Bay Area of California, so the outside temp can reach 110F. However the garage won't be that hot, and I'd expect the tank water to be much much lower.... However I am expected a lot of evaporation.

What do you guys think?
 
I couldn't see any problems except for temperature. The summer temps to hot, winder temps to cold. With a good heater I couldn't see a problem.
 
Depending on how hot your garage gets you might get some temperature swing and evaporation.
You can use a fan to help cool the surface. It will create more evaporation so you'll probably need to frequently top of the water. Keeping the lights off during hotter parts of the day will help too.
 
I had a tank in a room that always had extreme temperature swings. I'm not exactly sure why, but it got so hot in the summer. The tank would often reach a temperature of about ninety degrees. Then a friend suggested that I take on of those clip on fans and point it towards the water. It worked wonderfully! The temp dropped back into the upper seventies and remained there. The only drawback is that there is a lot of evaporation. I just kept a few gallons of treated water under the stand to top off the water every couple of days.
 
A 55 gallon is not a suitable size IMO for an oscar, let alone an oscar and friends.

Aside from that issue, I think the water has the potential to get warmer than you would expect. Our 120 gallon hits 80-81 degrees already in an air conditioned room just from having multiple tanks in there and it isn't even summer time yet. I would think the winter time would be just as difficult... I once had a 55 gallon discus tank that was next to my fireplace, and it was so drafty in the winter time that I had to use 2x 250W heaters just to keep the water temp up where it needed to be.
 
You may also consider the placement of the tank. Most garage floors are slightly graded or sloped, even if you can't see it with the naked eye. You will want to take that into account so you don't have uneven stress on your tank.
I like the fan idea. I would think the garage can and will get very hot, certainly limit lights on during hot times as this will add to the heat. Also perhaps you can choose fish that prefer very warm temps. You can use a heater in the winter to keep it consistent.

Another suggestion is to put some insulation around the tank itself. Many people do this...use self adhesive velcro to attach foam isulation panels to the outside of the tank. You can use them on three sides and leave the front open for viewing and if you need it you can do the fourth one for the front but take it off whenever you don't need it. This would help to keep the water cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. :)

Many people do this with discus tanks during power outages and just to help the heaters work more efficiently in the winter.

Hope those suggestions help you. The biggest thing is, you never know until you try. :) If you monitor everything and take steps to correct things when needed I am sure you will do great. :)
 
I used to know a fella in the Orlando, Fl area that had one of the most amazing collections of adult central american cichlids in his garage. Loads of big tanks lining the walls about 3 tiers on each wall. He had big outward facing greenhouse type fans on two walls. I used to go there in the summer and the garage would be much cooler than you'd expect. Bill
 
Back
Top Bottom