Any SPS tanks kept in the garage

[docwells]

As the title say, I was wondering if anyone kept their sps reef tanks in their garage? I am not talking about the in wall tanks with the sump and equipment in the garage. I am talking about the whole aquarium in the garage.

I am thinking about this for my new tank as I had some hardwood floor damage from my prior tank. It is not a big deal to get water on a concrete floor as opposed to hardwood floors. Are you running chillers? Are you venting the chiller to the outside or do you have other ventilation? I would have to add a chiller as it gets hot in my garage in the summer. Any pictures would be appreciated.

[Oldude]

I wish I could but I live in Canada

[docwells]

Oldude,
I don't see your tank liking the cold of Canada. I live on the coast in North Caolina and my winters are mild. The summers on the otherhand can get pretty hot. That is what I am wondering about and how people do and would handle this problem.

[sfsuphysics]

Yeah I completely annihilated the hardwood floors around my 135g tank from water changes, mishaps with siphon fed overflows *ugh.. no mo!* So I put my tank downstairs, not so much garage, but quasi-laundry room area (in reality close to 400sqft of room). It's kind of my junk room/laundry room/fish room right now. It's been great as far as the temperature staying way more constant, hot days don't affect downstairs very much at all, all the water that I do inevitably drip/spill from maintenence isn't an issue now on old linolium flooring that I don't care about. It's all in all perfect...

except it makes it much easier to neglect...
and it makes it not as special if I have to go downstairs to look at the tank, all the living space is on the 2nd floor.

[saltywet]

My wife knew I would flood the carpets in our new house, so she wanted the reef to be in the garage for my little sanctuary.


I had my 250 gallon in the garage for four years. I would crack my garage door open by 1" to vent moisture out the door. It does get very hot in the summer and my 1 H.P. chiller would work overtime even with the garage door fully open. My reeftank temperature never got higher than 83 degrees during the summer. That is also due to the fact I turn on the 4-400 watt halides during the evening when I get home from work to enjoy my tank. Running my halides during the evening helped keep my temperature above 79 degrees during the winter. I did keep a 300 watt titanium heater in my sump to help maintain the tempurature during the cold winter days. (27 degrees to 40 degrees outside)

Our gas furnace was also in the garage, so the PH of the tank would flucuate from 7.98 to 8.2. I would run an airline outside the garage into my skimmer to draw oxygen from outside the garage.

Alas last winter, power went out for four days and I couldn't keep the whole house above 25 degrees. We had to move to a hotel (my daughter was 10 month old at that time and she was way more precious than my reeftank) So I came back home to a big popsicle in the garage.

The only thing I am changing now is to put a big fan to pull out heat from the garage during the summer to keep my chiller from over working.

I hope this info helps.

[docwells]

Thanks for the information. I had thought of adding an attic or gable fan above the garage to see if that would help if I decide to put the tank in the garage. I might even have to put a roof vent on the garage to cool it down. My garage is insulated but not heated or cooled.

[Kiwi]

This one I kept in my shed on concrete floors, for the same reason - hardwood floors in the house. My new tank is in the lounge though

[kzoo]

I had my 240 in the garage for 2 years till I took it down, and as told above the heat in the summer was bad and winter the heater runs over time, so power to run the tank goes up. Also it sucked to sit in the garage to have look at your tank. I like mine much better in the house.

[fishdoc11]

I've seen several on here that were in the garage.....one in particular comes to mind..http://www.oregonreef.com

Chris

[Paulairduck]

I run two tanks in the garage, I do run a humidifier and I insulated the garage and the door. I also run a slave thermostat that controls a MOV on my AC and heating system, The valve opens the valve when it gets above 90 in the garage and the AC has to be on. I got a oversized unit for the house and the house was just completely remodeled head to toe, so there are many factors that I overcame and it is working so far, so no water spills on my new wood floors!!!

[Wazzel]

One of the guys here in Houston has a "in wall" that is in the garage. Runs a large chiller and has problems with temp every summer.

[Radiography14]

i wonder if the exhaust fumes from the cars effect the water at all? All that methane in the air would be your own personal global warming...lololololol