Skimmer in the Garage or Not?

[Florida Poon]

Hi All

I am in the design/research phase of my reef tank and I have a question. I am going to have my tank against a wall that goes into the garage. I have purposely planned this to have the RODI Unit in the garage with 2 tubs. One tub will be fresh top off water and the other for salt mixing / water change. I will plumb a line through the wall from the Tubs to the sump in the stand. The tubs will have an auto top off system installed.

The question I have is should I put the protein skimmer in the garage? I was thinking about it this weekend and I could run a line from the overflow down through the wall to the garage. The protein skimmer could be in the sump in the garage. I could then run the water back out of this sump through the wall into the stand where I will have the refugium.

There are some good points to this system:
1: Skimmer is in garage / noise factor
2: overflow of system will flood garage not house!
3: Auto top off is in garage

The Bad point that I worry about is heat. I live in Florida and I wonder would having the skimmer and sump in the garage increase the heat of the system too much. There is no A/C in the garage and it gets hot out there. I figured that the heat is not a problem for the auto top off system (not enough water going into system at once to make a difference) but if I put the skimmer in a sump in the garage I wonder if it would make it too hot. Is there anyone (esp in Florida or hot climate) that runs their skimmer and sump in a hot location? Is it hard to keep down heat.

I am still in planning phase and I may be over thinking it but that is what this forum is all about. I would love to get some feedback. Does this sound to complicated or am I on the right track?

Thanks

[Warnberg]

Well I live in Florida and I can tell you it's hard to keep my tank temperature down with the sump and skimmer under the tank and I even keep the temp in the house around 72 to 76 degrees (yes the electric bill is going up). The temp does go up under the tank because of the pumps so I would think that in the garage it would be worse.

JMO

[Florida Poon]

Thanks Warnberg

That is what I thought. I think I will stick to having the sump/refugium under the tank. If there is anyone who is doing something like this please feel free to let me know.

[Florida Poon]

Does anyone think that having the RODI Unit with the tubs sitting in the garage being a problem?

FloridaPoon

[thrlride]

[welcome]

I don't see a problem with that.

If my tank was on a garage wall I would plumb my entire system in there. That way you could run a huge sump and fuge. Might need a chiller at that point though.

[Florida Poon]

Thanks for the welcome. I just love this hobby and this site is great!

Since I am still in the planning phase and no water is in the tank I will continue taking advice. If it was not for heat I would do the entire system in the garage as well. I thought that the RODI would not be a problem. The skimmer I was not so sure of so I figured I would ask.

Again if anyone has there skimmer / equipment in the garage where it is hot let me know.

Thanks
Florida Poon

[WaterKeeper]

Welcome Poon,

You have a great plan and by using your head have avoided what will certainly be a major problem. The sump system in the garage will become one large heat pump during the hot summer days. Your tank will be almost impossible to keep at a safe temperature. If it was up North your garage might be insulated or at least easy to insulate. There adding a through the wall AC unit would solve the problem. Being in Florida, I think a chiller on the sump would be a better solution. I know it is an expense but I fear without one you'll be facing problems in the long run.

The RO/DI is fine and works better in warmer temperatures.