I’m planning out a frag system in my basement. I’d like to add ventilation in the form of a pipe with an inline fan pulling air from outside in order to prevent co2 build up. I have also considered running a line just to the skimmer. My concern is during the winter when the air coming in is very cold. Is that going to cause a major issue? One thought I had was running the cold air into the halide lights to both cool the fixture and warm the air. Is that a bad idea? Also is there a downside to running a skimmer with freezing cold air coming in?
Basement frag system question
- Thread starter Patrick.S
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- Jul 23, 2025
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- St. Louis
- What state or country do you live in
- Missouri
I’m in the same boat. I’m trying something unique (I think) to try to manage temp swings.
I ran a line to the outside plumbed into a 2.5 gal aquarium. Put the large diaphragm pump inside. 4 outputs go to skimmer, airstones in qt, etc.
I put a long coil of tubing between the outdoors and the little aquarium to try to gain or lose heat prior to the air pump. Kinda like a water dispenser on the fridge door does. Also keeping the pump sealed up in the aquarium tends to hold that heat in and propagate it out to the outputs.
Still in testing and designing mode but so far it seems promising.
I ran a line to the outside plumbed into a 2.5 gal aquarium. Put the large diaphragm pump inside. 4 outputs go to skimmer, airstones in qt, etc.
I put a long coil of tubing between the outdoors and the little aquarium to try to gain or lose heat prior to the air pump. Kinda like a water dispenser on the fridge door does. Also keeping the pump sealed up in the aquarium tends to hold that heat in and propagate it out to the outputs.
Still in testing and designing mode but so far it seems promising.
