Running a tank in the garage. What do I need to worry about?

Daniel@R2R

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I'm thinking about setting up a frag tank in the new house in my garage. I live in Southern California, so weather is pretty nice most of the year, but it does get hot in the summer and a little cold in the dead of winter. The garage is not a finished garage, so insulation isn't great.

How many of you run tanks in your garage?
What are the things I'll need to be sure and think about?
 

blaxsun

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Aside from possibly needing to run a chiller, the only thing I'd consider is whether the frag tank will be sharing the garage with any non-electric vehicles (probably a no-go). Depending on exactly how cold it gets in the winter (it can get to -40°F here) you may need to look at some kind of ambient heating system.
 

ghostmantank

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I'm thinking about setting up a frag tank in the new house in my garage. I live in Southern California, so weather is pretty nice most of the year, but it does get hot in the summer and a little cold in the dead of winter. The garage is not a finished garage, so insulation isn't great.

How many of you run tanks in your garage?
What are the things I'll need to be sure and think about?
I don't myself but my neighbor does (Phoenix AZ) he is the one that got me in the hobby. I know he had issues with mice in the spring getting to the power cords and some even crawled in his sump. He just has a small tank out there for frags and as a hospital tank. The other issue he had is the water chiller went out in the middle of july and the tank temp got all the way up to 104 F so that cause some problems. So now the way he has it set up is he build a wood stand that is mounted and sealed to the wall and then keeps all the cords inside the stand with a locking door also inside the stand is the sump. He put a back up chiller with a fail safe switch just incase. For the winter he has just a normal heater in there but with the sump being incased in the stand it makes it easy to keep cool. The other problem he has was dust so he ended up building an 18 inch tall hood for it as well to keep dust out. Hope this helps.
 

MichaelReefer

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I'm thinking about setting up a frag tank in the new house in my garage. I live in Southern California, so weather is pretty nice most of the year, but it does get hot in the summer and a little cold in the dead of winter. The garage is not a finished garage, so insulation isn't great.

How many of you run tanks in your garage?
What are the things I'll need to be sure and think about?

Wish I could run a frag tank in the garage, I'm in the Sacramento Valley though- Summers can be over 100 every day so my garage is like 120 haha. Plus the woman already complains about the size of my 525XL lol.
 

Hurricane Aquatics

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Gas fumes from car, weedeater, lawn mower, etc.

Carbon monoxide from car, if one is in garage.

None insulated, will pesticides make it in that could be sprayed outside?

Airborne dust or other particles from outside.

Those would be my main concern on a non-insulated garage. Now if it isn't climate controlled, that's a whole other host of issues. I'm assuming it's not climate controlled as you said it wasn't finished.
 

snorklr

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took a 1/4 hp JBJ chiller and a 300w heater to keep a 40 in a semi insulated garage ...then realized it was either too hot or cold to do anything with the tank that was the least bit enjoyable...so a foot of insulation blown in the attic and a 25000 btu a/c unit installed through the wall...now the chiller rarely runs...also a 4000w electric space heater...so needless to say normal chiller and heater recomendations are to raise/ lower tank temps a couple degrees, not 50 in winter and 30 in summer...especially when you park your 230 degree engine next to it....
 

210 Reef Tank

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I'm thinking about setting up a frag tank in the new house in my garage. I live in Southern California, so weather is pretty nice most of the year, but it does get hot in the summer and a little cold in the dead of winter. The garage is not a finished garage, so insulation isn't great.

How many of you run tanks in your garage?
What are the things I'll need to be sure and think about?
You will need a chiller mounted outside of the garage wall so when it's running it doesnt add more heat to the garage. Secondly if you have windows you can also add a window AC unit. I have done both for my 210 gallon reef tank that is in my garage. I live in Wisconsin so cold winters and hot humid summers is what I deal with w my mancave garage tank. I also have a Apex system that monitors all the vitals so I know at all times the tank temp, room temp and what is running and when. You may want to consider insulating to some degree your walls and ceiling to help your success rate. Hope this helps.
 

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2tanker

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I don't myself but my neighbor does (Phoenix AZ) he is the one that got me in the hobby. I know he had issues with mice in the spring getting to the power cords and some even crawled in his sump. He just has a small tank out there for frags and as a hospital tank. The other issue he had is the water chiller went out in the middle of july and the tank temp got all the way up to 104 F so that cause some problems. So now the way he has it set up is he build a wood stand that is mounted and sealed to the wall and then keeps all the cords inside the stand with a locking door also inside the stand is the sump. He put a back up chiller with a fail safe switch just incase. For the winter he has just a normal heater in there but with the sump being incased in the stand it makes it easy to keep cool. The other problem he has was dust so he ended up building an 18 inch tall hood for it as well to keep dust out. Hope this helps.
I was thinking to do the same in Phoenix. Curious where your buddy is in town and what his setup is, want some ideas. Lol
 

bevo5

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I was toying with cutting a hole in my wall and mounting the tank so the business end was all in the attached garage. Some issues that people brought up - besides the temperature control, which is a real issue - was that the salt would start being a problem on whatever was in there. I have HVAC and water heater and everything back there, lots of exposed pipes - I just figured I wouldn't add that much salt air to the mix. But for what it's worth - I was looking at a 300-500g system.
 

lcardiel01

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I'm thinking about setting up a frag tank in the new house in my garage. I live in Southern California, so weather is pretty nice most of the year, but it does get hot in the summer and a little cold in the dead of winter. The garage is not a finished garage, so insulation isn't great.

How many of you run tanks in your garage?
What are the things I'll need to be sure and think about?

I started to run one in the living room and I moved to the garage, then it became 3 but finally I kept only one, for a 40~50g I installed a 1/4 chiller and a 300W heater, a chaeto reactor and rest of the stuff I'm also from south of California and during Hot weather chiller was running very often but for few minutes, now that it's getting cold the heaters have moved up to 71°F and added a 75w extra heater, I've s not insulated garage, mantainance it's every other week 25% on water changes, and manual cleanup some algae that eventually come out, there are more nutrients in the water due to dust and insects, so mantainance is really needed, using MP40,M2, 2 360WE kessil, dcpump skimmer the average cost it's around 20 dlls per month and in hot weather around 24dll.
 

DK450reef

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I'm thinking about setting up a frag tank in the new house in my garage. I live in Southern California, so weather is pretty nice most of the year, but it does get hot in the summer and a little cold in the dead of winter. The garage is not a finished garage, so insulation isn't great.

How many of you run tanks in your garage?
What are the things I'll need to be sure and think about?
I have my tank and sump in the garage. I have no issues what so ever. I do have one car in the other bay but only drive that occasionally. I love having in the garage. No worries about spills leaks noise messes .
 

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Lost in the Sauce

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I'm thinking about setting up a frag tank in the new house in my garage. I live in Southern California, so weather is pretty nice most of the year, but it does get hot in the summer and a little cold in the dead of winter. The garage is not a finished garage, so insulation isn't great.

How many of you run tanks in your garage?
What are the things I'll need to be sure and think about?
Socal resident. Even after blowing in are 30 to the garage walls and ceiling, 90° in the summer is not uncommon and without running a heater at night, it'll get to 60's.
 

ShakerBreaker

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Temperature fluctuations will be a big problem, not something you can’t overcome, but definitely something you should address.

I’ve had a tank in a similar situation. Everything was great until we had a very uncommon temperature drop to 18 degrees, very uncommon where I live and a 4 day power outage at the same time. In an insulated house, you can get by with battery backups .. but in the garage it went poorly for me. I would not recommend it.
 

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