Setting up Frag Tank in Basement

[DatReefGuy]

Hey all.

I'm finally getting around to setting up my frag tank in my basement (Wife won't let me keep it upstairs ). It's not a finished basement and I do have some concerns.

1st concern would be cleanliness of the air with a boiler. I noticed that I do get some soot on the insulation in the basement. Its a direct vent boiler so maybe some blow back? Not sure if this will affect anything.

2nd concern would be the temperature. Is the heater going to be taxed trying to run in a basement. I know a lot of people have DT's in their basements but are the heaters typically oversized for this?

Thank you for the help.

Dan

 

[edd59]

your first concern should be correcting the soot problem for your own health.
heaters should be sized to tank size and ambient temp, not 3 watts per gallon.

 

[DatReefGuy]

your first concern should be correcting the soot problem for your own health.
heaters should be sized to tank size and ambient temp, not 3 watts per gallon.

The boiler gets serviced once a year. It’s not a ton but the insulation is a slight black color. Assuming that’s what it is.

 

[JTP424]

Whatever heater is recommended for your tank size should be fine. Unless you let it get to below freezing or something down there. Might be valuable to get two undersized heaters. Some people do that for backup etc.

If you can't source the black stuff, might want to look into a tight lid, that might raise it's own issues too.

 

[fishywishy]

Depends on how much soot it is, if it’s a lot it can definitely cause some problems. One time my house got filled with smoke and my corals started closing because of it.

It depends how cold your basement gets but i don’t think you need an oversized heater; just choose the appropriate size for your tank. I’d also get an Inkbird controller so you don't have to worry about any potential heater failures.

 

[DatReefGuy]

Depends on how much soot it is, if it’s a lot it can definitely cause some problems. One time my house got filled with smoke and my corals started closing because of it.

It depends how cold your basement gets but i don’t think you need an oversized heater; just choose the appropriate size for your tank. I’d also get an Inkbird controller so you don't have to worry about any potential heater failures.

Usually the temp doesn’t drop below 50 degrees which is nice. I do have an inkbird for the DT and it works well.

I’ll have to check with the plumber to see what the issue is. It’s not a chimney vent so I can suspect blowback is the case.