Cold fish room considerations

[meadeam]

My unfinished basement gets down in the low 60s in the Northern Kentucky winter (I'm guessing.  I keep the upstairs around 72.)  I've never had a tank down there until this summer, and I plan on adding another quarantine tank shortly.  I'm wondering if I keep lids on the tanks as well as insulate the back and sides if that will be enough to keep a decent amount of heat in the tanks.  I'm not going to add any walls or insulation in the near future.  In this house the basement and the garage are one, and there is no good way to separate the two because of how it is laid out.  If you've kept tropical tanks in cold-ish rooms, let me know.

[Scapexghost]

If theres only 2 tanks id just use heaters

[Matt_]

Agree with tightfitting lid and back/side insulation to cut down on heat loss using a heater in the tank.  I also recommend insulating the bottom of the tank too (I used XPS with thin plywood on top for a standard Aqueon tank with a plastic bottom frame).  You loose quite a bit of heat through the bottom of an uninsulated tank (cold bridge).  You did not say what size these tanks or the room are, so it is hard to say whether heating the tank or the room makes more sense, but this is what I did when I had my tank in a basement with a similar winter temperature.  I also recommend you confirm the basement temperature in advance if these tanks are over 75 gals. because it gets expensive to run high wattage heaters continuously.

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/24/2022 at 3:32 PM, meadeam said:

My unfinished basement gets down in the low 60s in the Northern Kentucky winter (I'm guessing.  I keep the upstairs around 72.)  I've never had a tank down there until this summer, and I plan on adding another quarantine tank shortly.  I'm wondering if I keep lids on the tanks as well as insulate the back and sides if that will be enough to keep a decent amount of heat in the tanks.  I'm not going to add any walls or insulation in the near future.  In this house the basement and the garage are one, and there is no good way to separate the two because of how it is laid out.  If you've kept tropical tanks in cold-ish rooms, let me know.

What is in the tanks?  What is the target temp for the tanks? Are they bigger tanks?  Especially in winter, if you're using heaters, the important aspect to keep in mind is flow to push that heat around the tank and prevent cold spots or very hot spots near the heater.

[meadeam]

Here is the space in question.  Excuse the mess, hopefully the fish won't be offended.  As mentioned, it is a drive-in basement.  This is the short leg of an "L" shape, where you'd come in and take a left at the end of the room.  I don't park my car down there, but you can see I do bring my motorcycle in.  It doesn't come and go in the winter, so the door stays closed.  It is insulated (the garage door, not the basement) and actually isn't terribly drafty.  The furnace is to the left, and exposed ductwork runs around, providing some ambient heat.  There is one vent I can open, but most of the heat down there promptly travels upward via the stair way, which isn't so bad since that is generally where I need it.  The refrigerator and freezer work, but are not currently in use.

Tank wise, I'd put a row of 10g, or perhaps similarly sized totes as in the photo currently housing mystery snails.  The tanks would be for quarantine, a tbd breeding project (cories?  plecos?) and gender specific live bearer overflow.

My concern, and I guess I won't know until I try it, is that I'll have to be running tons of heaters 24/7 just to keep decent temps.  I'll have to try insulating a tank and seeing how efficient it is.

[CornAndCrawlers]

plenty of native fish would find 60 degrees quite comfy. 
rainbow shiners
darters
topminnows

 

[Matt_]

For two ten-gallon tanks I would use oversized heaters (like 100W), a tight-fitting lid, and insulate the bottom (if they tanks are not located on the counter) and sides of the tanks.  The insulation is the most effective if you can get all the air gaps sealed up with a product like trim tape (based on your use I recommend going for efficiency over looks).

[meadeam]

On 9/25/2022 at 10:34 AM, CornAndCrawlers said:

plenty of native fish would find 60 degrees quite comfy. 
rainbow shiners
darters
topminnows

 

I have a 29 gallon not in use that I have considered putting some North Americans in.  If I spend more time down there, it would be nice to have.  My bicycle shop is directly behind the POV of this photo, and the laundry is down there as well.  I may actually do laundry more if I have some company!

[lefty o]

lots of community fish will handle 65-68, but down to 60 it would be best to pick colder water fish.

[Chris]

I'm in central KY and it frequently gets down into the lower 60's in every house I've ever lived in here. For small tanks like yours, I'd go buy a high-quality 100W heater for each tank and call it quits. Alternatively you can just heat the room with a space heater but it'll run up your power bill quite a bit more.

If you're anything like me and you love the cooler weather, I'd hate to heat my fish room too much anyway!

[meadeam]

On 9/25/2022 at 12:22 PM, Chris said:

I'm in central KY and it frequently gets down into the lower 60's in every house I've ever lived in here. For small tanks like yours, I'd go buy a high-quality 100W heater for each tank and call it quits. Alternatively you can just heat the room with a space heater but it'll run up your power bill quite a bit more.

If you're anything like me and you love the cooler weather, I'd hate to heat my fish room too much anyway!

Yeah, definitely don't want to heat the room unless I finish and put up insulated exterior walls.   I think I will get an inexpensive energy monitor and see what it costs to maintain a single insulated 10g.  Then I'll decide how many times I want to multiply that before I'm not comfortable with the energy consumption.   Actually might be an interesting project if I start it now, I can plot the rise in cost as the outside temperature drops.

I do love the cooler weather.

 

Edited September 25, 2022 by meadeam