JBeehler Posted October 13, 2023 Share Posted October 13, 2023 I am going to have 20-30 aquariums in the garage. It is attached to the house and has central heat and air ducted to it. looking for recommendations for heating them and insulating them as the garage door will be accessed all year though. how would you handle heating? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBeehler Posted October 24, 2023 Author Share Posted October 24, 2023 On 10/13/2023 at 11:09 AM, Pepere said: That depends.. What state are you in? How severe are your winters? I am in Kansas. We are going to see freezing temps this weekend. The garage ranges from 65-75 now but we haven’t ran the heat in the house yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBeehler Posted October 24, 2023 Author Share Posted October 24, 2023 On 10/24/2023 at 9:17 AM, Pepere said: Ok, so you probably have heating design temps in the 5-12 degree range depending on what county you are in…. So, every time the garage door opens a substantial amount of cold air can come in… hopefully the concrete slab has perimeter insulation. It sure is going to be a guessing game not having lived through the winter with the garage. On the plus side 20-30 tanks is going to have a LOT of thermal mass in the garage. Are you looking to have heaters in the tanks as opposed to heating the room? either ScenarioI would go with a dehumidifier.as you pull moisture out of the air you liberate a lot of heat energy from the latent heat of condensation in excess to the electricity consumed. I have an ac/dehumidifier combo unit I can run. The garage will be heated but just by central heat and air. I plan on closing some up stairs vents in o push a little more air toward the garage to keep it warmer and I am running 5w/gal of heaters on the tank and plan on buying inkbird controllers slowly overtime to double redundant the possibility of stuck on heaters Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBeehler Posted October 24, 2023 Author Share Posted October 24, 2023 On 10/24/2023 at 10:57 AM, Pepere said: If making up the difference with in tank electric heaters, I would probably do similar and additional heaters if the installed ones dont keep up. how much total gallonage are you going to keep? and I am assuming you are adding up total wattage to have sufficient circuits… more likely than not the tank heaters are going to add significant heat to the garage.. as to insulating, I would definitely want lids on all the tanks. If DIY lids, twin wall polycarbonate sheeting would add significant insulation over glass ones. you could have foam board under tank supports and on the back of the tanks. Polystyrene insulating boards give the best insulating value per dollar spent. That will work. I have some poly carbonate twin wall on the 10s. Plan on making more as time permits. I am on the ragged edge on breaker for the setup. Have someone coming to look and see if the other side of the garage is on a separate breaker if not the box is 3ft from the rack and I can grab a split breaker and add a circuit. 15 20g 5 10g 4 5.5g 1 40g 410ish gallons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBeehler Posted October 24, 2023 Author Share Posted October 24, 2023 Sounds like we have some options! Thank you!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tolstoy21 Posted October 24, 2023 Share Posted October 24, 2023 As far as insulation, are the walls open and not insulated? If so, you can just use regular insulation bats rated for the weather in your area. I have a fish room in my basement, and to keep the heat in the area where the racks are I used a vinyl strip curtain. (Below is just a random image from the internet). These things work great and will definitely help if your space is going to be exposed frequently to the winter air. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBeehler Posted October 24, 2023 Author Share Posted October 24, 2023 On 10/24/2023 at 12:46 PM, tolstoy21 said: As far as insulation, are the walls open and not insulated? If so, you can just use regular insulation bats rated for the weather in your area. I have a fish room in my basement, and to keep the heat in the area where the racks are I used a vinyl strip curtain. (Below is just a random image from the internet). These things work great and will definitely help if your space is going to be exposed frequently to the winter air. I like this! The walls are concrete behind and beside it and then an interior wall. My garage is in my “basement” the lower level is at ground level in the front and the top level is at ground level in the back yard. I was just thinking I could throw up walls and a door but like the vinyl curtain for ease of getting in and out of it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tolstoy21 Posted October 24, 2023 Share Posted October 24, 2023 (edited) On 10/24/2023 at 1:51 PM, JBeehler said: The walls are concrete behind and beside it and then an interior wall. I hung (glued) those pink styro insulation panels against the exterior concrete walls in my basement, then sheet rocked over that. Kind of just followed the typical recommended way people finish basements they are going to turn into living spaces and heat. But I only did this for the small corner of the basement I was using to make the fish room. I framed out and insulated the interior fishroom walls, and for the doorway, I hung the strip curtain (so much easier to use than a door and retains heat much better). Edited October 24, 2023 by tolstoy21 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruud Posted October 24, 2023 Share Posted October 24, 2023 Following this topic as I am planning to do the same next year with my garage - two walls 'underground' and with these I have some humidity issues plus very cold. Would love to convert a part as a small fish room with a rack so interesting to see how this works out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBeehler Posted October 24, 2023 Author Share Posted October 24, 2023 On 10/24/2023 at 1:02 PM, Ruud said: Following this topic as I am planning to do the same next year with my garage - two walls 'underground' and with these I have some humidity issues plus very cold. Would love to convert a part as a small fish room with a rack so interesting to see how this works out! I will try and keep it updated then. For now I will finish up the tank lids and see what I can do to insulate the garage a bit better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBeehler Posted October 24, 2023 Author Share Posted October 24, 2023 On 10/24/2023 at 1:08 PM, Pepere said: My sons basement was half insulated to R13. The other half was bare concrete. He applied spray foam to the remaining half insulating to roughly R10. he saved 200 gallons of heating oil last winter saving about $700.00 and increasing comfort upstairs as the floors were warmer… That’s not a bad deal! I am on propane and would love to see some savings out of that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tolstoy21 Posted October 24, 2023 Share Posted October 24, 2023 (edited) On 10/24/2023 at 2:01 PM, Pepere said: If you have uninsulated concrete basement walls it is definitely cost effective to stud those up and insulate them even without a fish room… 1000% agree. On 10/24/2023 at 2:08 PM, Pepere said: increasing comfort upstairs as the floors were warmer… Yeah my wife stands on our hardwood floor situated right above the first room and says 'Yay! Heated floors!' Edited October 24, 2023 by tolstoy21 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruud Posted October 24, 2023 Share Posted October 24, 2023 (edited) Oh wow, this thread is very informative, already learned lots! Might need to take a look at this sooner than later! Don't want to hijack this thread, at all, but any recommendation how to fight moist coming into the wall from outside? From the walls facing the underground part of my garden ... Edited October 24, 2023 by Ruud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tolstoy21 Posted October 24, 2023 Share Posted October 24, 2023 On 10/24/2023 at 2:42 PM, Ruud said: Don't want to hijack this thread, at all, but any recommendation how to fight moist coming into the wall from outside? From the walls facing the underground part of my garden ... Do your walls leak, as in water form the garden slowly seeping through the walls? Or is the 'moist' just condensation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tolstoy21 Posted October 24, 2023 Share Posted October 24, 2023 (edited) Here are a few pics from my build. I've shared some of these in the past, but I don't think I shared pics of the exterior insulation. Edited October 24, 2023 by tolstoy21 1 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruud Posted October 25, 2023 Share Posted October 25, 2023 (edited) On 10/25/2023 at 12:14 AM, tolstoy21 said: Do your walls leak, as in water form the garden slowly seeping through the walls? Or is the 'moist' just condensation? I have two walls in my garage that from the outside are fully covered by the ground of my garden (my garage is under the house) and it seems that moist or humidity from the ground (when it rains etc) is coming through the walls. So its not water seeping in, just humidity. I probably need to look as well what I can do in the garden so the water doesn't accumulate there too much (not sure what I can do) but I also want to isolate the garage for better heat isolation of the house and in future setup a fish room. Happy to speak further over PM to not derail this thread. Thanks Tolstoy! Ps your fish room looks amazing!! Edited October 25, 2023 by Ruud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galabar Posted October 25, 2023 Share Posted October 25, 2023 That looks cool. I noticed that the wood is supported all the way down, which is critical. Nice. 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted October 25, 2023 Share Posted October 25, 2023 On 10/25/2023 at 12:20 AM, tolstoy21 said: Here are a few pics from my build. I've shared some of these in the past, but I don't think I shared pics of the exterior insulation. I’m probably gonna build a rack in my bedroom sometime in the coming months. Is your racking the same style as the ACO store ones? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tolstoy21 Posted October 25, 2023 Share Posted October 25, 2023 (edited) @TheSwissAquarist Hmmm. Not sure. I think it's similar. However, I dado out the vertical 2x4s so the horizontal 2x4s sit inside the uprights. Not sure if ACO does that. (I also built that fence from scratch, if I may take a moment to shamelessly brag) Edited October 25, 2023 by tolstoy21 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VariegatedReticulated Posted October 25, 2023 Share Posted October 25, 2023 Just wanted to add, though I have no experience with this personally-- There are kits you can get to insulate the garage door. I don't think I saw anyone talk about that. Taylor from Simply Betta (YouTube channel) had a video recently where she put up the garage door kit. She built her fishroom into her garage as a separate room -- but I don't know how many winters she's kept fish in there. I think it's only one, maybe two winters at most. Might be worth looking into if people notice a difference with those kits. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruud Posted October 27, 2023 Share Posted October 27, 2023 (edited) On 10/24/2023 at 8:01 PM, Pepere said: If you have uninsulated concrete basement walls it is definitely cost effective to stud those up and insulate them even without a fish room… 10 inches of concrete has an R value of 1. It is the same as having a single sheet of glass… I imagine you routinely see temps down in the teens… at worst most winters… the cold typically extends to about 2 feet below grade. Then the next 2 feet is about half the heatloss as above… I usually fit 2 inch foam against the concrete and stud up in front of them and foam seal the seams. Then I fit rockwool between the studs and sheetrock in front. I usually stop the rock wool about a foot above floor level in case of water ingress into the cellar. The foam, first against the wall provides a vapor barrier to the concrete. I have a 15x7 foot wooden garage door I would like to insulate, I can get my hands cheaply on some 1.6 inch (4cm) 'lightweight extruded polystyrene foam board' (translated from Spanish). I think this does make sense right, this material? It doesn't have a reflective side, not sure that matters much. It seems its mainly being used for isolating roof. It seems similar material as @Pepere is referring to in the quoted post that he used as inital vapor barrier against his concrete walls (which is something I need to do as well before even thinking of moving my tanks to the garage) Edited October 27, 2023 by Ruud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBeehler Posted December 2, 2023 Author Share Posted December 2, 2023 (edited) Just following up on updates. I have 24 tanks in the garage setup and running, working on auto water change setup slowly. Was worried about flooding out the septic tank/system so I have the tanks setup to be draining into a tote with a sump valve ump to evacuate it out of the garage through a window. The garage stays within a degree or 2 of the house thermostat setting and has been room temps at 68-70 as low as mid-20s for outside. Running individual tank heaters at 5w/gallon as the 2.5w/gal struggle to maintain 78 degrees in the guppy tanks. I will be buying inkbird thermostats for the tanks slowly next for redundancy and safety of the livestock. I have (14) 20 gallon tanks, (1) 60 gallon tank, (5) 10 gallons and (4) 5.5 gallon tanks. There is (1) 20 gallon in the hous that will come out to the rack once the big tank is done for the baby fahaka puffer we have (3”-4”size currently, just reached the status of larger than our spotted Congo puffers) Picture is old, new circuit for electrical added and more tanks on the top shelf Edited December 2, 2023 by JBeehler 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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