New Fishroom in garage!

[Carolineep]

Howdy, i just got the go ahead from hubby that i can have a fish-room in the garage. I am so excited.!

I know one or more of you has already figured out how to keep the tanks from cracking in the winter months and boiling in summer. I am hoping to learn from your wisdom grasshoppa.
Our garage is freezing during the winter I assume we will need to purchase a heater, dehumidifier and fans? Is there a particular brand that you find works the best. Anything to watch for any horror stories i need to hear before i embark on this?

If there has already been a thread about this, i do apologize i peeked but was unable to find.

 

[dogofwar]

Hi Caroline - I recently moved my fishroom into the garage (here in Maryland) from the basement. I also had the fishroom in the garage in California (where it's much warmer).

So far, so good, although we're just getting into the heart of the winter.

I insulated (and plastic vapor-barriered) the walls and ceiling of the garage and heat it with a simple space heater (with a box fan behind it). I heat individual tanks of a few tanks with individual heaters. Because I primarily keep fish from Uruguay (which are sub-tropical and enjoy lower winter temps), I don't heat the rest.

This is a great topic and happy to give you my thoughts on garage fishrooms and fishrooms in general. There are some really nice fishrooms in the club as well

Matt

 

[Carolineep]

next step installing utility sink.

Any recommendations? What do you have ? Is it working well for you?

Plumbers come next Friday to install piping since they need to go under the house, and I don't do that anymore.

 

[dogofwar]

Having a utility sink is great. A double one even better. Had one installed in my prior (basement) fishroom.

Matt

 

[DiscusnAfricans]

I got my utility sink from Home Depot, nothing fancy, but has served its purpose.

 

[Carolineep]

Utility sink is installed and I love it.
I raced around and did all of the tanks in the time it takes me to do one by hand.
Fish are happy

Giant danios are breeding again and with perverse glee they are ignoring mops and scattering eggs Willy nilly, Corys look like they are thinking about it and saw a couple platy fry in front tank apparently utility sink =Barry white for fish.

 

[dogofwar]

Even with the insulation it was tough to keep the temp in my garage fishroom above 65F during the extreme cold.

Most of my tanks with tropical fish have individual heaters and I only lost a few fish (mostly fry and, oddly, one in probably the warmest tank in the house I suspect from aggression).

My Uruguayan (sub-tropical) fish all did great in the cool temps (they need them). Not-all-that-surprisingly the Central American ones did as well...

Matt

 

[FishEggs]

Still got a big garage door on it? Even insulated ones don't have much Rvalue.

 

[dogofwar]

Yes - the garage door (which is thick wood and relatively well-insulated) and the concrete slab are the big heat sinks...

Matt

Still got a big garage door on it? Even insulated ones don't have much Rvalue.

 

[Carolineep]

i use heaters in my tanks. Just can't keep the room warm enough.
When I win the lotto I would liove to insulate more also there is two big windows that are on the older side and I am losing a lot of heat through them.

 

[dogofwar]

In the meantime, just use plastic window insulation (or a piece of styro and some tape).

i use heaters in my tanks. Just can't keep the room warm enough.
When I win the lotto I would liove to insulate more also there is two big windows that are on the older side and I am losing a lot of heat through them.

 

[Carolineep]

Done and done and we put black out curtains up as well for light blockage and a lil extra insulation.

 

[verbal]

Congrats on the fish room. A utility sink is a huge plus in the fish room.

 

[Carolineep]

Long overdue update
Air in the fishroom yaay most of my tanks are now run with matten or sponge filters with jet lifters I still have Hob on a couple tanks
So excited whew what a relief.

 

[chriscoli]

Congrats! that's a huge step forward!

 

[Carolineep]

Thank you for all of your suggestions and help Christine.

This weekend we set up the racks on the other side it should give me room for a couple more tanks yay!

 

[jonclark96]

Pictures or it didn't happen

 

[Carolineep]

BLAM

 

[FishEggs]

well now i believe it.

 

[dogofwar]

Very nice!