Cooling tips for Garage fishroom setup

[sanjay21]

Morning Everyone,

Can anyone suggest me some tips on how to cool tanks in garage. I haven't setup my tanks in the garage yet. But I will be tomorrow and temperatures here reach to 100 or more. I was thinking of setting up fan's, will that be enough ? I will also be doing daily water changes in the evening.

Thanks,
Jay

[LizStreithorst]

I had an exhaust fan built into the wall. Works well.

[sanjay21]

I had an exhaust fan built into the wall. Works well.

I thought about that, but then wouldn't the exhaust vent be a problem during Winter ?

[LizStreithorst]

It could be with you if your garage isn't insulated. My fish room was built as an extension of the house. It's well insulated. I don't have to cover the fan during the winter but I live in Mississippi where we suffer when temps drop to 20. Since my room is well insulated I only use a dehumidifier to heat the room in the winter. The exhaust fan is unplugged but still allows outside air in.

You're situation is different from mine and their are many ways to try to solve problems before you have them. From what I have read, I think that you should insulate the garage and get an exhaust fan, a dehumidifier, and an oil filed space heater.

[fishbubbles]

I'm an A/C guy in Florida so I may be able to give a few pointers. If you just want to exhaust the hot air then you can install a large bath fan/fart fan in the ceiling of your garage and wire it into a 120 volt thermostat to turn on and off according to the temperature in your garage. You can choose to either vent the fan into your attic or run a piece of venting to your soffit. If you want to actually cool and/or heat your garage then look into installing a mini-split air conditioner. You can buy them in both 120 and 240 volt systems and only require a 15-20 amp circuit to run. If you want any technical info, feel free to PM me.

[pmkappy]

Good advice from Liz and fishbubbles. Insulate and sheet rock the garage. If it is uninsulated nothing will be of great help. I would take fishbubbles suggestion, cut through the wall and mount a split heat/ac unit. I have a 450sf workshop and use a 12,000 btu split unit. The unit size depends on the sf ( square Feet) of the garage.

[sanjay21]

It could be with you if your garage isn't insulated. My fish room was built as an extension of the house. It's well insulated. I don't have to cover the fan during the winter but I live in Mississippi where we suffer when temps drop to 20. Since my room is well insulated I only use a dehumidifier to heat the room in the winter. The exhaust fan is unplugged but still allows outside air in.

You're situation is different from mine and their are many ways to try to solve problems before you have them. From what I have read, I think that you should insulate the garage and get an exhaust fan, a dehumidifier, and an oil filed space heater.

Thanks for the detailed explanation Liz and I live in Utah, so temperatures here fluctuate extremes over 100F Summer times and can drop to below 0F during winters.

[sanjay21]

Fishbubbles and Paul I agree with you guys. I have to get my garage insulated. Can't do it anytime soon though, I'm broke after buying a this house lol

[Ewhonest]

I just scanned over the replies but what about a aquarium chiller? I think there used in salt water tanks but maybe can be retroed for a freshwater. I do t know the temp variables on them though. Then just double or 4x the heaters and maybe a inline heater if you run a canister with a temp controller in the winter

[brewmaster15]

Sanjay.
Is your heat out there dry heat or Humid. If its dry heat, an evaporative cooler may be the way to go.. These are very efficient from what I read but next to useless in high humidity, which means they are of no use to me in the North east.

al

[sanjay21]

Sanjay.
Is your heat out there dry heat or Humid. If its dry heat, an evaporative cooler may be the way to go.. These are very efficient from what I read but next to useless in high humidity, which means they are of no use to me in the North east.

al

Al, its dry heat here. So here is what I did, I left a tank with water without heater in it and for weirdly temp is like 76 when temperature outside is like 95 I think. Garage does feel super hot. I don't understand why, I checked back in the evening and temp went to 82 but then started dropping down. Does this mean a rotating fan next to the tanks be enough ? During winter I'm planning on building a wooden box around these tanks with insulation and cooler/heater to maintain at 82. Let me know if that's a good idea please.

[sanjay21]

I just scanned over the replies but what about a aquarium chiller? I think there used in salt water tanks but maybe can be retroed for a freshwater. I do t know the temp variables on them though. Then just double or 4x the heaters and maybe a inline heater if you run a canister with a temp controller in the winter

I'm setting up 4 -29gallon tanks, 1- 40 gallon and 1-60 gallon tanks. So it will be hard for me to consider Chillers or inline heaters.

[Second Hand Pat]

Here's another consideration. Perhaps you could build an insulated room within your garage. Smaller space and perhaps easier to control the temp etc.
Pat

[sanjay21]

Here's another consideration. Perhaps you could build an insulated room within your garage. Smaller space and perhaps easier to control the temp etc.
Pat

!
Yes, I might be doing that
I'm currently trying to catch up with all the recent expenses, I do have couple questions for building a small fish room, I have been planning on building a fish room within my garage.
- Should I be having an exhaust if I build a small fish room within the garage ?
- Is it easy on setting up power supply ? Can someone direct me to a place which talks about setting up my power outlets please ?
- what is a portable A/C(I currently have one) be enough for the space ? and will the A/C exhaust act same as a small fan exhaust ?
- Would one layer of insulation be enough ? I haven't experienced winter in this house yet, so confused on that as well. Winter is pretty cold here in Utah.

Thank you guys !

[fishbubbles]

!
Yes, I might be doing that
I'm currently trying to catch up with all the recent expenses, I do have couple questions for building a small fish room, I have been planning on building a fish room within my garage.
- Should I be having an exhaust if I build a small fish room within the garage ?
- Is it easy on setting up power supply ? Can someone direct me to a place which talks about setting up my power outlets please ?
- what is a portable A/C(I currently have one) be enough for the space ? and will the A/C exhaust act same as a small fan exhaust ?
- Would one layer of insulation be enough ? I haven't experienced winter in this house yet, so confused on that as well. Winter is pretty cold here in Utah.

Thank you guys !

1. You may only need to exhaust your garage if the humidity level becomes too great from the aquariums in the room. Adding lids to your tanks will drastically reduce the humidity levels.
2. Ease of running a dedicated circuit for a fish room depends on many factors, If your circuit panel is already in your garage then all you would have to do is run a new properly sized circuit over to where your tanks will be. Be absolutely sure that you check if your panel is capable of handling the extra amp load and protect all outlets with a GFI, since these will be exposed to wet conditions. I ran a new 20 amp circuit using 12 gauge COPPER wire with a ground from my panel to a gang box on the wall near my tanks. Do not skimp out on wire sizing or material when dealing with high voltage. This may be a project that an electrician will have to do for you if you have any doubts/concerns.
3. A portable A/C unit will help with cooling off your garage but many of these are designed for small, already insulated rooms and draw a lot of amperage for the amount of BTU's ( cooling capacity ) that they produce. A heat pump mini split may be expensive to begin with but I have installed a ton of them and they work very well.
4. You can start by adding R-30 or greater above your ceiling for insulation. Check your local codes for their minimum guidelines and recommendations.