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i want to keep my large 150 in my garage but with no windows, i would have to run the light on all day. is this okay for the fish? im worried about their health. i would just run a light on during the day and before sleep run a dimmer before everything going pitch black with no lights. anyone keep their tanks in the garage?<br><br>no room in the house at all.

I used to keep some tanks in my garage when I had a heated garage, where I live now, it would not work. As for the lights and darkness, that will be fine. In the wild they live at night in total darkness, lol. I would worry more about the temp, as we don't know where you live at. Is it too hot, or too cold out there?

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There is always a bigger fish...

I think it would be ok as long as you made sure you had 5watts per gallon. And see if you could get them in as many heater as possible so if one fails you will still have back up for those cold chilly night. I would also have a few back up heater not being used. Other than that it sounds a ok

thanks for your replies!

i live in sacramento, so it gets really warm in the summer(100 degree days are not uncommon) and for a short time it gets very cold in the winter.(as we californians consider "cold", like 30-40 degrees)

so would i have to make any drastic temp adjustments during these times? most of my fish perfer warmer temperatures if im not mistaken.

my tank:

150 gallon
wet/dry filter
aqua clear 500 filter
ebo jager 200w heater x2

sand substrate
driftwood
java moss

black ghost knife x1
clown loach x8
severum x1
peacock eel x1
bristle nose pleco x1
bulldog pleco x1

Last edited by betta_max at 11-Dec-2004 11:05

Looks good since you live in california the only thing i would recomend would be perhaps a extra 50-100watt ebo jager heater just in case.

I would be more worried about the summer temps, as 100F could really cook your fish. And your winter temps should not cause any trouble there, as most fish go through winter temp ranges as well. You might want to put a heater in just for safety though, just in case. As for the lighting, don't worry to much about that, most breeders actually raise fish in non lit tanks, with only light coming from secondary sources. You don't need anything more than the normal output bulbs. Nothing increased needed just because of no windows.

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There is always a bigger fish...

thanks for the help fish1 and acidrain.

im actually now worried about the 100+ temps too. i wonder what im gonna do in the tough summers, i was thinking NO HEATERS but the temp swings might just wipe out my fish. hmmmm, how to keep aquarium cool?

time to search the forums...

In 100+ temp the garage would reach much, much higher than that, especially with no circulation. You could look into getting a chiller for the tank, Maybe Acid would know the price. I would however insure that would some aduquate cross vent to prevent that "easy bake oven" effect.

You can run a fan across the surface of the water. As this will increase evaporation and lower the water tempuratur. YOu could float ice in a bag. But this may not be convenyent. Your best bet would be to get a chiller. These are costly though and much more expensive then the avarage heater. Most of them are over 150$ heres a search on ebay i [link=did]http://search.ebay.com/aquarium-chiller_W0QQsokeywordredirectZ1QQfromZR8" style="COLOR: #C0C0C0[/link]

yikes! thos are expensive! man, i might have to consider one though cause i remember a few summers ago, we had like well over 20 days of 100+ degree heat here in sacramento.

thanks for your help.

Last edited by betta_max at 12-Dec-2004 14:42

i kept my 55 gal in my nans garage while we ere settling on our new house, we got booted from our old house by the RTA (government roads and traffic thingo).. stupid government, mbut anyway i found that while i had tanks in the garage i tended to neglect them more, as i couldnt always watch them and all, if you could turn the garage into like a sitting room or somthin i think that wud be cool. just my opinion but isnt it better to have a tank somewhere where you can see it lots, or is that just me.