Hello All,
I am a long time reader here but first time poster. I am in the beginning stages of setting up a 75 gallon reef tank and I need some help. To give you a bit of background, I have been out of the hobby for about 10 years, but I did have an 35 gallon reef when I was in it. It was doing well until it leaked and I lost everything.
So now, current day I am getting back into it, and I have a few questions. So far here is the equipment I have:
- 75 gallon tank
- 3 x 165w Dsuny LED Panels with Controller
- 4 large powerheads
- 100lbs 'Dead' live rock
- A few pumps
- Vertex Protein Skimmer
- 2 x 300W Heaters
Still to purchase:
- Tank for Sump
- Overflow or Drill 75 gallon tank (I haven't decided yet)
Questions:
Placement of the tank:
1. I will be placing the tank in my 3 season room at the back of my house. The room is not insulated, but it has an extension running off the HVAC into it. I live in Canada where we do have a huge change in temperature from summer to winter (85f in the summer to 10f or less in the winter). It can get below freezing in the room I want to use for this. So here is my question. In regards to keeping my heating bill as low as possible what do you think is the best solution?:
a. I think building an isolated stand where the tank is seen from the front and the back only is the best option. Everything else built into a stand with foam insulation. I would build a box to go above the tank that would hold the lights, and then on either side of the tank run foam insulation inside of the cabinets. The tank would sit on foam insulation and then the cabinet underneath would be completely insulated with foam. This is where I would keep the heaters, skimmer, etc. My thought is the heat generated from the lights would help keep the tank warm in the winter, and the cabinet being fully insulated underneath would keep it from loosing much heat. In the summer, the opposite would be true and the tank would stay cooler longer and not see huge changes.
b. Insulate the room. There is more cost to this than I would like, although I could do portions of it. The room is built on a concrete slab, and insulating the floor is not an option. Most of the room is single pane windows (3/4 sides) so I could insulate about 2.5 feet up from the floor. The entire ceiling is open and it could have insulation added to it. This will be a considerable expense and more work than I was hoping, but if it is going to save absorbent electrical costs than it make sense.
Does anybody have experience with anything similar? I know people have put tanks in their garage or in sheds in the back yard to create fish rooms, so this is fairly similar, but I'm not sure if people are doing it in climates that change so much.
Question 2:
1. Behind the room I am putting the tank I have my hot tub. It is tight against the back window of the sun room. My thought is I want to put the tank against the window. I want to set it up so that while you are in the hot tub you can view the tank very well. Where the hot tub is sitting it is mostly covered, so there isn't a huge worry of direct sunlight coming into the window, but there still will be ambient outdoor light. Also the window does get fairly cold as it is only single pane. Does anybody see an issue with this? I am thinking that I will have to adjust the lighting cycle to allow for the light from outside, but other than that it shouldn't change too much, if I can solve problem #1.
Thank you all for reading this far, I am sure I will have more questions, but I am really excited to be back in the hobby, and I think this could be a really cool setup!
I am a long time reader here but first time poster. I am in the beginning stages of setting up a 75 gallon reef tank and I need some help. To give you a bit of background, I have been out of the hobby for about 10 years, but I did have an 35 gallon reef when I was in it. It was doing well until it leaked and I lost everything.
So now, current day I am getting back into it, and I have a few questions. So far here is the equipment I have:
- 75 gallon tank
- 3 x 165w Dsuny LED Panels with Controller
- 4 large powerheads
- 100lbs 'Dead' live rock
- A few pumps
- Vertex Protein Skimmer
- 2 x 300W Heaters
Still to purchase:
- Tank for Sump
- Overflow or Drill 75 gallon tank (I haven't decided yet)
Questions:
Placement of the tank:
1. I will be placing the tank in my 3 season room at the back of my house. The room is not insulated, but it has an extension running off the HVAC into it. I live in Canada where we do have a huge change in temperature from summer to winter (85f in the summer to 10f or less in the winter). It can get below freezing in the room I want to use for this. So here is my question. In regards to keeping my heating bill as low as possible what do you think is the best solution?:
a. I think building an isolated stand where the tank is seen from the front and the back only is the best option. Everything else built into a stand with foam insulation. I would build a box to go above the tank that would hold the lights, and then on either side of the tank run foam insulation inside of the cabinets. The tank would sit on foam insulation and then the cabinet underneath would be completely insulated with foam. This is where I would keep the heaters, skimmer, etc. My thought is the heat generated from the lights would help keep the tank warm in the winter, and the cabinet being fully insulated underneath would keep it from loosing much heat. In the summer, the opposite would be true and the tank would stay cooler longer and not see huge changes.
b. Insulate the room. There is more cost to this than I would like, although I could do portions of it. The room is built on a concrete slab, and insulating the floor is not an option. Most of the room is single pane windows (3/4 sides) so I could insulate about 2.5 feet up from the floor. The entire ceiling is open and it could have insulation added to it. This will be a considerable expense and more work than I was hoping, but if it is going to save absorbent electrical costs than it make sense.
Does anybody have experience with anything similar? I know people have put tanks in their garage or in sheds in the back yard to create fish rooms, so this is fairly similar, but I'm not sure if people are doing it in climates that change so much.
Question 2:
1. Behind the room I am putting the tank I have my hot tub. It is tight against the back window of the sun room. My thought is I want to put the tank against the window. I want to set it up so that while you are in the hot tub you can view the tank very well. Where the hot tub is sitting it is mostly covered, so there isn't a huge worry of direct sunlight coming into the window, but there still will be ambient outdoor light. Also the window does get fairly cold as it is only single pane. Does anybody see an issue with this? I am thinking that I will have to adjust the lighting cycle to allow for the light from outside, but other than that it shouldn't change too much, if I can solve problem #1.
Thank you all for reading this far, I am sure I will have more questions, but I am really excited to be back in the hobby, and I think this could be a really cool setup!
