Shed to Reef room?

[m and m]

I have been dying for a "Reef room" Where I can put as many tanks as I want and Have it look how every I want. The shed Is about 15x20 ft. It is unsalted and use to house my street bike so there are a few stains on the floor. I was thinking redoing the floor and insalating the walls and throwing some wood over it. lastly throwing in 2-3 fan ducks to bring in and send out air. Any opinions? I would be looking to bring in 500+ gallons in here.

 

[macawmagic]

It's going to get coldddd in winter and hotttt in summer. I would imagine you would need an A/C / heat system installed to regulate the temps. Highly possible though, all just depends on how much you want to spend.

 

[m and m]

A air conditioner would be no issue. Do you think Ill need heating if its insulated and of corse i would have heaters in the tanks.

 

[bct15]

You would need to be sure the room is well insulated and air conditioned (both ac and heat). During the winter if your ambient temp is below freezing I think most standard aquarium heaters would have difficulty maintaining the right temperature. Once you get that u don't see any problems, should just be like an extension if your home, assuming you have power out there. I am about to build a shed to carry out a couple experiments pertaining to reefing and fishtanks and really see no issues.

 

[pickupman66]

yes, you will need to heat it some way othewise have some massive tank heaters.... fwiw, I have my sump in my insulated garage and this winter, with 1000 watts of heat on my 180, I had trouble keeping it warm. only when I put some foam over top of it and had it covered did the heaters keep up. we keep the house at 68 degrees...

 

[m and m]

Do you think a ELC space heater will do? Can you even run them 24/7?

 

[Reef UP]

You can get a all in one unit that has both AC And heating that mounts right in the wall I'd insulate it with as much insulation as possible and put in it's own junction/breaker box and you'll be good to go!

 

[m and m]

I would like to just use what i have.

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

I definitely would suggest heating and cooling the space and not the individual tanks. It will also make it comfortable in there for you. In my warehouse I am turning off all my heaters and relying 100% on ambient air heating and cooling. How many times have you heard about or had a heater malfunction? By ambient heating and cooling of your tanks you only have to worry about one heating and cooling system. I also think its gonna be necessary for your situation. When its -10F or 100F you will need help beyond a heater and chiller. So why buy the heater and chiller at all? The thing is how fool proof do you want this HVAC system? If it was connected to your internet so it could alert you of a failure or if it was able to automatically have a generator kick on in power loss it would be optimal but expensive. I'd keep all your stuff in your house unless your ready to go the extra mile. No sense losing everything if its not fully planned out and something happens. Think redundancy. If one thing breaks what gonna take over that things duties? Maybe set it all up and keep your corals in your house still. Let it run through a winter and summer and see where your at. Or at least give it some time to test before you pack it full of corals.

Sounds cool! If you do it we are gonna want to see pics so keep your camera handy Good luck!

 

[m and m]

Ima look into getting heating and cooling in there I will definitely throw up a nice thread like you alpha if I go ahead with this.