reason to be concerned?

[grapejelly]

Well I am still in the process of selecting my gear for my new tank set up. But thought i would throw this out there to get some feed back. My tank is being set up in my basement (MAN TOWN) totally finished and hooked up with all the toys....exept reef tank. (soon to come) but should i be concearned about the tempature down here. I dont heat my basement.. in the dead of winter it gets as low as 55 degrees.

thoughts??

 

[coralcor]

a damn good heater.... and with that thing runing all the time its going to be a BIG electric bill


i think

 

[s_kelley]

Yeah ill second what coralcolor said, and add, make sure you use multiple heaters so if one craps out from crankin all the time your tank temp wont drop drasticly.
You can do it though 55 isnt really that cold, its not 75 but its not freezing either.

 

[Behrmon]

What kind of lighting?

 

[JohnK]

It's easy to heat a tank, it's much harder to cool one. I'd worry about summer unless you have AC down there.

The other issue is humidity. You might be amazed at how much a SW tank can evaporate.

T5 lighting will create a lot less heat than MH, and require a lot less evaporation to keep the tank cool in the summer without a chiller, so that is something to consider.

 

[grapejelly]

still deciding on lighting in fact just posted a thread reguarding what to chose...
deciding between aquactinics 72 inch constallation or custom MH setup

 

[TheStar]

How big will the tank be? I would consider some kind of battery backup system that will run the heaters/filters for a while if you lose power. The temp can drop very quickly. During the ice storm, we lost power for 2 days and almost lost our whole tank.

 

[grapejelly]

Its a 150 gallon tank...I will have a small battery backup and i have a genorator...

 

[jojo1n2]

Ive had my tank in my basement with 2 heaters in my sump. Tank is always 76-78 degrees. My elec bill is the same as it was when it was upstairs

 

[JustDavidP]

All but two of my reefs were/are in the basement. It is unheated and it's no worry. JK is right though.. the humidity can sometimes be a problem. I have a 75G, and two 40G tanks in my basement now and on some days, you can see the condensation on the window

In the end, when properly set up, the system should have a heater in the sump and in display. IF you do get pump failure, with a heater only in the sump, the display can get cold and fast.

Also, return pumps, skimmer pumps, powerheads all, for the most part, provide heat in the tank. I also thought I'd be running heaters on overdrive, but found little if any difference in heater cycles than upstairs in my other system.

 

[FOXYB]

i have the 4 foot constellation fixture and couldn't love it more. plus if you do get the 72 you have so many choices for color combo.

 

[garyl]

My tank is a 180 and sits in a cold basement. You should have absolutely no problems. Definitely go the two heater route.

Do not plug your heater into your battery backup - a heater is essentially a short and will drain the backup very quickly.


Good luck,

Gary