Garage Sump Question..

[LOTUS50GOD]

I have a 340 gallon display with a 100 gallon sump.

I want to make water changes easier, so I want to put a 250 gallon water container in my garage with a recirculation pump to mix the salt. I want to have a litermeter to change 25 gallons a day (every 3 days resulting in about a 10% change a week)....

Now here is the problem... I live in Arizona. We have 100 days over 100 degrees and the garage is even hotter. We also have about 10 days below freezing in the winter.

I live in a small house so I do not want to sacrifice living space to put the water container inside.

I have a 1/2 hp chiller on the tank, and the tank says at 78 normally.

So, how do other people maintain their tank temperatures with remote basement sumps or garage sumps? Living on the east coast for most of my life, I know how cold a basement can get in the winter. Do you just run heaters 24x7?

What would be the down fall (other than making the chiller work harder) of putting hot water into the sump?

[greggnyce]

Maybe if you have the litermeter put in a little everyday it will not effect the temperature as much. I do not know how the temperature will effect the parameters of the water you are keeping in the garage though.

[LOTUS50GOD]

It would change about 1 gallon an hour, for 24 hours, every 3 days. I am guessing the water would be north of 100 degrees farenheit in the summer

[atvdave]

I have my 65 Gal sump in my garage and run the line through the wall to my tank inside.

I live in southern Indiana so we get bot the Hot & cold temp's, but nothing like the 100+ you get in AZ.

The hottest my tank has ever got is around 82 degrees. I have a fan blowing straight down on my sump to help keep it cool, and surprisingly I really don't have that much water e-vap.

In the winter I have notice that my heater does kick on more often now that the sump is in the garage but not all that much more.

The way I see it is that the water does not set long enough in the cold garage to bring the temp down all that much.

I'd be more worried about the heat, but with a chiller I don't think it will be a big issue, other than a bit higher electric bill.

I also keep all my top-off water & new salt water out there as well. My top off water I leave alone, but my new salt water I do put a heater in it a day before I do water change.

[LOTUS50GOD]

ttt