does anyone from a cold climate have their sump in the garage?

[kermit_criminal]

well i live in chicago and its the middle of the winter right now. i was wondering of anyone has their sump system in the garage or whether it is recommended to put your sump r/o tub, etc.. in the garage while the DT is setup on other side of the wall in the house. if i moved my sump to the garage and the power went out, im probably losing my entire tank huh?

[MarkT]

I'm in upstate NY and have my sump in the basement. It would be tough to heat the tank if the sump was in an unheated garage. Like you said, if the power goes out, the water will cool off real fast.

[smcfall176]

The garage is not going to be a good option. IMO In the winter the water is going to get to cold and think of how hot it is in there in the summer.I would think it would be a temp. nightmare.

[Playa-1]

A power outage in an extreme weather situation will be a problem regardless of where the sump is located. I would put it in the garage myself and prepare for power outages. The power outage will be a much bigger issue then the sump being in the garage.

[rhdoug]

If the sump is in the garage and the power goes out, then no water is circulating so the temp in the garage is irrelevent in that situation. However, that is not to say that the temp in the garage will not affect the tank during normal operation -- it certainly will.

[crny1]

My 55gal sump is plumbed thru the wall and out to the garage. It is not climate controlled and it does fine out there. I have a reefkeeper and the temp stays exactly where I set it with a 400w and a 300w heater in the sump. Not that both are needed but if the garage door is left open for too long when its really cold out then the 300w might kick in for a few minutes. For summer months I have a fan setup to cool it down......no chiller or anything. The total system is right at 100 gallons. I live near Champaign IL and its never ALOT colder than Chicago is. I say go for it and dont worry about it. Power outages arent going to hurt you with the sump out in the garage. I plumbed all mine with shut off valves so I can isolate the sump from the dt. If power went out long enough to get the sump to cold I would isolate it from the display (with shut off valves) and then when the power comes back up left the sump run and circulate to raise the temp all while adding a heater to the DT ..... when the sump is back up to temp open the valves and put the sump back online! Simple! All that is assuming (like all reefers) that there is pumps running in the DT to circulate the water to bring the DT back up. Or if you are that worried about it.....get a generator for back up power.
Oh....one more thing.... Put the sump on a piece of 2 inch styrofaom insulation board and use a piece of 1 inch around 3 sides of it. I did this after the first year and it seems to keep it cooler in the summer and warmer in winter. I can see the graphs on my reefkeeper to verify when the heaters are on or the fans are on.

wes

[hazmat319]

My 55gal sump is plumbed thru the wall and out to the garage. It is not climate controlled and it does fine out there. I have a reefkeeper and the temp stays exactly where I set it with a 400w and a 300w heater in the sump. Not that both are needed but if the garage door is left open for too long when its really cold out then the 300w might kick in for a few minutes. For summer months I have a fan setup to cool it down......no chiller or anything. The total system is right at 100 gallons. I live near Champaign IL and its never ALOT colder than Chicago is. I say go for it and dont worry about it. Power outages arent going to hurt you with the sump out in the garage. I plumbed all mine with shut off valves so I can isolate the sump from the dt. If power went out long enough to get the sump to cold I would isolate it from the display (with shut off valves) and then when the power comes back up left the sump run and circulate to raise the temp all while adding a heater to the DT ..... when the sump is back up to temp open the valves and put the sump back online! Simple! All that is assuming (like all reefers) that there is pumps running in the DT to circulate the water to bring the DT back up. Or if you are that worried about it.....get a generator for back up power.
Oh....one more thing.... Put the sump on a piece of 2 inch styrofaom insulation board and use a piece of 1 inch around 3 sides of it. I did this after the first year and it seems to keep it cooler in the summer and warmer in winter. I can see the graphs on my reefkeeper to verify when the heaters are on or the fans are on.

wes

OMG...I am from Mahomet. Class of 1984. It's such a small world!

[crny1]

Thread HIJACK...... I am not originally from Mahomet. Graduated from Lincoln High School. If you have corals to trade I am always looking for trading and I pretty much always have frags forsale!

[JoeMomma]

I'm in Canada with my sump in my basement. Its pretty hard to keep the water at the right temperature. I have a heater in my display, sump and ref.

I can't imagine keeping my sump in my garage, although people around here do keep their ponds stocked with koi over winter, but thats a whole other ball of wax.

[hazmat319]

Thread HIJACK...... I am not originally from Mahomet. Graduated from Lincoln High School. If you have corals to trade I am always looking for trading and I pretty much always have frags forsale!

Last HIJACK:rollface:....I'm in CT now. I've been gone since '89. Just haven't met too many people that even know about Mahomet!

[kermit_criminal]

what i guess i can do whenever the power goes out for a significant amount of time, is before i switch the circuit breakers back on, i can pull the return pump plug off.. switch the circuit breaking on and then wait for the heater to warm up the water before allowing it to return back to the DT

[kermit_criminal]

My 55gal sump is plumbed thru the wall and out to the garage. It is not climate controlled and it does fine out there. I have a reefkeeper and the temp stays exactly where I set it with a 400w and a 300w heater in the sump. Not that both are needed but if the garage door is left open for too long when its really cold out then the 300w might kick in for a few minutes. For summer months I have a fan setup to cool it down......no chiller or anything. The total system is right at 100 gallons. I live near Champaign IL and its never ALOT colder than Chicago is. I say go for it and dont worry about it. Power outages arent going to hurt you with the sump out in the garage. I plumbed all mine with shut off valves so I can isolate the sump from the dt. If power went out long enough to get the sump to cold I would isolate it from the display (with shut off valves) and then when the power comes back up left the sump run and circulate to raise the temp all while adding a heater to the DT ..... when the sump is back up to temp open the valves and put the sump back online! Simple! All that is assuming (like all reefers) that there is pumps running in the DT to circulate the water to bring the DT back up. Or if you are that worried about it.....get a generator for back up power.
Oh....one more thing.... Put the sump on a piece of 2 inch styrofaom insulation board and use a piece of 1 inch around 3 sides of it. I did this after the first year and it seems to keep it cooler in the summer and warmer in winter. I can see the graphs on my reefkeeper to verify when the heaters are on or the fans are on.

wes


shutof valves, great idea! il try that

[crooks]

I wouldnt do it I just put a sump in my basement and I dont know if I am going to like paying to keep it warm. Do you remember how cold it got last winter? I still have a couple of pics from then.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/mcrooks/01160812-1.jpg

this is a pic from inside my garage and its attached to my house.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/mcrooks/01160958.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/mcrooks/01160815.jpg

[stevedola]

I live in RI and the winters get cold here also. I know a few reefers that have sump in basement or garage. They insulate however still spend alot of money to keep the water warm in the winter. After a few years of hefty electric bills 2 have made changes to their sump setups. They ended up taking their big sumps off line during winter months and going small in a climate controlled area of the house. the money they were saving in cooling during the summer they were losing and more during the winter. just a though...

[jarrett shark]

chiller and extra heaters
I have a 220gal tank in my office that goes down to 60deg at night in the winter. I have 1500watt worth of heaters. My sump is in the basement were its cooler.And in the summer it gets 80deg. I have (2 )1/2 chillers.
Just be prepared if power goes out and get a Aqua/neptune controler that gives you a text if temps go over limit
All this for this hobby.........

[Playa-1]

Have you guys ever heard of insulation and heat?

[irfisher]

I hate cold weather. The temp in the house dropped to 70 and my water temp dropped to 74. I was rushing around trying to find a heater. It seems like a minor problem compared to some. Thanks for posting in this thread, I find it very interesting.

[jbird69]

Id be more concerned about how hot it would get in the summer.

[kermit_criminal]

I wouldnt do it I just put a sump in my basement and I dont know if I am going to like paying to keep it warm. Do you remember how cold it got last winter? I still have a couple of pics from then.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/mcrooks/01160812-1.jpg

this is a pic from inside my garage and its attached to my house.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/mcrooks/01160958.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/mcrooks/01160815.jpg



damnit.. i just got back from 4 years in cali and forgot just how cold it gets in chicago winters. maybe im in the market for a generator

[schnitm]

I'm on the Illinois side of St. Louis and have a sump filled to 100 gallons on an exterior wall in my garage. The 90g display's upstairs against an exterior wall as well. The garage is somewhat climate controlled and insulated. The sump is made of 3/4" plywood, framed with 2x2s, insulated with 1 1/2" of fiberglass, and finished with 1/4 plywood. The whole thing's built into a cabinet with central air ducted through. Cost a few days of time but not much $$ to make.

Just now the sump temp reads 77.6 and the tank 77.4. That's a pattern. The tank seems to be a bigger heat loss than the sump in the cold. There's heater in the sump but it has almost never been on, just a few times after adding cold topoff water. The garage runs in the low 60s when it's below freezing outside. High 50s on the rare day below zero around here. The floor and wall get colder. The topoff water in a Brut can next to the sump reads 47.1 right now.

The chiller almost never runs the last month or so. The system likes the cold. I think everything would be poached without the chiller when it's 90+ out.

[preef]

One option is to build an insulated room around your sump and put it on styrofoam like the other poster said. Sounds risky though. I'd rather have a smaller one under my stand than a larger one in the garage.

Oh, and I've been through Mahomet on Rt 47 more times than I can count.

[lordofthereef]

Is it an option to section off a small area (build walls and the whole bit) for the sump in the garage (basically a small fish room) and then climate control that? The initial cost may be more but it sure would help with the headache IMO.


A power outage in an extreme weather situation will be a problem regardless of where the sump is located. I would put it in the garage myself and prepare for power outages. The power outage will be a much bigger issue then the sump being in the garage.

Not necessarily. The house will cool down relatively slowly, or not at all if he is using gas or wood heat. I think the concern here is the added power needed to heat the tank AND the sump in an extremely cold garage. I do agree that there should be preparations made for power outages, but a sump in a freezing garage would be a pretty huge problem.

[serpentman]

Anything is possible as long as you take the proper precautions. If the power goes out for an extended time period and then comes back on when you are not around, you will have frigid water dumping into your display. Personally, I would consider an insulated surround for your sump. Plus, there is usually a lot of dust, car exhaust, etc. that I would want to keep out of my water.

Personally, I would consider a generator as a backup as well.

[Paco]

I hate cold weather. The temp in the house dropped to 70 and my water temp dropped to 74. I was rushing around trying to find a heater. It seems like a minor problem compared to some. Thanks for posting in this thread, I find it very interesting.

I'm in Miami. My tank is 76.4 this morning. It's usually 79. Is this a crisis? Probably not :p. Should I drop in a heater (I don't even keep one in the tank :lol:?) Nah...it'll be fine. I love the tropics!

[Merkurfan]

what i guess i can do whenever the power goes out for a significant amount of time, is before i switch the circuit breakers back on, i can pull the return pump plug off.. switch the circuit breaking on and then wait for the heater to warm up the water before allowing it to return back to the DT

what happens if you forget to unplug the pump and are gone when the lights come back on. I can't see a DT doing to good if 30-40 gallons of ice cold water are pumped in to the tank.