Gazebo Fish Room

[FishDude]

Do you think it would be feasible to do a fish room outdoors in a gazebo similar to ?
I can put it in the shade and it would have access to enough power; the only thing I'm concerned about is regulating water temperature. I plan on keeping saltwater coldwater fish.

FishDude

[jason142]

It would be very hard keeping it cool enough for cold water fish keeping that outside, even in the shade.

[AFUreef]

I think your Major battle as Jason said would be tempreature. It would get super cold during winter and probably too hot during the summer. If your not worried about a massive electrical bill to regulate your temp it may work. It can be done though as many have done this w great success

[Finn450]

I have seen one near a resort in Hawaii...it was awesome...hole in the top for natural lighting...key is temp regulation like AFU said...which in Hawaii is not a problem.

[FishDude]

Could I use a greenhouse to regulate temperature during the year?

[Octoman4]

Green house would work, you'd need heaters though for winter time and cooling fans for summer... its would be easier to maintain a temp with the greenhouse for sure

[keepswimming]

Could I use a greenhouse to regulate temperature during the year?

Just curious, where is this tank going? Why not just build it in the garage or house?

[FishDude]

It's going in my sideyard. I had to get it out of the house because my wife was complaining about "unknown molds" living in the structure. Our garage has our two cars and my wife would kill me if I put them outside.

[keepswimming]

It's going in my sideyard. I had to get it out of the house because my wife was complaining about "unknown molds" living in the structure. Our garage has our two cars and my wife would kill me if I put them outside.

What about one of those tool sheds at home depot. It would keep the ambient light out that causes nuisance algae. Just a thought!

[Eric]

There was an outdoor tank at a vineyard in Malibu featured on "Tanked".
http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethe...ibu-wines.html

[FishDude]

They used a large chiller for the tank. I'm not made of money, but I think I can save up for that. Any other ideas? What would be good fish choices for the tanks?

[knightnsd]

I thought about something like this and converting my koi pond to tidal pool, thought those inhabitants may fare better on temp issues, ran into the concerns above and dropped the idea and fear of SDGE

[jason142]

This would be expensive for any type of fish. For tropical you would need a chiller for warm months and heaters for cold months. For cold water you would need a chiller. Either way you look at it its gonna cost a pretty penny to run a tank with the size tanks that we have.

[LotsaFishies]

There are other methods of controlling temperature in addition to simply turning a heater and/or chiller on. You can incorporate geothermal warming/cooling for one thing. Using a natural-gas heater would be a lot cheaper than an electric one given current gas / electricty prices.


Garrett from "Garrett's Acropolis" has a lot of experience with keeping a system outdoors and all that that entails and might be able to provide some helpful insight.

[sbarber]

what about getting creative... like pumping water through a long coil of pipe in your house?

In theory that could help keep some (or most) of the water at "room temperature". I still think heaters/chiller etc would be needed but keeping the water flowing through your house which is already being heated or cooled would reduce the load.
I once made a chiller by passively running water through a huge coil of airline tubing that was placed in a little dorm fridge. Kinda like the same thing.