Zero's upcoming frag tank man-cave

[Grant W]

Ron, If you want to control the temp in that area you could build a wall on the left and some doors across the front. Maybe using barn door type hardware so you can roll them completely out of the way very easily. If you create a "room" like this you could even get under the house and extend one of the heating ducts into this area. As you probably already know lumber is quite cheap and you could use screws to assemble the whole thing making changes very easy.

 

[zeroinverse]

Have you looked into the garage door insulating panels. I have heard they work well. I have been thinking about getting some but haven't pulled the trigger on it yet.

Already done a few winters ago.

 

[zeroinverse]

Ron, If you want to control the temp in that area you could build a wall on the left and some doors across the front. Maybe using barn door type hardware so you can roll them completely out of the way very easily. If you create a "room" like this you could even get under the house and extend one of the heating ducts into this area. As you probably already know lumber is quite cheap and you could use screws to assemble the whole thing making changes very easy.

Heating ducts is an idea. A bit better than my idea to install a second gas furnace/wall heater in the garage. Would have required gas piping and ventilation.

The ducts will help warm the space, but will probably be inadequate since we turn off heat downstairs during the night to save money.

The barn doors is good thought. In short term, I plan to build a "hanging insulator" to seal that area off so I can retain heat better. But the barn doors I may be able to do later (or maybe hanging closet doors) since I have that overhead storage wood I could hang it off of.

On the left, hard to build a wall to enclose since my garage side door is there, so no space.

 

[zeroinverse]

See the garage side door on left and the right man-cave entrance.

 

[Grant W]

2x4's on flat and rigid insulation should do it.

 

[woodnaquanut]

You might find something like the 'Hot Dawg' heater to be useful and the cheapest solution in the long run. If you get one of these, get the kind that has 'separated-combustion'

It would be a great excuse to turn the entire garage into the 'FishMan Cave'

 

[Grant W]

Now your talkin John.

 

[woodnaquanut]

If you gonna fishman cave it, you might as well go all the way!

No guts, no glory!

 

[zeroinverse]

Hahaha! We just put in a wall divider in our garage so we can split our 2+1 car garage space. So my "1-car" space is my work area (compromise was our cats get to sleep there).

As for putting in combustion furnace... Sounds like a possibility, but not sure I am ready to spend $500-$1000 for the furnace plus the installation.

For now, when I have my lights warming the space, I will see what happens.

 

[zeroinverse]

Lighting: for coral growth, should I use 4 T5HOs which will run me about 216 watts (54W x 4) or run a single 250W MH?

This will be on a 12" high frag tank with maybe 11" of water with a 4-6" high rack. So really corals will be 5-6" from water surface.

Can 250MH get enough coverage on a 48"x24" footprint? Or will T5HOs be good enough for growth?

 

[lokii_37]

I have never run MH but I think 48" will be to wide of an area to cover with 1 bulb.

Are you going to run the lights at night to help combat the cooler nights?

 

[zeroinverse]

Lokii,
Run at night for lower electricity rate and to keep it warmer.

 

[zeroinverse]

Filled with water and testing to make sure seams don't tear out. Looks fine so far. 36+ hours and counting.

Going to give it another week since I still need to make enough water for it.

Sounds like I need to go buy more salt.