Outside tanks

From Keiths thread on keeping his outside tank warm in winter. It was interesting to see how many people have tanks outside their homes.
Most of us with MTS eventually run out of space for keeping tanks inside the house.
I thought we could share ideas around this. What fish is being kept?
What part of the country you live? Do you run the tanks in summer and winter? What fish can survive our cold winters without a heater? Do you use heaters in summer?..etc.


This winter I have 2 tanks outside under the carport. 1 has cold water plants no heater or air pump. My other is an “emersed setup†with no heater or pump, surprisingly my bacopa is still alive with a water temp of 5'C.
I also have Anubias Afzaeli tied to a soaking log in a 20l bucket also doing fine in this cold temperatures.
The only fish I have kept outside with no heaters are goldfish. Goldfish are tough as nails surviving 2’C of water.

Not to add to members MTS but just interesting to see what will survive, what will flourish and what will die.

 

Pics would be also interesting .

 

I have 1 community tank inside. Heater set at 26degrees. In winter it's on a lot... in summer it's hardly on... only early hours of the morning. Often I will get home in the afternoon adnt ehtank has risen to 27 or 28. Though it was a faulty heater.. until I turned it off for a week one week and temp stayed the same.

Small Nano 12litre tank has a small 25watt heater that is on a LOT. The canopy doesn't seal the tank, as the condensation over night blows my globes when I turn on in the morning... so I liften the canopy about 10mm above the glass. This results in the surface of the water getting cold a lot faster in the evenings, ans the heater working a lot at night.

No tanks outside...

 

One of the fish that will survive in an outside tank, are the White Cloud minnows.
A friend is keeping several in his outside tanks.

 

Pictures of my 1 meter and 1.5ft out side tanks
Every time I look at the Bacopa, I am still amazed it has not died yet

 

Khalid--- whilst taking the THIRD picture your little lighty was walking out the gate aiming for the Toyota.
Judging by the amount of paint tins around there as well, I would assume you recenly repainted the house?

 

LOL - no did not paint
At any one time I have about five 20l paint buckets in the yard for water changes
When taking pictures outside it is difficult not to get the reflections, have to wait for night or a very cloaudy day

 

No worries about the reflection mate. It's someties interesting to see the surroundings. I oly noticed when ZP pointed it out in the photo competition 2 about the reflection in tanks. Went back to look at my pic... and noticed there's a lovely reflection of the view out my balcony door.

 

yep I agree - I also find it interesting, the surrounding reflections dotell a whole new story

 

My tanks are now about 1 year inside my brothers big carport. The carport is enclosed but the cold still enters. I went to Sam's Petshop and bought 8 sheets of 1.2m styrafoam and I covered the top of both tanks (1.2m & 2.0m) and also the sump. By doing this my temp started to become stable. I am busy designing a cabinets for both my tanks using plywood and then I am going to use the styrafoam and inserted on the back and side glass of the tank which will be enclosed by the cabinet. With this your tank will retain the heat during winter and summer I would then turn down my heater. My 2.0m tank gets the evening sunset at a glance where algae has form in corner and most of my tropheus enjoys this corner. I had also installed blinds so when the sun is to bright I then draw down the blinds. The tank does not get direct sunlight as the sheets covering the carport breaks the direct sunlight rays.

See that electricty is getting so expensive I am busy saving for solar energy. I have been browesing the internet and found a company. The initial set-up is expensive but look at the long term how expensive electricty is becoming. One will be able to save and by more tanks & more fish. I am on the US Cichlid forum and Pam Chin does not use heaters she has fish rooms and the heat is isolated inside these rooms.

 

What is interesting to not Keith, is that if you install a "reversible" meter in your power box, when your own electricity that is being generated is not being used, (for eg when you are at work and no one at home) that electricity can be "sold back" to eskom. They won't really pay you anything... though. You will appreciate that you would need a MASSIVE solar panel, and a really good battery or capacitor to store that electricity to run your geyser, stove, and heaters in winter. So basically during this "high demand" times, you would still be drawing power from eskom. So what would happen is that you would draw 1kw (for eg) for the month, but give back 0.2kw when you not using. Eskom will then only bill you for 0.8kw. Now if Eskom would offer a kickback or a rebate on anyone doing this, I'm sure it would become a lot more viable in our market.