Guppy Tub

[cooledwhip]

I live in chicago and I have a guppy tub outside. its about 30 gallons with guppies and lots of plants + water hyacinth. I want to know if I can keep it out during winter, I live in chicago so we get temps from 0-20 degrees farenheit. Would I be able to put a heater in there or no? sorry if this sounds stupid lol

 

[NickAu]

 
Would I be able to put a heater in there or no?

I doubt that the heater would make much difference, It might stop the water from completely freezing but thats about it, I think the guppies would be long dead before the water temp got low enough to actually freeze.

 

[Mark Z.]

What do you mean by "tub?" If it is above ground, I would think it could freeze solid!
 
I have a small goldfish pond here in NJ and I put a de-icer ring in it to keep the top from freezing solid. The goldfish go dormant in the winter, but I don't think the guppies would.
 
I would bring it inside no later than October.

 

[StevenF]

Forwhat it is worth there is calculator that can estimate the heater size you need.  http/www.kernsanalysis.com/HeaterCalculator.cgi
 
I have no idea if this is accurate for keeping a tank at 75F when the outide air temperature is 0F.  The caculator assumes no cover and uninsulated sides of the aquarium.   You can calculate for glass or acrylic.  I also assumed the aquarium is a 20 X 20 X 20" cube ( The a more thermally efficient shape .  Using this I calculated a glass aquarium would probably need a 500watt heater.  For an acrylic tank on a wood base you probably would need a 200W heater.  
 
However I must stress that I have no idea if the caculator is giving an accurate estimate under such an extrem temperature differential.  You might want to double the heater sizes and have higher water flow levels out of the filter to insure there are no cold spots in the aquarium.  Water evaporative heat losses on a cold day would be a big problem and would cool the tank significantly.  Also the temperature differential might cause an aquarium to crack.  If the water does freeze the aquarium will crack and your fish will be dead.
 
For this to work you probably should insulate the back, sides, and bottom with high density foam inulation (the thicker it is the better.  Put a tight fitting insulated lid on the aquarium to minimize evaporatitive heat losses. And probably add a water top off system to prevent all the water from evaporating.  Also a backup power supply (a large one) would be needed to keep the aquarium warm during a blackout.  Furthermore I would first test this on an aquarium without fish at winter temperatures for several months before trying this with fish.  
 
I would recommend moving the tank inside during the winter.  

 

[nic1]

Have you got a picture of the guppy tub? Im just interested :0)