Is a basement suitable

[Torrean]

It gets cold down there in the winter so I had to ask before i tried it. Will it be ok for the fish to stay down there. I am considering a 90 gallon and I'm not sure if the floor upstairs will hold 800+ pounds

 

[wrs]

all mine are in the basement, and they are fine. Though the only tank that has a high temp is the one with the all glass aquarium heater.

The others are in the 72-74 range.

 

[Torrean]

I keep the tank at 80. My heater would wear out quickly wouldn't it. Could I get two heaters? One on each end of the tank. If I do this should I buy two full sized heaters or two half sized or one full and one half or......

 

[Tolak]

All but 1 of my tanks are in the basement. They do just fine with 5 watts per gallon. Most of them are 80F+. If you are worried about heat loss in a large unfinished basement, tack some old bedsheets from the ceiling down to the floor around the tank area to reduce heat loss.

Tolak

 

[SirMinion]

Two heaters are good practice in a cold enviroment anyway. That way if one fails there won't be a temperature crash.

 

[rdd1952]

I would love to have a basement to put them in, preferably one with no windows so there would be no sunlight. That way it would be much easier to control the amount of light plants (and algae) gets.

 

[freddyk]

The basement is absolutely fine. Your floor upstairs will also hold the tank no problem as long as you don't do anything silly like put it right in the middle of the floor. It's best along a load bearing wall.

 

[Torrean]

I also heard that you should put it across the rafters rather than along them.

 

[GSD]

as long as you have a heater the tanks should be fine!i have my hosp and spare tanks and goldfish in the garage(no cars are in though)and they are fine

 

[BigC]

If you insulate the basement ( 8'x4' polystyrene sheets or similar) or partition part of it off and insulate that, then you will save money on heating costs. I've done this before in a celler and heated the whole place with a 3kw fan heater coupled to a thermostat. But insulation is the key.

 

[Jen]

If you stand has a large foot print (ie... a solid base instead of 4 legs) it should be fine upstairs against a load bearing wall.

 

[troutfly]

Ahhhhh! The joys of having a place on a solid concrete slb, no weight worries there.

If I had a basement, it would be covered with a model train set, could you imagine a "real" lake in the middle of that with live fish, that would be cool.....