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New to BAR, and new to the Bay Area...

I once read through a long thread on RC about a Portuguese reefer who put his tank outside, surrounded by foam on all the sides and bottom, buried in the ground so its temp would be more stable. It was only accessible from the top removable glass panel and filtration was remote through piping buried under the ground leading to a sump/equipment shack. His tank was lit by sunlight only. It was really pretty impressive, but in the end it was too difficult to work on and after temperature issues when the outside temps reached the low 30s, he ended up taking down that tank and building a reef greenhouse for his tanks to keep them warmer. I'm not sure if I am allowed to post links to other forums, so forgive me mods if I am not, but here is the link to that thread: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1095596&highlight=vitor+pestana.

I figure it might give you some tips and point out problems you might not have considered. Best of luck!
 
I'm absolutely loving the weather here. Wow is all I can say. Can't believe I wasted so much of my life stuck indoors because of the cold.
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Don't worry you'll get acclimated to it, then eventually become as much of a wuss as the rest of us. "Oooh it's 50°F it's freezing, I'm going to die!!!" "Ugh... it's 85° I think I'm dying of heat stroke".
 
good luck.
My guess is most of the heat will be lost out the top.
sealing the top seems tricky if you plan to have lights.
 
gaberosenfield said:
I once read through a long thread on RC about a Portuguese reefer who put his tank outside, surrounded by foam on all the sides and bottom, buried in the ground so its temp would be more stable. It was only accessible from the top removable glass panel and filtration was remote through piping buried under the ground leading to a sump/equipment shack. His tank was lit by sunlight only. It was really pretty impressive, but in the end it was too difficult to work on and after temperature issues when the outside temps reached the low 30s, he ended up taking down that tank and building a reef greenhouse for his tanks to keep them warmer. I'm not sure if I am allowed to post links to other forums, so forgive me mods if I am not, but here is the link to that thread: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1095596&highlight=vitor+pestana.

I figure it might give you some tips and point out problems you might not have considered. Best of luck!
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Thanks for reminding me of that thread. I remember reading it and I kinda lost track and never saw that he covered it with a greenhouse.

I suspect the fact the tank was in the ground contributed to high heat loss. Even with foam insulation, the ground is going to conduct heat away from the tank more effectively than air.

But I did really like that tank. It was quite unique.

Hmm it's definitely a consideration how to work on the tank when it's cooler or hotter outside.

I suspect if I decide to go forward with this that I'll have to build it up assuming the tank could ultimately be moved indoors if stability is an issue.

Thanks!


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sfsuphysics said:
Don't worry you'll get acclimated to it, then eventually become as much of a wuss as the rest of us. "Oooh it's 50°F it's freezing, I'm going to die!!!" "Ugh... it's 85° I think I'm dying of heat stroke".
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Ha ha. Yeah I suspect visiting family in the winter months I'm Canada will be something I'll want to avoid over time.

Still loving the weather though.

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JAR said:
good luck.
My guess is most of the heat will be lost out the top.
sealing the top seems tricky if you plan to have lights.
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That's a very valid point. Evaporation is definitely where most heat would be lost. My thought is to use Led lighting. I ran a Nano with diy Cree led lighting and worked up a canopy setup where the leds were separated from the water surface by an acrylic panel. This both protected them from moisture and allowed me to actively vent the lights. Something along those lines would be necessary I suspect. Cooling the lights in the heat of summer could be fun though.



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tygunn said:
So, I did a bit of research to try and figure out what my heating requirements would be for a tank outdoors.
I'm assuming a 2' x 2' cube for my calculations.
...
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Fun stuff !!

Not sure about using 2 for air convective heat transfer coefficient.
The air speed near that surface is really low.
Or maybe too low, if you are calculating for outside on a windy night.

But do not exclude the evaporation effect!!!
It can be the majority of your heat loss.
Using the same 25C - 20C, I think a 0.5m surface is something like 100W
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/evaporation-water-surface-d_690.html
Could be way off depending on constants used of course. Especially air velocity.
 
tygunn said:
That's a very valid point. Evaporation is definitely where most heat would be lost. My thought is to use Led lighting. I ran a Nano with diy Cree led lighting and worked up a canopy setup where the leds were separated from the water surface by an acrylic panel. This both protected them from moisture and allowed me to actively vent the lights. Something along those lines would be necessary I suspect. Cooling the lights in the heat of summer could be fun though.



Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
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Oops, did not read page 2 first.
:)
 
Haha well it seems I'm being tided over by my 37g many for now. Still going to model this out in solid works to see what the heat losses may look like though.

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