Bi-Weekly Discussion of the Week: Water temp control!

[Geoff]

Lets talk about everyones favorite springtime activity, water temperature control!

now that winter is about over and all our tanks are starting to warm up, what do you all do to keep the tank temps under control?

G~

[Phishnoob]

I use a fan blowing over the water and a beer fridge homemade chiller. Oh we keep the house a bit chilly too, but I make it up to Mrs. Phish with lots of fires at night during movie and snuggle time.

Phishnoob

[kwjones]

I only have 80 watts of normal output, so I really don't have to worry too much about it yet. I'd really like to have this problem because that would mean I have corals in the tank... We have a house full of bulldogs, which don't do well with the summer heat, so we keep the AC set for "Antarctic" and wait for the penguins to knock on the door.

I'm still going to buy a clip on fan for the sump just in case.

[Rob_Reef_Keeper]

I went and purchased a dual stage temp controller.

I have my titanium heater on one side and a 6in clip on fan in my canopy blowing on the water surface. It increases the evaporation and cools the tank.

Since getting the controller my tank has not moved from 79 degrees.

In the summer we run the air conditioning all day for the tanks.

[gumhead]

From my website...

August 23, 2002
The Heat wars are over!
This past summer has been the hottest here in New England in a long time. We have had three heat waves this summer with detrimental affects on my tank. On the first heat wave my tank went up over 90 degrees! My torch coral suffered some polyp recession and then infection. I was able to frag it and save one branch. Over the heat waves I was able to keep the temperature down by putting gallon jugs of frozen RO/DI water in the sump. Blowing fans directly on the sump also helped. Yet the tank still hovered around 85-87 degrees. Not good for corals! My beautiful hammer coral also showed signs of recession and no full polyp extension. It also got infected and dyed. More corals were showing signs of bleaching.

Then help arrived! A friend of mine on the west cost offered me a chiller! Wow what can I say he was literally a life saver. Now everything is doing better and I am nursing some of the corals back to health. My temp stays between 79-81 degrees now, which I feel is the optimal temperature.

I am having a bit of an algae bloom on my sand bed but this is to be expected... The death of the hammer was quick and polluted the tank and my nitrates went up. bacteria thrive in higher temps and this might also contribute to the algae bloom. I am doing small 5 gallon water changes and siphoning the algae out every two days. This seems to be working as I am seeing less new algae.

That was a few years ago. I have since had Central air put in the house and move the sump into the basement.

[RWD]

Well for nearly three years I battled high water temps in my 300 reef. Two summers ago I lost quite a few sps's to what looked like a RTN episode. I think it was brought on by the stress os the high tank temps but who knows??

I have 2 Radio Shack fans and 3 IceCap fans in the hood. The lighting is 3 400 watt mh and 4 75 watt vho's so it gets pretty hot in the hood. The IC fans are on at the same time as the mh, one fan per bulb. I also had a clip on fan blowing across the sump. Another RS fan is mounted in the back of the stand to vent the heat and moisture that would build up in the stand. Even with all the fans the tank temp would reach 86+ in the summer months. I have central air conditioning and the tank is located in the coolest room of the house.

The way I fixed the problem was with a 1/3 hp Arctica chiller. It has a built in controller and is set for 78 degrees +/- 1 degree. Chiller goes on at 79 and off at 77. Sometimes the tank temp drifts down to 76 durring the winter months but this has not been a problem for the tank.

[icebear]

i keep mine in the basement

[RenDragon]

Originally posted by icebear
i keep mine in the basement

That's what I need to do, forget about the expense of a chiller, I need to build a basement instead.

[yardboy]

I've used a sump fan and hood fan on my 70, but the 150 has no canopy and I'm hoping fans will work for it also. With only 2-VHO actinics, which were cool to the touch thanks to hood fans, the temp got up to 86 just from pump heat. It's going to be a difficult battle, I can see. A chiller is probably in my future.
I've thought about a basement, but with a water table about a foot beneath the surface, I'd be swimming in it before it was finished!

[kwjones]

hmmm....a basement reef, just add salt and hang lots of lights from the ceiling.

[DKKA]

Here's something I've been pondering:

I've thought about setting up an extra 20 gal glass tank next to the main tank and plumbing it in like an unlit refugium. My thoughts are that heat would dissipate from the glass and from the open top. Plus the extra surface area would increase evap. cooling.
Anyone done this?

I'm sure it would help, I just don't know if it would be any more effective than adding a couple fans. (I guess I don't like fans, thats why I've been thinking of alternatives.)

Dan

[Geoff]

it would help. i do not know how much though without a fan blowing on the waters surface. also agitating the waters surface would also help with evaporation.

G~

[andycook]

Run your lights at night when it is cooler.

[USA reefer]

I will have two 4" fans in the hood and a clip-on 8" fan blowing over sump in the stand.

Also will be putting A/C in the kitchen window which seems to keep the tank temp down pretty good. Of coarse I live in the mountains of Montana so we don't get alot of real hot days. Johnny

[Jimbo]

A/C unit blows on the tank, 10" box fan blowing on the back of the tank. Maintains 78 pretty well. The temp outside got up to 80 the other day and my house remained cool. My A/C unit can only keep up with the one room though and I need to keep the humidity down for it to work affectivly.