Need help with my 10 gal

Pend · 06-06-2005, 07:47 PM

Okay so I'm pretty new to this whole salt water aquarium thing. I set up a 10 gal tank about a month ago and everything seems to be going pretty good until this week. I guess I never really thought about it much, but I am a college student without A/C and I'm not allowed to put in a window unit so these past few days as it has been getting hotter my tank has also been getting hotter. I guess my question is which option would be less stressful for my tank? Option #1 I leave everything as it is and during the day the tank heats up to around 90ish and then at night goes back down to 82F which is what my heater is set at. Option #2 I raise my heater up to 92F and then the tank would be 92F all the time, but the people at Inland Aquatics (the place I have been buying my stuff from) tell me that I shouldn't run my tank any hotter then 80F. Anyway, so far all I have in there is like 20 lbs live sand, 7 lbs live rock, 2 turbo snails, 2 cleaner shrimp, 1 "clown" fish (can anyone tell what kind it is just by my attached picture?), 1 derasa clam, 1 frag of star polyp, and 1 frag of some kind of SPS coral which I forget what it's called. Thanks for the help guys!ffice

ffice" />>>

Loverotties · 06-06-2005, 08:15 PM

do you have glass on top?

Loverotties · 06-06-2005, 08:19 PM

If so take it off,raises your lights a couple inches with legs run a fan across the top to help cool.maybe add a hang on filter and add icecubes in a sealed bag and keep changing it.

Tim224DT · 06-06-2005, 08:22 PM

When i had my 15 gallon i had the same problem. So i raised the lights a little bit then added one of those 6in clip on fans to keep it cool.

Tim

Pend · 06-06-2005, 09:01 PM

No I don't have any glass on top, but my light is sitting directly on the tank. I could try raising it up somehow, but my tank is only 20" long and my light which is a Custom Sealife power compact 2 x 65 watt is 30 1/2" long so putting the legs on it doesn't help me raise it up.

VWD · 06-07-2005, 12:43 AM

I agree You need to raise the lights and use a fan to help with the coolong, just have to add top off water more often.

Loverotties · 06-07-2005, 05:27 AM

Put some wood on the end of youe tank fram or something to raise it.

petshopboy78 · 06-11-2005, 03:46 AM

my nano got up to 94 degrees a few weeks ago and killed about $100 worth of livestock. I agree, you have to figure out a way to raise the lights. For your animals sake!

Pend · 06-12-2005, 01:50 AM

Thanks for the advice guys. I had no idea just putting a fan that blows over the top of the water would help so much. I went to walmart and bought a 10" box fan and leave it on low all day and it keeps it at 80 or at least pretty close all day!

CoralNerd · 06-12-2005, 02:15 AM

For about thirty bucks, I bought a "ultra-quiet" P.C. fan and a 12 volt power supply which dropped my 75 gallon temperature down to 78 down from 83 which is just about perfect in case my A.C. fails

I would imagine though that you could design a tank based on relatively high (or low) temperatures if you are dedicated to have a reef tank in an extreme environment. Hmmmm????