Hot enough for ya???

[Sushiman]

That's right; it's that time of year again folks! The first real blast of heat that freaks us all out so much while we're at work & our tanks sit at home all toasty warm...
How's everyone doing? Any horror stories or is everyone kissing their A/C's & chillers? Share your joy, share your pain, we'll listen (if we can hear you over the sounds of boiling Acro's in the background of course).

[Chad]

My tank is sitting pretty at 81 degree. 24/7 with my temp control. I have an AC unit for the house, so that keeps everything nice :)

[OCDP]

Simple solution for me is to simply cut back the photoperiod. Lights go on at 11 and go off at 3 before it gets too hot. Tank is at 82 . No worries from here on in..

[christyf5]

*kisses chiller* :razz:

[Kabong]

My set temp is 80,
Mine peaked at about 82.4, But its on its way back down now.

[Tom R]

My temp is holding at 78 / 79. Thanks to having my tanks in the cooool basement. I will reduce the time the lights are on for the next few days.

[Funky_Fish14]

I dont know why all of the sudden my tank finds itself at 83-84 at mid-day, and 80 at night, even with the A/C on. I've always had it at 79. I think the Seios I have are garbage heat producers.

Im not having any problems due to the temp though... it rose slowly, and it doesnt fluctuate too much. I think im going to DYI a chiller though now...

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Normally at 78C, today reached 81C but holding steady. Gotta let in some cool night air tonight. But even our ground floor suite is starting to heat up a bit.

Anthony

[Chaloupa]

I'm with Christy...kissing the chiller on the reef tank...the other tanks have to have the lids open and lighting periods lessened! ( and a small prayer that no one decides to carpet surf out the open tops! )

[reeferaddict]

I haven't gone over 79.5 yet. Hard vented the tank outside and have 2 5 inch fans on fairly quick speed but could go higher yet. AC and chiller are doing what they're supposed to, I haven't changed the lighting schedule.

*wipes brow*

[atcguy]

I have been simulating a nasty massive storm the past few days. Turned up my Tunxe wavemaker and turned of my halides. Just actinics for 2 days and 8 hours a day.

even with lights out I think I peaked at 84. then back to 80 in the morning. I have a large fan over sump!!

[Aquattro]

Ya, the chiller is pumping away, tank stays at 79 all day. Which is good, because my condo probably hits 90 by the end of the day! I need a condo chiller for us!

[Beverly]

Glad to report our AC is keeping everyone cool :)

We put our indoor thermometer/humidity reader out on our balcony on hot days. Yesterday, it hit 41 C in the mid-day sun. Was up at 4 a.m. this morning and it was 20 C out there. By 7:30 a.m. it had already climbed to 22 C in the shade. High expected to be 33 C here today, but on our balcony it's always at least a degree higher. Heat wave forecast goes into next week, but sure hope it cools down some before then. Can't stand AC on at night with no fresh air :(

[nanoreefer]

my tanks are geting hit hard sence there all nano/pico, yesterday my 2.5 peaked at 90! and my xenia has melted but worest is i havent seen my firefish today:sad: , its at 84-87 with the lights on and my 1g is at 88 but the cleaner shrimp and coral seem to be ok, i wasent realy ready for the heat sence last year my room wasent that hot but the last two days were bad iam going to have to find some fans and hope they help or that this heat gos away soon or iam not sure what will happen:neutral:

[adidas]

I better check the temp on my tank!

[Rikko]

*walks over to side of tank*
*looks at thermometer*
86.7
*buried head in sand*

I usually just open up my stand on a hot day and blow a really powerful room fan into the stand - it's usually able to drop it by a good 4 degrees on a scorcher.

[sumpfinfishe]

Holding steady at 81* as I have a good fan cooling down the sump, I don't like the 2gl a day top off thing tho :mrgreen:

[rickjames]

With no one home, AC on, fan on sump, top proped open, My tank still hit 84.9.:cry: Since I am going on vacation for 9 days, i can't risk it. Finally broke down and bought a chiller. It will get to run for a week before I leave so hopefully i can iron out any potential problems, appears to be working good so far though.

[Samw]

Currently 29.9C with one MH light on. So I have just turned off all lights now. Room temperature is 30.5C using the same thermometer. I guess the evaporative cooling on my tank is making it cooler than room temperature by a bit.

[OCDP]

I think the easiest solution for tanks without chillers and what not... just cut back your photoperiod. Turn the lights on in the AM , and off once it hits noon.. keep 'em off til later in the evening.. turn 'em back on again if need be. That's what I am doing.... 20g with 250w HQI in a bedroom and I am at 83-84... not too bad considering.

[rickjames]

Except for the fact that it is barely getting under 20C at night here. I wake up in the morning and the tank is still 83F, because the house doesnt even have a chance to cool down. How do you cool down a tank colder then the air?

Global warming i tell you... :twised: Gotta get central A/C by for next summer!

[Samw]

How do you cool down a tank colder then the air?


You can do that through evaporative cooling which is just having a fan blowing across the top of the water surface.

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/saltwater/Kim_SettingUp.html

"Through the proper use of fans (evaporative cooling), you can usually drop a tank's temperature by a good 5 degrees. Fans are great! "

http://www.coralplantations.com/pages/heatissues.htm

"The effect of evaporative cooling is greater than most people realize. A small desk fan mounted above a tank blowing across the water can drop the temperature by 3 degrees or so depending on the tank volume. "

http://www.vividaquariums.com/troubleshooting.asp

It is possible to cool an aquarium by 5 or 6 degrees using this method of ventilation and evaporative cooling.

[Samw]

Glad to report our AC is keeping everyone cool :)

We put our indoor thermometer/humidity reader out on our balcony on hot days. Yesterday, it hit 41 C in the mid-day sun. Was up at 4 a.m. this morning and it was 20 C out there. By 7:30 a.m. it had already climbed to 22 C in the shade. High expected to be 33 C here today, but on our balcony it's always at least a degree higher. Heat wave forecast goes into next week, but sure hope it cools down some before then. Can't stand AC on at night with no fresh air :(


Bev, thanks for using Celsius. That's the only unit that I understand. :biggrin:

[Mike Olson]

My chiller has been awesome.....today I noticed it wasnt keeping up though....here the filter cloth on the intake was very dirty. All is well again! Before I had the chiller, I was putting frozen 2l bottles of water in the sump before work....did the job.

[mr_alberta]

My tank runs at 85*F these last few days. No lights, chiller on for 12hrs/day :eek:

Unfortunatly for me, the drop in chiller pumps all the heat into my apartment. Ambient was about 30*C. Night is about 25*C.

[EmilyB]

We seem to be pretty lucky because the tanks are downstairs in a walkout basement. However, it's been stinkin' hot and I have actually just been monitoring the temp by watching the clams and the fish. If they are happy, I am.

I figured I had better pop in a thermometer with all this heat talk, and the temp was 30C so I guess I'll shut the lights down for a few days.

[StirCrazy]

Well, seeing as I have nothing but live rock I don't care this summer about the temp, my chiller is shut down, no lights on the new tank as all it has is water. (don't want to add anything till painting and new skimmer are done, well maybe the rock soon) but if I had to keep things cool a chiller would be the only way for this weather as evaporative cooling like Sam said is good for 5 or 6 degrees, but on my tank before the chiller I could easily get up to 100+ degrees so 5 or 6 didn't cut it as my tank used to get up to low 90's on hot days like this.

Central air is good for a little bit of cooling and if you don't have MH it will probably be enough, but remember air is a very pour source of cooling power as it heat value is about 1/4 that of water so you would need a lot of cool air flow to remove the heat caused by MH light and I don't know of any central ACs that are affordable that could keep up to the demands of a large tank.

Steve

[marie]

Basement sump works for me :mrgreen: . My 175g hasn't got above 84

[b_james]

Over the weekend we had temps reaching 35C, in fact by 11:00AM the temp already hit 30C. My tank temp maxed out at 72.9F without a chiller. I guess having the sump/fuge located in the basement really helps keeping the upstairs tank cool - not to mention having central A/C is a plus in keeping the tank cool.

[Xtasia]

Just an idea.. but wouldn't it be better to get an AC that will keep the room and the tank cool?


My tank runs at 85*F these last few days. No lights, chiller on for 12hrs/day :eek:

Unfortunatly for me, the drop in chiller pumps all the heat into my apartment. Ambient was about 30*C. Night is about 25*C.

[Xtasia]

Before this heatwave I already began to migrate my tank to a different time period. My lights are on at 12 midnight and run until 7am... Actinics are on from 6-10 at night so I can see them when I get home from work... Fan is on all day. to keep the tank cooler than the room.

My thoughts are its cooler and night, and why wouldn't I turn it on then rather than in in the morning or early evening when it's still considerably hot?

[chwkreefer]

Central air is good for a little bit of cooling and if you don't have MH it will probably be enough, but remember air is a very pour source of cooling power as it heat value is about 1/4 that of water so you would need a lot of cool air flow to remove the heat caused by MH light and I don't know of any central ACs that are affordable that could keep up to the demands of a large tank.

Steve

I have a heat pump on my house. It costs about a dollar a day to run. I keep my 150 gallon tank upstairs and my tank temps vary between 76 and 78. I have a pretty good exhaust fan which creates negative air pressure to draw the cool 73 degree air into the lighting area. I have two fans blowing over the tank. Water overheating problems are not an issue for me and it's strictly due to the ambient temperature of the house. Bill

[Midknight]

Was going to switch to night lighting but forgot trying to get ready for vacation:redface:
Came home after 4 days near Nelson with 40c temp.
both tanks had lost over 20% water volume and temp in the high 80's
My 10G nano lost primary cerculation but did have a small pump moving some water and my bigger 33 had lots of water movment, was the water cascaded down several inchs to the new water level!!! :eek:
To my surprise everybody was well and waiting for a nice drink of water. :drinking:

[danny zubot]

Mine peeked at 88-89F the other day. No ill effects though, maybe my thermometer is wrong.

My clowns have been doing the mating dance a lot these days, coincidence?

I may try cutting down my photo period a bit, I don't want to tempt fate.

[Jaws]

I took my filter off my chiller pump to clean it the other day because the chiller was having trouble keeping up. I took the front cover off the chiller too so the filter didn't clog. My only mistake was I forgot to plug the chiller pump back in afterwards and came home to an 88 degree tank after work. The fish were breathing pretty heavily but I plugged the pump back in and slowly brought the temp back down to 78 after 8 hours. I consider myself very luck because with the amount of lighting on my tank I could have cooked everything very quickly. I'm please to report that there were no fatalities and everything seems to be doing quite well. The only thing I can manage is the heat in my condo. Even with an 11000 BTU air conditioner, it's no match for the amount of heat that my chiller pumps out. The coolest day in my condo all year was the day I forgot to plug the chiller pump back in.

[christyf5]

Hehe I agree with that one. My basement gets stinking hot with the amount of heat the chiller pumps out. When I can't stand the heat anymore I just go visit the freezer aisle of the local grocery store :razz:

[mark]

Was approaching 85°F (should have extended the fans beyond the MHs) but all that's behind me now.

Got the central AC installed last week, I'm happy, wife's happier and the tank is running at about a steady 79°.

[b_james]

Just an idea.. but wouldn't it be better to get an AC that will keep the room and the tank cool?

Xtasia is right, My 230 Gal with MH lighting is in an AC enviroment and never raises above 72-73F even on 35 degree days. BTW I bet you its probaly cheaper to run a properly sized central AC system than a chiller. Then again without more info I cant say...

[StirCrazy]

I have a pretty good exhaust fan which creates negative air pressure to draw the cool 73 degree air into the lighting area. I have two fans blowing over the tank. Water overheating problems are not an issue for me and it's strictly due to the ambient temperature of the house. Bill

I would say your fans are doing most of the work. Central AC does help, by lowering the air temp enabling it to pick up more heat before it is equalized, but on its own usually isn't enuf, the question that remains now is how much water are you losing a day due to evaporative cooling? I was able to keep my tank under 82 with fans but I was losing 5 gal a day on a 90 gal tank, with the chiller I only lose 2 gal a day so that is a difference of 3 gal a day less water vapor being pumped into my house and up to 100 gal less of RO / month I have to make.

Steve

[b_james]

Even with an 11000 BTU air conditioner, it's no match for the amount of heat that my chiller pumps out. The coolest day in my condo all year was the day I forgot to plug the chiller pump back in.

Without the chiller running, how cool do you keep your condo during a heat wave? If your AC can maintain a 21C temp during the hotest day of the year even with your MH lights on, There is a good chance you should be able to maintain a much cooler water temperature in your tank. Right now your cooling your tank by stealing BTUs from your AC unit as the heat rejection from your chiller is using capacity from your central AC unit therfore making you chiller work harder - vicious circle.

[Chaloupa]

Hey Ivy-I agree on the room AC....if the room isn't hot...the tanks don't get hot.

We resorted to a small window AC in our kitchen with a couple of FOWLR (with a coral or two in them...:redface:) closed the room tightly and today the temps look OK. The 120g was at 87 yesterday and today is at 79-80 and the 50g was at 88+ yesterday and is at 82-83 today...both have fans blowing on them also today as we didn't quite realize HOW hot they actually were until we got more thermometers yesterday. Thank God for the chiller on the reef tank or it would have hit low 90's as it did last year and we would be picking out shrimp bodies...(never buy a stucco house with lots of windows....ARGH! Gets smokin hot inside)

[Quagmire]

Im useing a 6" fan over the sump and a 16" occilating fan blowing across the top of the tank.The temp still slowly goes up over the day,so after work I add a bottle or 2 of ice.Today it was only 81c when I got home.Oh ya and close to 5 gal a day make up water.

[Samw]

But for those using AC, don't you turn it off when no one's home? AC doesn't seem like a 24/7 solution.

[Beverly]

I turn the AC off when it's cool enough to do so. If it's hot overnight, the AC stays on. If it cools off overnight, which I hope it does tonight, the AC goes off. When the weather isn't hot, the AC isn't on.

[mark]

But for those using AC, don't you turn it off when no one's home? AC doesn't seem like a 24/7 solution.

Maybe not the most energy-sense but don't see why I should come home to an oven (place was getting to 88° without) plus the tank was one of the considerations when purchased the unit. Also have the thermostat at 75° so not feeling that guilty.

[andrewsk]

When we bought Central air this year, we were told NOT to keep turning it on and off. thay said to pick a comfortable temp and stick to it.

Turning it on when you get home puts more strain on the system and can cause it to freeze up.

[chwkreefer]

I would say your fans are doing most of the work. Central AC does help, by lowering the air temp enabling it to pick up more heat before it is equalized, but on its own usually isn't enuf, the question that remains now is how much water are you losing a day due to evaporative cooling? I was able to keep my tank under 82 with fans but I was losing 5 gal a day on a 90 gal tank, with the chiller I only lose 2 gal a day so that is a difference of 3 gal a day less water vapor being pumped into my house and up to 100 gal less of RO / month I have to make.

Steve

Without the central AC from the Heat Pump my tank would be toast. Right now I'm not sure how much evaporation I'm getting as currently my sump is connected directly to my RO/DI. I will be installing a reservoir in between the two once the final repairs from the flood are completed. I think the tank generally sweats about 4-5 gallons per day. I leave my elicient (exhaust) fan running 24/7. The other fans come on after the MH's come on. I have 1100 watts of light on top of my 150. 2 - 400watt MH and 2 - 110 VHO lights.

The main concern for me was that my tank temps would never exceed 82. With the system I've set up I've had very little problem doing that. Usually we keep the inside temp of the house between 71 and 74 in the summer. We stay comfortable and so does our tank.

[Jaws]

Without the chiller running, how cool do you keep your condo during a heat wave? If your AC can maintain a 21C temp during the hotest day of the year even with your MH lights on, There is a good chance you should be able to maintain a much cooler water temperature in your tank. Right now your cooling your tank by stealing BTUs from your AC unit as the heat rejection from your chiller is using capacity from your central AC unit therfore making you chiller work harder - vicious circle.

I've always had the air conditioner running while the chiller is running actually. I've never tried to run only one at a time. I've got 4 250W MH's over a six foot tank though so I don't think I could get away with just an air conditioner.

[neptune9824]

I have been having a heck of a time with my tank. 175 gal and with the past weekend being above 30 degrees every I cannot keep my temp below 88 degrees. On saturday when it was +36 my temp was not even reading on the thermometer. I have been freezing milk jugs of water and nothing seems to help. Believe it or not i have not actually lost anything yet so thats a good thing. I might have to try fans on the water though, that seemed like a good idea.

[danny zubot]

What about people with their tanks in their basments? How much cooler do your tanks stay? I can't wait until I get a new home with a basement just for that! Well, and a possible fish room.:mrgreen:

[Reefer Rob]

Even with fans, the lights off and the skimmer off my tank still got over 84 on Sat. Before next summer I'm moving my tank to the lowest level of our split level (unless Santa brings me that 225). A couple of my Candy Cane heads have bleached, otherwise all is still OK. Sure hope we've seen the last of that!!

Rob

[Palster]

My tank is in my basement and I live in Kelowna. My thermometer has been showing outdoor highs of around 37 or 38 degrees Celsius the last couple of days. With the tanks in the basement and central A/C the highest my tank temperature has gotten is 82 degrees Fahrenheit with lights running all day. I often close the A/C vents in the basement so that the upstairs gets the maximum cooling and allow the cool air from upstairs to settle into the basement and this seems to work well since the basement stays much cooler anyways.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

In a cool ground floor suite, my unheatered reef tanks stay around 78F normally in the summer, but during the heat wave it was around 82-83F with fans going. That's not bad considering the max. room temp hit 83-84F on Saturday, which was still a lot cooler than outside. Sunday, I was able to leave my MH lights on their regular timer schedule & only shut off for a few afternoon hours on Sat. & Friday.

Anthony

[jgoldsney]

Dont know if it would help a tank but is sure is a cool Idea :)
http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~gmilburn/ac/

[b_james]

but during the heat wave it was around 82-83F with fans going. That's not bad considering the max. room temp hit 83-84F on Saturday, which was still a lot cooler than outside.
Anthony

Another example of why I believe Central AC should be more efficient that employing chillers and fans - try adding up all the wattages of equipment being used to cool your tank. Also consider the other effects such as additional heat gain from the fan and chiller motors. Using fans to blow air across the surface of the water to cool is somewhat counter productive. Evaporative cooling cools by reducing the latent heat through evaporation - therfore by accellerating evaporation rates you will increase cooling, however as you increase evaporation you increase humidity levels in your space, therefore making it seem hotter and making it even more dificult to cool your home. Unless your RH is very low (very dry air) in oder to cool your home you will need to dehumidify.

Too complicated.... :drinking: Simply put, if the room environment is kept at a constant cool temp, your tank temp should equallize maybe a few degrees higher without evaporating accessive amounts of water. My 2 ton system consumes about 6 amps - it keeps my house and tank comfortable.:wink:

[b_james]

Dont know if it would help a tank but is sure is a cool Idea :)
http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~gmilburn/ac/

Hey jgoldsney, nice to talk to you again..

Great link, Actually if you were to coild the copper tubes around a 'very thin' walled pipe that is food safe and connect the thin wall pipe to a small pump for more contact time with the coil, you have just created a very crude exchanger. The theory is that the heat from the tank water slowly pasing through the coil section will be pull out. Essentualy you are creating a simple emmersion chiller. Here is a link to a cheap home made chiller used by people that brew their own beer.

http://www.allaboutbeer.com/homebrew/equip/chiller.html

[chwkreefer]

I totally agree. The interior of my home at present 71 degree F. Outside it's 30 degrees C. My tank is 77 degrees F. Everyone's comfortable and I'm paying a dollar a day to keep my house at that temp. I love my heat pump.

Bill


Another example of why I believe Central AC should be more efficient that employing chillers and fans - try adding up all the wattages of equipment being used to cool your tank. Also consider the other effects such as additional heat gain from the fan and chiller motors. Using fans to blow air across the surface of the water to cool is somewhat counter productive. Evaporative cooling cools by reducing the latent heat through evaporation - therfore by accellerating evaporation rates you will increase cooling, however as you increase evaporation you increase humidity levels in your space, therefore making it seem hotter and making it even more dificult to cool your home. Unless your RH is very low (very dry air) in oder to cool your home you will need to dehumidify.

Too complicated.... :drinking: Simply put, if the room environment is kept at a constant cool temp, your tank temp should equallize maybe a few degrees higher without evaporating accessive amounts of water. My 2 ton system consumes about 6 amps - it keeps my house and tank comfortable.:wink:

[Chaloupa]

I'm soooo very jealous that you have a heat pump!!! That is on our "to do" list over the next 2 years. And then I won't have to have chillers and fans and more fans ... and issues (like today) where you plan for a very hot day, turn on the fan over the 120g and leave...only to come home later to a tank at 74 (or 21 for us Canadians!) that is on the chilly side cause the house didn't get hot....Heat Pump here we come...one day.

[b_james]

Central AC... go for it, your fish will like it, you will like it and your pocket book will like it...:wink: