Temperature control

[Chin_Lee]

My LPS tanks lights (2x175, 1x250) are on during the day and my SPS tank lights (2x400W HQI) are on at nights. I set up that schedule last summer and I forgot to change it back for the last 10 months. On the alternating lighting schedule, my temp swing only vary by 2 degrees farenheit all year round.

[EmilyB]

It's going to hit 30 here?? Woot !!!

[Marlin65]

I like my chiller my tank is the same temp all the time no stress when the temp comes up.
Not like that is going to happen though we are going straight to fall.

[Doug]

The solution,
move to a Manitoba basement.

My central air keeps the house temp. decent. With my modular/mobile house, the tank would over heat without it. I do run a decent fan over the open top design also, when the halide is on.

[Oscar]

This will be my first summer with a tank. We commonly get a stretch of 40C temperatures so this issue is a real concern. Our only AC is an old beater machine that I insert into one of the windows when the temp gets unbearable. It may get installed a lot earlier than it has in the past.

Currently my tank has a Ice Caps variable speed cooling fan that adjusts it's speed based on the air temperatue above the water surface. The lights are on legs which in turn rest on the lip of the tank. I like the idea of raising the lights for more air circulation, that would also assist in tank maintenance.

[sphelps]

My tank has always had problems with heat, everything is sealed up so it holds the heat in. Even in the winter the tank will reach 82 degrees without cooling. I don't like the idea of chillers and simply running fans produces way too much humidity in my place. So I build an evaporative cooler that allows me to vent the humid air outside.







I connected a 3" PVC pipe line to connect the cooler exhaust air to an outside vent.



The cooler is capable of lowering my tank temperature up to 4 degrees in normal conditions, works very well in the winter but I'm yet to find out how well it works in the summer with the extra heat and humidity. So far I've had to keep the room temp below 25 degrees C.

[Geofrog]

I used to use frozen pop bottles, worked well but took up alot of room in the freezer. Currently I have a fan blowing across the surface set on a timer for the hottest part of the day (usually 5 hours of run time). This seems to be keeping the temp under control. Would love to get a temp controller that would kick in the fan once the tank hit a certain temp though.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by sphelps

So I build an evaporative cooler that allows me to vent the humid air outside.

Well, I'm thinkin' we need more details on this device!!

[Todd]

Originally Posted by sphelps

My tank has always had problems with heat, everything is sealed up so it holds the heat in. Even in the winter the tank will reach 82 degrees without cooling. I don't like the idea of chillers and simply running fans produces way too much humidity in my place. So I build an evaporative cooler that allows me to vent the humid air outside.

That's a really neat idea. I like the idea of not having equipment work against each other (lights heating things up, chiller keeping things cool ect).

One idea I had thought about in the past along similar lines is to install a rain-water heat exchanger. Basically have a reservoir stored outside in a cool area that is filled with rainwater, then have a titanium heat exchanger install in the reservoir and have a pump turned on at a certain temperature that would run the heat exchanger. The only problem would be the water that is needed to fill the plumbing would cause varying levels in the sump (and salinity swings due to auto top off). I know that you can get heat exchanges from chiller companies, but have yet to try this because I am renting right now.