Temperature control

[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.

[christyf5]

I have a chiller to cool the tank and a fan to cool the chiller and an AC unit to cool the room the tank is in Without all these the chiller goes through fuses like a kid with candy. Its ridiculous but due to the room its in and the lack of any air flow its very difficult to keep the room cool (even with a ceiling fan). Last year before we moved the AC into the room my tank hit over 90F and I lost several colonies and frags. Since moving the AC into the same room things are better and hopefully I won't have to go through that again. Cracks me up that I have AC but don't get to enjoy it in the rest of the house. Everything for the tank

Speaking of which, I need to stock up on those fuses, one blew the other day and it wasn't even that hot out

[michika]

sphelps,

Can we get a separate thread with your very cool DIYed evap cooler? I want to ask you questions but don't want to clutter this thread.

[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!!

[VFX]

This will be my 1st summer in BC with a tank so I don't know what will happen if/when it gets really warm.

In the UK I used to use this attached to a fan.



And this attached to my heater.



It worked a treat & my tank temperatures never swung more than a degree or 2 all year round, even on a 15 gallon nano.

They're made for reptile tanks & the only mod you have to do is to silicone the ends of the temp sensors to water proof them.

Does anyone know where they sell these things or something similar in Canada?

LInk to Habistat

.

[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.

[brizzo]

Should be interesting this year with glass top + metal halide now. Last 2 summers I have had no problem with my cube getting warm. If I left the feeding door on, the temp would get around 85F, with it off, it stayed stable at 79. I run my AC at 24C from noon till 7pm on hot days