MH and Heat - turning my tank into soup cooking pot?

[andsoitgoes]

Okay - Halides are very nice. They're also very hot. I expected some hot, but I didn't expect to turn my bedroom into a bloomin' rainforest.

So here I sit - my bedroom hot and my poor tank approaching 82 IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER. It's cold as a witch you know what outside, and I've got our bedroom window open and the fan going - it still sticks at 82.

Now - I know there are a few options out there, and I put a small CDN tire fan blowing across the top of the tank. This helped, however it's JANUARY and when it actually starts getting warm out, I'm concerned as to what is going to happen.

Obviously the easiest answer would be a chiller. The concern there is obviously the cost of around 450 - a worthy investment but hard to justify with a 50g tank.

Other options are installing fans in the system - but will this be enough in my poorly insulated room? I don't want to get into June and be scrambling and dumping ice into my tanks if I can at all avoid it

I know come summer limiting the lighting time will assist in the overall temp - but what other options are there - cost effective and possibly tried and tested? I'm putting a kaibosh on the mini-fridge idea

Thanks much!

[Tangman]

Sorry to correct you but a new chiller is about $800.00 with the taxes.
maybe you might find one used cheaper, and if you do, jump on it fast....

[Ruth]

I'm having trouble myself trying to decide on a chiller(s) for my systems. My problem is that my house is a one story bungalow with no basement. A chiller is somewhat noisy, and they produce a lot of heat on their own. My house doesn't get that terrible hot as it is log and well insulated but with 6 400W and 2 250W MH bulbs running it definately gets up there on hot days.
Because of where I live it is not possible to somehow have the chiller sitting outside (even if I could somehow figure out a way to build a little shelter for it/them). So you have to consider if you do decide on a chiller it may be enough to keep your tank cool but your room may end up a sauna.

[Sushiman]

Man that's harsh. This is why I went LED... good luck.

[Johnny Reefer]

Is the tank covered with a glass top?

Cheers,

[marcingo]

I was thinking of getting single ended metal hallides until I heard about the heat issues. I bought 150 watt double ended HQI bulbs and have zero heat issues- lights are 4 inches above the water and the temperature rises maybe half a degree during the day. No fans blowing or anything else.

[Chin_Lee]

Originally Posted by Ruth

My problem is that my house is a one story bungalow with no basement. A chiller is somewhat noisy, and they produce a lot of heat on their own. .....Because of where I live it is not possible to somehow have the chiller sitting outside (even if I could somehow figure out a way to build a little shelter for it/them). So you have to consider if you do decide on a chiller it may be enough to keep your tank cool but your room may end up a sauna.

Ruth
if you do decide to put a chiller inside, an option for you is to vent out the heat with a strong in-line fan. These fans can push or pull air very well. So if you were to put the chiller under the tank and put flexible 4" or 6" air duct tubing attached to an in-line fan outside your house, the fan will "suck" the hot "chiller's" air out of your house. If you have a seperate temp controller (ie Ranco single stage thermostat), you can even set the inline fan to turn on the same time as your chiller turns on.
another option is like what you said, to build a little shelter for the chiller outside and use flexible tubing to run water to the chiller outside. But put ball valves and union fittings with the plumbing so you can disconnect the chiller in the winter time and bring it inside when you don't need it anymore.

[Chin_Lee]

Ansoitgoes, what is the distance between your halides and the water? if you keep a fan blowing across the space between them, it usually does the trick. I'm surprised to read that opening the windows doesn't help with the heat especially at this time of the year.
Another thing you want to check is your thermometer. What brand is it? Hows does its readings compare to your residential thermostat?
Otherwise I would suggest to learn a way to control the heat now before summer comes along..... otherwise you may get 50g of undercooked seafood chowder in July.

[andsoitgoes]

Okay - first, the low side of chillers I'd need are only about 450 (only, hah) - http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s...t_ID=ch-pc002i

So that answers that problem.

I've got my light a good 4" from the water surface. And it's a Double-Ended HQI bulb as well. Other than the fan, nothing was taking down the temp yesterday, until I turned off the MH...

As for the thermo - I used 2 different kinds. One from my salinity testing probe and one from a coralife electro thermometer. Both gave readings in the 80's - 80, 81, etc.

In the summer my first thought was to just get a small window A/C which I figured would solve the problem, but I know that means I need to keep IT running 24/7 - Surrey in July, yikes!!

Maybe we should just move to Antartica? =/

[danny zubot]

I've got my light a good 4" from the water surface.

4" sounds a bit close to me. I'd raise it up to between 6-8" and see if your temp goes down a bit.