Beating the Heat! Hot Subject!

[Scooterman]

Well It hit 103 here today, maybe a little more, humidity is also way up, you sweat in minutes down here, so I thought we need to discuss keeping things cool under increasing heat! Along with not staying out long without cooling off frequently, we keep the AC unit around 77 while were at home on the weekends & around 79 during the week while away, 72 at night. How does this impact the tank, well now I'm keeping the hood open during the day allowing room air to get around the surface of the tank, also if it gets too bad I'll open up the sump doors to get the air circulating, this has helps & I'm keeping the tank around 80.5 but last week It hit over 82.5, with everything closed up. I do have a chiller but at this point not ready to run until I can make sure I get plenty of free air space in front & back of the unit so it will work efficiently, also I need to make sure the hot air goes away & not circulate back into the tank. Fans, fans & more fans!! The cheapest & most effective cooling I found so far is well placed fans to aid in cooling, they take up less power & if guided right will help cool that tank through evaporation, so this leads me back to keeping the hood open to allow maximum air flow. The back of the hood is completely open also so air can move freely, I yet to add all of the lighting but I do run a small MH 10 hours so I'll be planning for that also when getting the temps. stabilized, this is where the chiller helps maintain a constant temp.
Ok that is a start lets see some Pics. Ideas of what your doing to stay KOOL!

 

[Jim Hart]

I have 4 pieces of glass so I can remove 1 and a high output mini fan blows across the surface of the water for th full length of the tank. The tank water stays 80 degrees and drops to 78 at night when the lights go out. Works for me.....

I need the glass to minimize the water splashing on the lighting, sucks a little I have to keep the glass clean, imposible task.

 

[plack]

I have no problem with getting 82º as long as it does not get below 77.5º.

I have a similar settup as you scotterman.. Air conditioner in the same room keeps it at 70º The fans turn on at 77.9º lights turn off if it gets too hot but i Keep the clamshell lid proped Partially open all day but not fully open and fans underneathe the lights across the tank top. I rarely open the sump oand don't have a fan on it yet as I havent needed to.

Natural reefs don't stay with in 2 º all day they can vary quite a bit due to Tide changes
Suuny/cloudy/rainy days. A Diver checked this out and monitored it heavily and reported his finds and I read them. How I wish I could find his post again!!



Paul

 

[Reefergeorge]

You pretty much have all mine, fan across the sump and lids open. It has also been 100 all week here in St. Louis and my tank has been at about 81-82.

 

[trido]

A Diver checked this out and monitored it heavily and reported his finds and I read them. How I wish I could find his post again!!

Charles1958 or Chucks Addiction has a real nice little page on his piece of the ocean. Listed here. http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/reeftour.html I'd bet its what your reffering to. I saw a you tube video this year where a full SPS reef flat was exposed during low tide. It was 95F. and the wind was blowing hard. I wondered how the SPS would react if a rain squall passed through. Im sure its happened. Our corals are alot tougher than we give them credit for.

My tank swings from 77.2 to 80.1 on most days, on a real bad day it can reach as high as 82 before I shut the MH down.
I did however turn off my 7" fan one morning before work and forgot to turn it back on. The temp was 85 when I got home. I think I showed more signs of stress than the corals.

 

[NC2WA]

Scotterman,

I hate to say this, but it was almost 30 degrees cooler here in WA today.

I am lucky that my tank is out in my garage and is the coolest part of the house. I just have one fan cooling the top of the water and can keep it around 80.6 degrees.

I don't know how practical this is, but when I lived in NC, for a poor man's chiller, I would placed ice cubes in ziploc bags and float them in the sump until the tank temp would decrease. I would rotate bags in/out. the only problem I had was the ice maker couldn't keep up with my demand, so I went to the local store and bought a couple bags of ice.

Hopefully, the heat will subside in the coming days.

Kirk

 

[plack]

Yep trido that article is not the same but almost identical in lot's of ways

This says it all (from the link)

"Temperature : Actually quite variable, but only variable within a set range. Which for this reef can be a low of 76 to a high of 90. The factors that determine any given temperature involves : Seasonal Fluctuations, Which for the tropics involves only two. A wet cloudy, thus cooler season, and a dry cloudless, much warmer season. On a seasonal average, I would say that during the wet season, the daily average is 80 F. While during the dry season, the daily average is 84 F. With an overall yearly average right at 82 F. Water depth and proximity to deeper water currents also greatly effect the day to day temperature swings. In the shallow grass beds, during a lull in the tides and on a sunny day, the temperature can easily reach 90 F. On that same day, the deeper, coral reef can reach 84 F. Yet when a low tide flushes the much warmer water out into the deeper reefs, the temperature climbs quickly to 86 F. The reverse happens when a high tide brings in cooler water from the much deeper open ocean. Going from 84 F. to 80 F. in a matter of hours. Night time temperature drops usually deducts about 4 degrees from the daytime average. "

 

[burning2nd]

i could get up there if i dont watch the small tank.... my 30 doesnt ever seem to have a problem with heat...

only the small ones..

BUT on th eother hand...

you could Relocate the chiller to a little hut or something out sides....

or in the other room or something like that.

wind, not just at the tank the hole room....
makeing air move when it doesnt want to cools that air down.

the savest way to do it will be to control the house temp it self...

we run 72 all year... (well at least try) 70 in the winter.
windows and the way your house is insulated would play a part in it 2 (i guess)

102 out side is hot... even a house ac will have trouble keeping a house cool...


I would try the wind tunnel theory im sure a Huge like warehouse fan would do ya justice..

Just IMO

 

[Damsel13]

Ok so 84F Is OK? and a 2-3 degree flucuation will not kill anything even if some might like it cooler?

 

[burning2nd]

84 is not ok

 

[Sherman]

wind, not just at the tank the hole room....
makeing air move when it doesnt want to cools that air down.

Actually, as a matter of physics, motion creates friction which creates heat. Technically, though certainly immeasurably, moving air actually heats it. Moving air will promote evaporation, though, which WILL cool water.

For me, I'm just blowing air across the water surface. I have a 38g with 2 150w DE bulbs, both 4" from the water, and never have any issues with the tank even reaching 80 degrees. However, the evaporation rate is 1.5g per day. Obviously, that evaporation is going into the air (and house), so this is where room air evacuation could pull out some of that humidity (Maybe not in Louisiana, though).

A couple of club members have installed DIY Evaporative Chillers in their setups. Check out the thread at our local club forums:

http://www.cvreefers.org/showthread.php?t=7169

 

[Krish]

My smaller tank (24gal) only needed one fan blowing across the surface and that's it. No lid and no canopy kept it cool. The 38gal used 2 fans cooling the surface, no lid and a chiller. The 75gal used 5 fans in the canopy (3 sucking out hot air and 2 blowing across the surface), one fan blowing on the sump, no backing on the stand to allow air to circulate and a chiller.

 

[Scooterman]

I only have two fans now but probably will add a few more later as I continue to build this thank!

 

[Damsel13]

My problem no canopy = no light. I am creative but not the top tool in the box when it comes to logic. So....I have very little evaporation and hence very little heat removal.

That fan in the first pic. might work for me if it was half as big....I wish my husband would help me with my tank but he hates it.

 

[pitmam01]

My husband loves ours but is terrified to touch anything, lol!!
:badgrin:

My problem no canopy = no light. I am creative but not the top tool in the box when it comes to logic. So....I have very little evaporation and hence very little heat removal.

That fan in the first pic. might work for me if it was half as big....I wish my husband would help me with my tank but he hates it.

 

[NC2WA]

My wife loves to look at the tank and occassionally will use the magfloat to clean the front of the tank, but that is the extinct of it. Otherwise, I hear, "you are going to the fish store, again, you were just there. "

 

[Damsel13]

Oh good I don't feel so ALONE!!!

 

[NC2WA]

Deb,

Believe me, you are NOT alone.

 

[Scooterman]

Deb, my wife would probably mess up feeding fish LOL I have to make sure & do it all myself, it is my hobby not hers! When we're gone for the weekend I have to make sure to get it right because if it fails it will be my fault LOL it is a hobby & a passion we share, so we hope for the best. Temps. vary throughout the world, some corals will be fine with higher temps. & some will not, lesson learned & studying their needs is part of the hobby!

 

[plack]

"Ok so 84F Is OK? and a 2-3 degree flucuation will not kill anything even if some might like it cooler?
"

ocassionally... there is no harm but it can brown out your coarls. That could be because they are not used to it? But of probable more importance is that some bacteria and diseases are more likely to wreck havock at higher temperatures .Now in the ocean animals can shrug it off/become parasite free. But in our tanks thats a serious problem so ..Lower temps are better for the long term...as I understand it !!



Paul