Heat Buildup Help

[LakeEd]

I go to feed my tank tonight, and notice that the water is feeling abnormally warm. I check the Temp, and its up to 84. Until now, its been rock steady at 80 (with the exception of this summers heat wave). I've removed my heater, which doesn't seem to be overly hot. Its now 5 hours later, and my water is still at 84. I've added a fan blowing over my sump, hopefully this will help reduce the heat, like this summer.

Where I need the help is this... I have 3 pumps running in my tank. 1 for circulation, 1 for my skimmer, and the last is a powerhead in the tank. All 3 to "touch" feel like just water temperature. I'm assuming this over heating must be comming from one of these 3 pumps... but how do I safely go about narrowing this problem down?

Any shortcuts that other's have used would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ed

 

[LakeEd]

I've taken all 3 of the pumps completely apart, and cleaned everything already this evening. Due to the time, I figure it isn't the bestest of times to start unplugging them one at a time to see which one is causing this problem, but thats my game plan for the morning.

Just hoping someone may know of a quicker way than this. I figure this is going to take between 2 and 4 hours per each pump at least... to see if there is any heat change.

 

[iamjosh]

If you take the pumps and place them in a small plastic container with regular tap water in the container and a thermometer you can see what pump drives the temp up to the high temps.

Any change in lights? any chance you lowered your lights? Closed a near by air vent? have a hot air vent venting near, around or under your tank?

hope those things may give you other places to start your hunt for the culprit. also for very little money ($10 ) you could probly have a second thermometer so you can make sure its not just a temp gague going bad.

Hope that helps,
-josh

 

[LakeEd]

Josh,

GREAT idea!! Thanky muchly guy! I'll give that a try this morning.

I haven't trusted just one of anything. Heaters, pumps, or Thermometers! *grinz* Gotta have backups, to protect those we luv, don't ya know! *Smile*

Ed

 

[reiple]

pumps generate heat as these have motors. i placed three 28 watt pumps in a 100 gallon FOWLR (2-flow, 1-skimmer) and the temp rose to 88. I replaced two used for flow with 10 watt powerheads and the temp dropped to 82.

 

[iamjosh]

I've never noticed temp changes from any of the pumps in my tank, 2 maxijet 1200s, 1 Mag 3, 1 mag 18, 1 iwaki 100rt, some random rio's ..

Anyway let us know what the cause of the temp change was!

-josh

 

[LakeEd]

Josh,

I spent most of the day yesterday with one of my 3 pumps pulled... setting it in the sink in the kitchen... running and running and running them... with my thermometer in there... hoping THIS was the one raising the temp in my tank.

Well... after 4 hours for each of them.... not even a 1/2 degree change in temp. So back into the tank with all of them... and still staying steady. So I put my Heater back in the tank... and within 20 minutes, the tank temp is up 2 degrees.

GGGGRRRRR... should of started with the obvious, huh? When I first noticed the temp rise, and I removed my heater 1st thing... I should of had the patients to give it a few more hours to lower the temp... remembering that I had a lot of water volume that was holding in that raised heat.

Anyways... I now have a new Temp Controller... and new Titanium Heater... my tank temp is steady at 79 once again, and every one is happy.

Thanks for all that suffered thru reading this thread... I'll be more patient in the future! *smile*

Ed

 

[mojoreef]

Good news Ed at least you found the problem. I have one of those Sequence 5500's and it raises my temp 5 degrees


Mike

 

[Scooterman]

Good news indeed, I've been through several heaters, when I find on that is truly accurate & reliable I'll let you know..

 

[iamjosh]

I've been very happy w/ my 300w Titanium