Help get temp down

fish1031

Active Member
I have a 65g reef tank w/ 96 watt PCs
the temp has been climbing since I moved it (bought from someone over the last week)

went from 78 to 83.
what do I do???

any advice is appreciated!
 

autofreak44

Active Member
there are a few things
bring down the temp in the room
raise the lights off the tank a few inches
blow a fan across the water
buy a chiller.....
 

al mc

Active Member
Had a similar problem...A single fan blowing gently over the water brought the temp down 4 degrees as autofreak indicated. It did increase evaporation and I had to 'top off' with R/O water a little more frequently.
Don't buy a chiller until you have tried the fan..........IMHO
 

myreef05

Member
Originally Posted by fish1031
where do i get this kind of fan?
All stores sell fans.(no special kind needed) Try a small 6" or 8". Nothing technical, just functional.
 

arandacole

Member
Any fan will work. A desk sort of fan will work great. I took the glass off of one side and put the fan on top of the glass on the other side.
Another thing I did was float frozen RO water bottles in the sump or the main tank.
I did end up getting a chiller though after a year of screwing around with the temperature.
Love,
A
 

sprang

Member
Who makes the p.c.? There should be a spot built for the fan at one end. You can get the fan for about ten bucks at radio shack, and they are a breeze to install (no pun intended). If not just get a simple clip on fan and blow it lenghtwise on the lights.
 

tx reef

Active Member
83 degrees is fine. My temp swings from 81 degrees overnight to a high of 85 degrees during the day.
In nature, reefs go through the same type of temp swings and low to mid 80s is a much more appropriate temperature than high 70s.
I don't know why people keep their tanks below 80 degrees.......
 

sprang

Member
Thats what I have to do or my living room heats up like an inferno! Three tanks with a billion watts of lights running
Well I have great tan at least l.o.l
 

am00re34

Member
the temp isn't that big of a deal... its the swings in temp that is my concern. if you water keeps going up to 83, set your heater for like 82 so it stays in the 82-83 range. you dont want the 5 degree changes everyday because unlike what TX Reef said, the ocean temp is VERY constant (except maybe in the first foot or so of water)
 

appaloosa1

Member
mine was above 85.5 last night. I've been floating ice cubes in a bag until i go and buy a small fan. its brought it down to 81.5. my corals were dying and i believe this is the cause (everything else is fine).
 

mmf1968

New Member
My family room gets so hot that I have about 4" of water evaporating each day and the temperature about 83ºF. I could not afford a chiller, so I purchased on ---- a Metal Halide Aquarium Chiller Cooling Fan (4 fan) from Aqua World for around $30.00. I was a little skeptical but to my surprise, the first night I plugged it in and went to bed when I got up the next morning, the temperature went down about 3ºF. I am impressed that it works that well. Now I have it on a timer together with my light and the water temperature is constant at a 78ºF.
 

tx reef

Active Member
Originally Posted by Am00re34
the temp isn't that big of a deal... its the swings in temp that is my concern. if you water keeps going up to 83, set your heater for like 82 so it stays in the 82-83 range. you dont want the 5 degree changes everyday because unlike what TX Reef said, the ocean temp is VERY constant (except maybe in the first foot or so of water)
You need to do some research. Almost all the reefs (excluding the carribean) see an average 4 degree temperature swing daily....
 

tx reef

Active Member
Here is something from Ron Shimek.....
Question: The tank is reaching about 88 degrees in the apex of the lighting cycle. Last year ran about 82. It has fans on the sump as well as the top of the tank not to mention four computer fans in the canopy. I have done everything I can think of short of floating ice blocks in the sump. Animals don't seem any worse for wear so I am not exactly in a panic yet.
Answer: Given that they are just getting into the normal range for coral reefs (82-84 deg as average), I would suspect that instead of being in a panic, they are figuratively breathing a sigh of relief.
My tanks routinely will reach those temperatures in the summers. During two diving trips to Palau (richest coral diversity in the world....), one trip in April, one trip in September, the temperatures in the diving zone averaged about 89 degrees. Cool upwelling water measured 86 degrees, and hot water coming off the shallow lagoonal flats was about 95 deg.
Most natural reefs have massive temperature swings, though, on any scale you wish to measure, daily, monthly, annually, so that is not a big deal.
I would worry about prolonged (several days- couple of weeks) temperatures above 90 deg. One thing, if your system has been normally kept at 82-84, the organisms in it will be a lot more tolerant of the higher temperatures than if they have been kept in the cold (75-80).
Fluctuations are really not a problem - in some higher latitudinal reefs the fluctuations are enormous. There are data from Johnson Atoll, showing fluctuations on the order of 20 deg F in a single day (from about 72 deg to about 92 deg), and guess what... The reef's still alive...
What is more important are the extremes and the duration of the extreme values. Temperatures over 90 for any extended period is a problem, particularly for corals normally kept at cooler temperatures. I would watch the temperatures and attempt to control the environment so that temps over 90 are avoided.
 

zoiescout

New Member
I bought a clip on fan from Walmart for $8.94. It brought my temp down from 82 to 79. Can't get any cheaper then that.
 

sjimmyh

Member
Originally Posted by TX Reef
83 degrees is fine. My temp swings from 81 degrees overnight to a high of 85 degrees during the day.
In nature, reefs go through the same type of temp swings and low to mid 80s is a much more appropriate temperature than high 70s.
I don't know why people keep their tanks below 80 degrees.......
Only logical reason I can see that some people keep below 80 degrees (and a lot of authors recommend high 70's) is the water's ability to absorb O2 goes up as temp goes down. In a closed system and heavy bio-load on the tank, being around 85 degrees means you are just that much closer to a really big problem if the power goes out and the tank temp goes up over 90. Everything could die of lack of O2. (much more likely than dying because of just the higher temps) Our little tanks (in comparison to the sea) could reach a point where it cannot absorb O2 fast enough to keep the livestock/bacteria bed alive.
Personally, I do what you do. I do have a chiller, but I only run it to maintain low 80s. In a lightly loaded tank, although I have no data to prove it, I wouldn't think higher temps are as big a deal.
 
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