Help! My tank is over 90 Degrees!

nicole messinger

New Member
We've just finished setting up our 200 gallon tank, sand, rock, and lights and we can't get the temp down below 90! We'd rather not drop a chunk of money on a chiller and were wondering if there are any cheaper options. BTW, we have 6 6' VHO's over the tank in a canopy. Thanks.
 

vkesu

Member
My husband went to the hdwe store and purchase small fans to add to the top of our tank. These have worked well for our VHO. Sometimes we have even had to take the glass top off if we didn't have the air conditioning on, but we did get evaporation quickly like that. Hope it helps some. Our tank 72gallon always seems to stay the temp of our house it seems. (I was desperate and floated ice cubes in a ziplock once).
 

option720

Member
details, details,details! Sump? how many heaters? how far of the water are the lights? give us a good description of what you have.
 

nicole messinger

New Member
More info... well, i don't have any heaters, i have a mag drive 2400 being closed down because it was pushing too much water. The lights are about 4-6" off the top of the water. It only seems to go down to the mid 80's when the lights are off. Thanks sooo much.
 

dburr

Active Member
The mag pumps are a heat source as well as your lights. Can you raise the lights?
Or try shuting down the pump and see if that is the source. Do one at a time so you know which is the main cause.
dburr
 

mr.marine

Member
over 90????????? ahhhhhhhhh! ive never had this prob but im prepared. i have a ziploc bag in the freezer with about 30 ice cubes in it. what i did was get an ice tray that was only devoted to fish. i then put some tap water in a bucket and added de-chlorinator.then pured the water into the cube tray. after about an hour i had emergency fish cubes. i always have em in the deep freeze just in case. hope this helps!
Mr.Marine.
Ps- you dont need to float the cubes in a bag, becuase they are de-chlorinated just drop em in but becareful you dont drop it on a fish! lol
:D :D :D
 

seadaddy

New Member
If you do decide to go with a chiller like I did, carefull about getting a Red Sea Chiller. I bought one for my 180 gallon. It lasted about 6 months. The compressor would kick on but not cool the water. Red Sea was good about sending me another Chiller but it would not work either. When I had an AC@R guy look at them it turned out that the first was low on freon and the replacement had no freon at all. I went to a Delta Star. The guys at Red Sea were nice, but their product was not.
 

templar

Member
The things you can try without buying a chiller include raising your lites if possible. Putting small fans below your lites. Also a sump will help to cool down water. If all else fails a chiller it is.
 

jedimaster

Member
I would suggest raising the lights. Although depending on your tank setup it may be very difficult to do. You could get a sump that would lower the temperature in your tank. How far away is your fridge/freezer from your tank? If it is close to the tank you could setup a tube to run through the side of your freezer(leaving a coil of about 5 feet inside the freezer and then exit that water back into the tank) however you might melt your ice cream but this would certainly cool your tank. Somethign we used to do in college was keep a cooler full of icewater and run a keg full of beer through a copper pipe into the coller of ice a you have an instant ice cold keg.
anyway good luck.
probably not much of a help but maybe you got a laugh out of it.
 

ivan

Member
how bouth a diy chiller i haven't done one but will be getting one ready for summer.
email me if you have any ? on this. ivanrm2001@aol.com
 

big dave

Member
Ivan, I have heard of a DIY chiller. I heard you can tank one of those little refrigerators and cut 2 holes on the top and coil as much i.d. hose as you can in it.pumping water thru the hose will be cooled by running thru a the frig. I dunno if this works but this is what I have heard is possible.
 

lion-fish

New Member
I had the same problem on my 110gal with MH/VHO combo and 2 Mag1200 pumps, the chiller solved it for me, but my electric bill has doubled, but my fish inverts and corals are happy, and not DEAD, this is not a cheap hobby, on my 46gal I just use a fan to blow cool air over the water, but on a 200 gal tank it would take some nice size fan with turbo mode to keep the tank cool, where do you live and how cold or warm does it get in youre neck of the woods, I say go get a chiller, and start enjoying youre tank instead of worrying about the heat, cya. :D
 

ivan

Member
big dave that's the diy thing i was talking about i seen it in nemo's reef reference with a lot of diy stuff. check it out. i will be making my chiller some time before summer and i hope it works. i tink i will work better if you have a low water flow going in to the refrigerator.
 

porkypuffer

Member
ANOTHER POSSIBLITY IS THE PUMP PRODUCING MORE HEAT THEN NORMAL BECAUSE THE FLOW IS REDUCED. IF YOU REDUCED THE FLOW BY VALVING OFF THE DISCHARGE SIDE OF THE PUMP, THE PUMP WILL HEAT UP MORE TRING TO OVER COME THE RESTRICTION. IF THAT'S THE CASE, YOU MAY WANT TO INSTALL THE VALVE IN THE INLET SIDE OF THE PUMP. ALSO FANS IN YOUR HOOD FOR THE LIGHTS WILL HELP.
[ December 06, 2001: Message edited by: PORKYPUFFER ]
 
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