Help Temp probs!

saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
i moved my tank last friday, and had everything up and running now a few days, corals that got a little beat up had been bouncing back, but when i got home from work yesterday i immediately noticed something wasnt right, all my hammers and frogspawns were barely out. i looked at the Therm0 - 85 degress!
this is strange i have weak lighting on their now that has 4 fans creating an air channel in the canopy. for the last year it has been rock steady 78 degrees and the heater never came on!
after some investigation, my new house keeps losing the AC circuit somehow and starts blowing in warm outside air. this was the case yesterday but i dont know for how long. also one of the fans in the canopy wasnt spinning, and it was quite hot. i got it to spin before i shut the lights off. i also unplugged the heater incase it was starting to go haywire.
by the time i went to bed it had dropped a degree. but i woke up this morning and the AC was still on, the house was 75 and the tank was back up to 85?!? i dont know what is happening here but i dont want to cook everything i took such preparations for keeping alive!
i have a 2 liter of water freezing so i can put in the tank to cool off.
only other thing is that it is in what is called a florida room, the size of a large bedroom, with 4 windows. all the shades are closed and the one behind the tank is aluminum darkening shade. the back of the tank is 1/2" black acryllic. that window also faces south.
 
imerk

imerk

New Member
A fast way to bring the temp down is to do a partial water change. Also, you can try the poor man's chiller. Take a few 2-liter bottles and freeze fresh water in them and then put them in you sump (if you have one) or float them in your tank until they melt. These are only temporary solutions, you'll still have to find the main problem.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
85F isn't going to kill your corals. Dropping the temp rapidly from 85F will though. I've kept successful tanks at a constant 86F. My Nano won the RDO Nano contest and I maintained that one at 84F - 86F.
Skip the ice, it won't work. Try to find out why the water is warmer than you expected. Is a heater stuck on? Are all of your fans working properly? Did you add a lot more waterflow?
Most of all, don't drop the temp too quickly.
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
i have a 2 L freezing - i can put in later today, and my damn Ice maker isnt working .
i cant figure out why its happening. the AC in that room trickles out. but still , there are 2 large doors opening into that room, and the whole house would have been 75 for 15 hours or so, the water was way warmer than the air this morning.
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
bang thanks for the response.
to answer your questions, i have an old heater that basically never turned on last year, and i messed with the temp setting when in plugged it in and changed the location to be in the overflow column , to hide it. i unplugged that last night as i have had problems in the past with heaters. i was freaking out because i put a new one in a QT tank that malfunctioned, brought the tank up to 85 degrees and killed the two fish in it that were fine....
now 3 of the 4 fans are working, but the 4th one is not producing any heat whatsoever. btw are they any tricks for keeping these 20 dollar 120v fans from getting destroyed from salt creep within a year?
i drilled and plumbed the tank but have not added the CLS yet. i wish i did cause then i can remove the PHs. currently, as i always have had with no temp problems, i have 4 Rio 600s and 1 Rio1100
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
I don't completely understand your post completely. Are you saying the heater was defective?
Describe how you have your fans set up. 3 fans should be able to easily evaporate enough water to keep the tank cool in an air conditioned house.
What's the humidity inside the house?
 
gwh57

gwh57

Member
Bang
I agree that he needs to find the problem and cure that, but ice will work in an emergency. It may not have worked for you, but it did for me and a number of other people.
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
sorry if i was unclear, the heater was old, but my first instinct was to unplug it in case it was defective because of a past experience.
im not sure of the humidity, i am in south florida, but it is december and its very pleasant outside right now. and the as long as the AC is working i think it acts as a de-humidifer.... not sure tho.
i attached a pic, its a top down view od my tank. it has a 2-3" acryllic lip around the whole top. if the canopy was clear, those black boxes would be the 4 fans. they are the 120v radio shack type fans. the two on the left side blow in, and the 2 on the right side blow out to create a chanel of air.
the middle two are on the top... and the far right one is crossed out cause it is not working right now.
 
gwh57

gwh57

Member
If you can blow air across the surface of the water you will cause more evaporation which will aid in cooling. You can also cut back on your lighting schedule for a while.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by saltn00b
i attached a pic, its a top down view od my tank. it has a 2-3" acryllic lip around the whole top. if the canopy was clear, those black boxes would be the 4 fans. they are the 120v radio shack type fans. the two on the left side blow in, and the 2 on the right side blow out to create a chanel of air.
the middle two are on the top... and the far right one is crossed out cause it is not working right now.
That's a good drawing. The first mistake I see is that all of the fans should be blowing onto the water. None of the fans should be sucking air out of the canopy or they'll die quickly from the hot humid air. My suggestion would be to replace the fan on top that's blowing out with just a grill and more it to where the dead fan is and have in blow in. Point the fans on the ends of the canopy down slightly so the air blows across the water. The idea isn't to cool the canopy, it's to increase evaporation to cool the water.
Air conditioners dehumidify the air so that should be helping.
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
what if i were to flip the fan so it is blowing down on to the water surface?
i am going to be tossing this canopy soon when i switch over to T-5 lighting, and build a new canopy. i brought the PHs up closer to the surface of the water, and the main pump return aiming at the surface so i am trying to get a lot more water agitation as well
oh and thanks about my MS Paint skills at work LOL
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Flipping the fan should work well. There's a thin layer of very humid air that "sticks" to the water surface. If you can get your fans to remove that thin layer then your evap rate can triple. That alone should lower the water temp by 5 or 6 degrees.
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
ok i flipped the fan - put one frozen 2L in which melted within an hour, and i dont think it did anything... hopefully with the fan today it helps. I think the problem is that the AC keeps A)tripping off and B) barely trickles into that room.
then again that room gets hotter than outside temps even so maybe not?!
 
J

jupoc911

Guest
i have the same problem in my room and I live in NJ. My room constantly runs in the 80's even in the winter. I run a window AC year round 24/7. Maybe you can beef up your air supply. haha
 
J

jupoc911

Guest
my house electric is probablly around 400 a month. More than I pay for my car and insurance combined!
 
J

jupoc911

Guest
depends on the time of year, but on average like 275. I had to yell at the girlfriend to turn off the tv and lights when she leaves in the morning!
 
barchtruong

barchtruong

Member
this is how I am going to set up my light, fans and everything. Hope it works on taking out the hi heat from 560watts light strip.
Suggestions are greately appreciated, thanks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top