Keeping Cool

raseri

raseri

Member
So, its gtting into summer here in New York, and it's already starting to get into the high eightys, and I was wondring how you guys keep your tank water temp nice and cool. Around 73-78 is ideal right? But our tank is getting high around 83-85 some days. Normally we would just put some frozen water bottles in the sump/refugium, but recently we upgraded it and now we kind of don't have enough room between the top of the tank and the top of the stand to put them in through. Are corals arnt very happy with us right now. But the nice big water chillers cost a pretty penny that we don't have. So what do you guys do to try and stay cool?
 
florida joe

florida joe

Well-Known Member
what is your ambient temperature, how many heat producing equipment do you have connected to your system
 
raseri

raseri

Member
We have on heater but we hardly use it right now because the tank has been so hott, and forgive me for I don't know much but I am slowley learning... What do you mean by Ambient Temperature? Do you mean the temperature that the corals like?
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member

Joe likes big words:
Ambient temperature simply means "the temperature of the surroundings"
80 to 84 is not harmful for your tank. Most hobbyists keep the tank at 78 to slow things down, algae grows much slower at this temp for example…but so does coral. Raising your lights higher or some fans blowing on the water surface will cool things down.
 
raseri

raseri

Member
Oh, the temp of the house? It's been pretty normal. My boyfriend just hooked up the airconditioners, but they arn't working very well.. And I just checked to try and see the room temperature but it's a really old conditioner so it dosn't say.. :[ Sorry..
 
florida joe

florida joe

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by Flower
http:///forum/post/3266555

Joe likes big words:
Ambient temperature simply means "the temperature of the surroundings"
80 to 84 is not harmful for your tank. Most hobbyists keep the tank at 78 to slow things down, algae grows much slower at this temp for example…but so does coral. Raising your lights higher or some fans blowing on the water surface will cool things down.
84 is at the edge of the envelope way to risky to keep your tank there IMO
ambient Yea flower i love those big 7 letter words
 
raseri

raseri

Member
He has to rebuild the stand so I'll tell him that he should move the lights up heigher, we don't have any fans on our lights cause I think he either thinks we don't need them or that they are too loud.. I don't really know.. The frozen water bottle thing has been working for us but I don't like how right now we have to put them in the main tank cause we cant fit them in the lower one..
 
S

saxman

Guest
[QUOTEi love those big 7 letter words ]
in this case there's a great one that applies:
C-H-I-L-L-E-R
seriously, if you have warm summers, this is the best solution and will give you the most peace of mind. we're currently running 6 of them, but we never worry about the tanks' temps.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by Raseri
http:///forum/post/3266560
He has to rebuild the stand so I'll tell him that he should move the lights up heigher, we don't have any fans on our lights cause I think he either thinks we don't need them or that they are too loud.. I don't really know.. The frozen water bottle thing has been working for us but I don't like how right now we have to put them in the main tank cause we cant fit them in the lower one..

Raise the lights and run the fans, don't put frozen bottles in the DT
SAXMAN: not all of us can afford a chiller
 
raseri

raseri

Member
Yah.. I think I'm just going to have to start saveing my pennies and nickles. :p Chillers aren't cheap but they gotta be worth it.
 
S

saxman

Guest
Originally Posted by Flower
http:///forum/post/3266731
SAXMAN: not all of us can afford a chiller
first of all, i was giving Joe a hard time about his "7-letter words". did you leave your sense of humor at the door?
personally, if i didn't think it necessary, i wouldn't run them, but we all owe it to our charges to do what's best for them. once i quit trying to use "band-aids" for keeping tanx cool and got chillers, my stress level went WAY down in the summer. i don't have all day to be changing frozen water bottles out and having kloogy-looking fans all over the place is a real PITA (trust me, i've done them all).
the OP stated that they'd rather not use fans, which pretty much leaves a chiller as their choice. about the only other thing that might help a bit would be to run a reverse lighting cycle, but a hot room is a hot room.
BTW, the cost of a decent chiller is WAY less than many lighting systems or skimmers.
 
raseri

raseri

Member
Yah. I was saving for a really nice MH light.. But with summer coming up I think I'd rather have the chiller.. We are running the reverse lighting cycle.. Thanks for the help. I was just wondering if there was anything else I could try before getting a chiller, but that seems like it really is the best option. Thanks again. :]
 
florida joe

florida joe

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by saxman
http:///forum/post/3266777
first of all, i was giving Joe a hard time about his "7-letter words". did you leave your sense of humor at the door?
personally, if i didn't think it necessary, i wouldn't run them, but we all owe it to our charges to do what's best for them. once i quit trying to use "band-aids" for keeping tanx cool and got chillers, my stress level went WAY down in the summer. i don't have all day to be changing frozen water bottles out and having kloogy-looking fans all over the place is a real PITA (trust me, i've done them all).
the OP stated that they'd rather not use fans, which pretty much leaves a chiller as their choice. about the only other thing that might help a bit would be to run a reverse lighting cycle, but a hot room is a hot room.
BTW, the cost of a decent chiller is WAY less than many lighting systems or skimmers.
wow thanks Greg i have not heard the words Joe and hard in a long time
 
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