PC's cooking my tank

[piscesblue]

My water temp is raising up to 80 in the evening because of my PC's. My lights turn on at 1:30pm and the tank is at a nice 77, by 6pm, my corals are shrinking and my anenome is pissed. Any long term solutions? I run 2 36" NO's and 4 16" PC's for 9 1/2 hours a day. the PC's are in the rear of the tank and suspended 3" above the tank for maximum air circulation. They also have built in fans for cooling. My house never reaches above 68-69 and the tank is in the basement where it is even cooler. There is no window for the sun to heat up the tank. I know alot of you with real heat problems will laugh at the fact that I'm complaining about an 80 degree tank, but my corals are used to mid 70's, just like the ocean. This 3 degree fluctuation everyday is wreaking havoc on my inverts. Can anybody help?

 

[nm reef]

Hmmmmm......I run about 78-84 degrees daily during these hot days of summer............I've been concerned about the fluctuation myself but so far there has been no ill effects except for some green star polyps that do not seem to be opening fully lately........and I run 4x65 watt pc's with 2x110 watt vho....and I do not have a fan in the display but there is one blowing across the refugium during the day.........what is your water chemistry like....are ya sure there isn't something else besides the heat causing problems........

 

[@knight]

if your tank gets too warm, you can freeze makeup water in tupperware containers. float it in your sump or tank to lower it a few degrees in a hurry.

 

[mal]

My tank runs between 78 and 80. I have a small fan that comes on with my lights and blows over my sump. If you have a sump you can try that. My critters are doing very well in my temp range.

 

[piscesblue]

Unfortunately I don't have a sump to cool off with a fan. Floating ice in the tank only fixes the problem temporarily and this is obviously a permanent problem since the room temp stays the same 24/7. My water specs are fine and I know the corals are reacting to the heat because they are fine for the first 3 or 4 hours of light and then the tank heats up and they close a little. I think I made it sound more dramatic than it is in my top post, the corals only shrink about 20%, but this is noticable after seeing them fully expanded. Thanks for your suggestions guys; I just don't know what to do at this point. I can't live without the PC's after seeing what they have done for the tank, I just wish they weren't heating it up now. I just added a powerhead this week, could this heat the tank up that much?

 

[broomer5]

Many powerheads do indeed add heat to the tank. My 55 reef has the return pump in sump, skimmer pump, and 3 powerheads. If I run all pumps at same time - I will exceed 82F this time of year.
I placed my skimmer and all 3 powerheads on timers, and run the skimmer 12 hrs at night, and the powerheads each turn on and off independently several times throughout the 24 hour day. This has helped keep my tank between 78-80F.
Also, just having a small fan pointed at the tank can help as well.
Brian

 

[got krabs]

I dont understand how thats happening it might be that your lights are a little too close . do you have a glass canopy? I have a 120 rr in my basement and my heaters are on alotto raise the temp to maintain 77-78 degrees but I'm only running 165w pc and 2 atinic for now. When I mix for a water change I use strickly hot water (180*)and in 24 hours it is around 65d so i had another 5 gal of hot to the 30 gal of mix to bring it up to75. so try raising the lightsor add a chiller that comes on using a thermostat

 

[@knight]

i dont think its a permanant problem, i think the reason your tanks so hot is due to the 100 degree weather outside. i bet this will stop happening when the weather outside gets cooler.

 

[aston]

Have you tried a)keeping as much light out of the room as possible with dark curtains; b)keep as many fans as possible blowing across the front and sides of the tank; c) raising the lights a little higher from the top of the water to let air circulate; and d) even consider turning the lights on and off on alternate days, or leave them on only for shorter periods during the day?
I have a small 15-gallon tank and these solutions really helped keep the temperature down at 77 or so from a previous 83-85.
A lot cheaper than having to fork out for a cooler which it otherwise sounds like you need.
Aston

 

[andymi]

I would see how much water circulation you have across the surface and make sure your heater is not too high. I was running around 82 degrees, bought a little RIO 150 I believe and used it just to break up the surface water a bit and increase evaporation. I also turned my heater down to about 75 degrees. This is now keeping my tank right around 78. Previously my heater was set for roughly 77 or so.
HTH.
--Andy