TANK TEMP PROBLEM

slick

slick

Active Member
Alright when I bought my lights I went with pc's because I didn't want to have to buy a chiller. Well my tanks temp without the lights on has been hovering around 80 and we all know that is to high. My heater is not even running. Now it has been about 80 or so outside for the last few days and maybe that has something to do with my tank temp. Well when I run my lights my temp climbes to about 83. Last night I unpluged my heater and turned on my air conditioning to see if coolong down the house will cool down my tank. So far I haven't seen much a difference. My ? is what else can I do to cool down my tank without having to shell out $600+ for a chiller? <img src="graemlins//confused.gif" border="0" alt="[confused]" />
 
byrself

byrself

Member
80 is NOT too high, mine stays around 80-81. i don't know who told you that, no one that's been in this forum for any amount of time. i'd try to find a happy medium, whatever temp that is, and just keep it constant. a couple degrees high constantly is not gonna hurt. fluctuations in temp are what you should be worried about imo.
do you have a cover on the tank? maybe you could lose that, or find a more temp friendly alternative?
 
xrayman

xrayman

Member
I just went through same thing but mine climbed to 86.so what i did a put a regular rotating fan to the side blowing on it and it works just fine my temp stays stable all the time around 79-80 degrees.
 
slick

slick

Active Member
Ok I thought that normal temps were 74 to 78. But is 83 to high when the lights are on?
 
byrself

byrself

Member
not in my opinion. it's a little high, but acceptable. you just don't want fluctuations of lows and highs greater than about 4 degrees. then you got a problem in my opinion.
the fan idea would probably be a good idea, or raise your lighting some. do you have any covers on the lights themselves? mine do, and they are abot 3 inches or so from the surface of the water. i don't have any heat probs from my pcs, that's why i ask.
 
slick

slick

Active Member
My tank came with a canopy that only leaves about 5 inches from the top of the tank to the canopy it's self. My lsf said to put my pc's right on the glass tops so thats what I did probaly my mistake. I would only be able to raise them 2 inches max. They have a built it fan that runs when ever the lights are on.
 
byrself

byrself

Member
glass tops are probably causing the heat probs imo. maybe you could leave them partially open, or go without them? i currently have an open top on my tanks, and no probs. i don't even have a canopy at all. ?
 
slick

slick

Active Member
I didn't want to take the glass tops off for fear of salt creep getting all over my lights. And won't that speed up evap.
 
mini-reefer

mini-reefer

Member
Evaporation is what helps drop the temp. Im losing about 1.5 gallons a day due to evaporation. I personally believe that adding the RO/DI freshwater daily due to evaporation is good for the tank.
My tank has an open top as well along with a 7" fan blowing over the halides and water surface and the water temp only fluctuates from 80.1* without lights to 82.9* with lights. HTH
 
slick

slick

Active Member
ok so I'll try taking off the glass tops but I need a way to keep my lights from falling in the water. They are jbj pc's all enclosed and I don't have any feet for them. I was going to make a new canopy anyway when I upgrade my lighting.
 
ocellaris_keeper

ocellaris_keeper

Active Member
the average temperature of a real reef tank is - it depends:
73 - 75 roughly winter temps for certain reefs
78 - 85 roughly summer temps (mexican reef stays around 85 degrees.
It depends on what type of animals and where they came from. The best way to avoid deaths is to put animals that come the same area together and acclimate your tank to that environment.
 
mini-reefer

mini-reefer

Member
Im assuming the light sits on top of the aquarium frame here(the full length of the tank). If thats the case, I would personally use a few wood blocks to raise the light up into the canopy. Just as simple as cutting a couple 5"X4" blocks 1/2" or 3/4" thick nailed or screwed inside the canopy. Adjust the dimensions to raise the light as high as you want leaving some space between the canopy and light for circulation. Since your planning on a canopy upgrade later on it sounds like a simple and effective fix IMHO. When it comes to projects in this hobby, Im all about DIY. Youll save tons of money! HTH
 
goofyreefer

goofyreefer

Member
I have a 40 gallon reef and my temp was constantly 84 degrees so I took a old corallife Polaris canister filter because it was shaped in a square compared to a magnum which is round and added a Iceprobe to the canister. Now it's 80-81 degrees constantly. Si I got 3 to 4 degrees pulldown fron it. Cost me $100 but it's super quiet and I don't worrt about it anymore
 
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