temperature issues

[balistidae]

i just moved into an aprtment and i brought a 45 gallon..there is no air conditioning here so it stays pretty warm and i cant get my tank temp below 80. What could i do to get it down besides adding a chiller..thanks

 

[sinner's girl]

what's in your tank? I have a 55gl with two fish, inverts and live rock. I can't get the temp below 80, it's up to 86 during the day.
tips:
have lights come on at night or early morning when it's cooler. if you just have fish, only run half your lights.
run fans over the water of the tank.
you can put ice in bags to bring down the temp, but if this is a daily problem I doubt you have to add ice everyday.
good luck

 

[balistidae]

thanks....would fans in the hood make much of a difference

 

[daniel411]

Fans on the hood will make a difference. They will also increase your evaporation rate, not really a big deal. Temperatures of 80 deg, can be fine depending on what you have.

 

[balistidae]

i am keeping some clowns and abutterfly, anenomes tons of inverts and hopefully soon some mushrooms

 

[birdy]

I wouldn't worry unless your temps get above 82. I just put MH's on my tank and my temps were too high around 84, I am putting 4 of the small square fans in my hood, right now I just have a big fan blowing over the top of my water and it keeps it below 82.

 

[balistidae]

thanks guys and gals

 

[thomas712]

for the price of a chiller look into purchasing a room air conditioner.
You could also diy a chiller out of a small collage size refrigerator.
thomas

 

[michaeltx]

You could also diy a chiller out of a small collage size refrigerator.
now how in the world would you that??
honestly I dont know LOL
can you elaborate a little bit T712
Mike

 

[escape2thewater]

If you do a search in the DYI section here you can see how somebody did this succesfully! Basically put a jug of water inside the fridge and plumbed coils of acrylic tubing under the "chilled" water. Then circulated system water through the coils. Pretty good idea but there was some debate about how long it will last.
(Very simplified version, I forget who postged this originally)
Kyle

 

[bang guy]

With the fish you posted I think it would be a bad idea to keep the temp below 80F. 80 actually seems a bit cool for reef critters IMO.

 

[wrassecal]

My reef tank runs 80 - 82 and I think that temp is a good range. You do not want big fluctuations, but if you are running a fairly steady 80 you are fine.

 

[balistidae]

its a pretty steady 80-82 i just didnt think the fish would rally like it that high

 

[freeride7]

I had the same problem, I too live in Calgary and the heat has been crazy.......I was running a constant 86....so I just put the lights on a cheap home depot timer....( set for midnight to 7 am), and I opened up the glass top that was trapping tons of heat.
Now I am a fairly constant 80-81.

 

[wrassecal]

All good advice if you are having high temp issues , but as long as you are fairly constant at 80-82 your tank inhabitants will be happy (tempwise that is) and you don't have anything to worry about. Just enjoy

 

[legend]

how many inches should you lights be lifted off your tank?
I have the same problem with my tank...it was 86 today

 

[wrassecal]

I'm running 760 watts of vho on my 135. Lights are 9 inches above water and I have 2 computer fans mounted in the hood that come on with the lights and go off with the lights. Height needed would depend on the lighting. When I get my mh's set up, I'll raise the height to 12 inches.

 

[legend]

what did you lift your lights with?

 

[wrassecal]

Well, hubby built the canopy and the top opens up. We'll just take the top off, the crown molding off, add a 3 inch strip and put it back together again...