Too Hot Tank!!! HELP!!

[surfergirl]

Okay, I'm very new to this stuff! I was given a 55 gal tank from a friend, I have 10 lbs of LR, cycled the tank for 2 weeks before adding 4 damels, now I've added snails and hermits to combat the brown algae that is rampaging my tank (they are doing a pretty good job!). I live in Calif and when it gets hot, my tank was hitting 90. I've tried floating bottles of ice water, the fans, and keeping the lites to 8 hours per day. Is there something out there I can use to keep the temp down? I read something about Microchillers. Please help! I don't want escargo in my tank!

 

[must tang]

Hey surfergirl....I too had this problem and asked about it a week or so ago. My tank got up to about 86 degrees. 90 is really up there. The best advice I got was floating the milk bottles of frozen water and running a fan over the top of the water. Someone was asking about it again today. It was suggested to put an air conditioner in the room. Doesn't seem like there are many ideas out there beside the ones you mentioned. Is a room air conditioner possible for you?

 

[surfergirl]

I do have a/c but we don't use it until it gets unbearable (Thank you PG&E). Our electric bill is out of control so I can't justify running the a/c to keep the tank cool. I've heard about the chillers, I know they are expensive, but I'm wondering if I should just take the plunge and get one. We're going during the day at work, so the ice bottles won't work. Any sugesstions on some kinds of chilling equipment that won't break the bank?

 

[krustytheclownfish]

There are DIY chillers that use a small fridge. In fact, I think I saw something recently about them here. It had a diagram and everything. Do a search on this site and maybe you'll find it. Or else search the net. I live in MN, so I don't really have to worry too much about chillers.

 

[twoods71]

I had a heat problem with a temp of 86. The only thing I did was to keep the hood on the tank up and keep the ceiling fan going.
I keep the AC on 80 when I am not home.

 

[salttrigger]

i had that problem before but i post a topic and someone gave me some plans check on D.I.Y. chillers.

 

[quoc]

I had the same problem living in Texas. What I did to lower my temp was to take the glass cover off. If your lights are water proof this might be the solution.
If you have a sump, go to walmart and but a small clip on fan and ran it 24hrs a day over your sump.

 

[the new guy]

I have seen several DIY chillers and they are not too hard to make.
As mentioned, get a small fridge; cut two holes in it and run pump return tubing coiled in the fridge.
Another way is to get the fridge, cut the holes, then put a 5 gal bucket in the fridge part, run tubing from the bucket into the freezer part, and coil it in the freezer, put a pump into the bucket attached to the coiled tubing and the other end of the coiled tubing into the bucket, fill it with water and then run the tubing from the tank coiled into the bucket, the water gets cooled while going thru the freezer part and it continually gets cycled by the pump, then the tank water gets cooled by going into the cooled 5 gal bucket of cool water (I don’t think I have said cool enough). The reason this more difficult version is better is because a fridge that is full runs more efficiently and you can control the temp more.
Another cool advantage of these chillers is it gives you a freezer to keep your food and stuff right by your tank.
I hope I haven’t confused anyone with this lengthy post. I am going to make the bottom one when I get my 125gal tank since my 52gal runs at about 82 deg.

 

[@knight]

if your going to go to the expense of a chiller, why jont you just do youselves and your tank a favor and turn the AC on.

 

[fishinator]

Here in the "valley of the sun" (Phoenix) we are forever battling the heat. I was considering a chiller myself. Here is what I was told and what I've done..... The lfs runs their SG at 1.016 permanently. With high temps, one of the problems is that the oxygen saturation level comes down. With the lower SG, it allows O2 saturation to come up some. The other thing I did was to install some large vent holes and a 12" fan from Home ***** which blows across the top of the tank, with no lid on the tank. (4" fan just didn't cut it) I currently don't have any escape artists, but would like to get a snowflake eel, which will cause me to go back to the drawing board to design a cover that will allow massive air movement over the water, but keep the eel from escaping. My tank temp was reaching mid 80's, but is running in the 78 range now. I think I'm going to keep the SG at 1.016 though. My subjects seem happier, and the parasites don't like it. The only drawback to this was the evaporation. I was losing over 5 gallons a day. I finally had to get a float switch and slave it to the RO unit for top up. It's great now!