Water is too HOT!

Wes888

Wes888

Reef enthusiast
Today our room temperature is about 80 and the tank's water is 82F!!! I know it's great for the bacteria while I'm cycling the tank, but later when I have fish and stuff in there, it's gonna be a problem. What do you usually do? Get one of those expensive water cooling thingy? I don't even have lights on yet...
 
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The expensive water cooly thingy you speak of is a chiller. The water will rise above the temp of the house in theory because pumps and your lights during your photoperiod will create additional heat. A small clip on fan ran at least during the day over the surface of the water will take your water temp down for sure. Give that a try. And maybe cool your house down a bit :) you should be able to get by without a chiller.
 
+1 Alexander and James
A simple fan does wanders and wont cause more heat in the room like a chiller will.
IMO,Unless the chiller is in a completely different room than the tank,it'll just be counter productive.
 
82 is not too hot. 82 is fine, as long as you keep the temperature from changing too much in a 24 hour period. My tank runs 82 to 84 throughout the day. Big temperature swings are more dangerous than stable high temps.

Don't panic. You will likely never have a need for a chiller -- most people don't. Like others have said, a clip on fan blowing across the surface of the water will usually drop the temps by about 10 degrees. And if you are still in the low 80's, no biggie, your tank will be just fine.
 
Are you guys saying to have the fan blow across the DT water or the sump water. That is where my thermometer is, in the sump.:^:
 
Either place. If you blow it across the tank, there is a larger exposed area and you will get more evaporation and faster cooling, but you can have the fan over the sump and that will work too. It shouldn't matter where the thermometer is. Water circulates from the sump to the tank and there shouldn't be any difference in temp.
 
In a dire emergency, you can freeze milk jugs or 1 liter water bottles. Then drop them in the tank and let the ice do the cooling for you. Leave the lid on. You're not trying to put cold water in the tank. Just using the ice as a cooler.

Of course this only works if you froze the water ahead of time. :sfish:
 
Rcpilot said:
Of course this only works if you froze the water ahead of time. :sfish:
Click to expand...

And if you haven't froze the water ahead of time, you can do what I did in a heat emergency and dump $40 worth of frozen vegetables (in their bags) into the tank!! ...It was all I had in the freezer at the time...
 
Just got a Outer Orbit HQI/Compact Fluorescent with 2-150 watt HQI; 2-130 watt Compact Fluorescent. I had it on just a few hours this morning with just the Compact Fluorescent. It already raised my water temperature by 4 degree. Not to mention I had to close the glass lid as instructed by Outer Orbit installation manual. I think I really have to get a chiller now...
 
I assume you are talking about the glass uv shields on the fixture itself and not a glass lid you have over the tank. You must use uv shields with double ended 150w MH bulbs.

Have you tried a fan? That's not that much light that a fan shouldn't cure the problem. Are you 100% positive your heater isn't kicking on now and then and adding to the heat? Heaters are notorious for doing that.
Look into something like this.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=14701
 
I've already unplugged the power for the heater yesterday, just in case.

The HQI instructions said "This fixture is used over completely covered aquariums". I thought that's mean I have to keep the glass lid over the tank closed.

The fixture itself does have a thick glass over the HQI, but only have a thin plastic over the compact fluorescent. Do I really have to keep the glass lid on over the tank for such fixture?
 
If you don't have some already, some cheapo $10 clip-on fans blowing across the surface of your water should work wonders. Just that alone tends to drop a tank's temp by 10 degrees or so.
 

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