Heat Wave and reverse photo period

[dakota9]

Just my luck that 3 weeks before a heat wave that I move to metal halides.....

I'm not having a huge problem as its 6:30 pm, my tank is holding 81.5, but thought if this heat persists I might try running the lights in the cool part of the night, and leave them off during the day...


Anyone else try this?

I live in a 80 year old house, and the a/c has been blasting all day, and its still 80 degrees in the house, plus the tank is in my sunroom, thats "SUN-room" which does not help at all.

 

[purplegorilla]

I have been doing that for the past few months..

 

[showtime305]

That's actually a good idea. Especially for the reefers that turn their A/C up during the day while they are away from home. I thought about doing this for other reasons also.

 

[sj miller guy]

Sounds like you need your ac serviced. Even down here in south GA where the heat index is at 120 for the past week, my ac still cools the house to 78 with no problem.

 

[jessezm]

My AC went OUT today!!! I was lucky and got the guy out here fast to fix it, but I feel your pain. It costs $300 a month to keep my house at 80 (I live in a 120 year old house, 12ft ceilings!). Last month's bill was $400, but I was keeping it cooler than that.

My tank fluctuates between 83-86, and has done so all summer. I'm tired of stressing out about it so I stopped... Everything in my tank looks great so I'm not going to kill myself to drop the temp any more for now. At 81.5, you are well within the safe zone, my friend.

 

[blind1993]

i did that for a while but then i didnt like it because i couldnt see my fish very active. but i dont have corals.

 

[dakota9]

My A/C is working better than it ever has, its just that older homes tend to be more drafty, plus my house gets full on Southern exposure which means sun, sun, sun all day long.

 

[jessezm]

Do you have a glass tank, or acrylic? The sunlight really does a number on glass tanks in terms of heat aborbsion. Can you lower shades or put up a shade to block the afternoon sun?

 

[dakota9]

Glass!

I have bamboo blinds in the sunroom, so 50% of the light is filtered. morning sun isn't very hot, so thats not an issue, its the late afternoon sun in the west that is the problem. Today I took a cardboard box and proped it on two chairs to block the light which helped considerably. I'll do the same thing tomorrow, plus I just turned my tank lights on, and will turn them off tomorrow morning before I leave. We'll see how it fairs. Another added benifit will be that my MH lights will be burning during off peak ours, which will help the power bill a little.

Thanks for the input guys!

 

[george]

Due to where your tank is, you will be essentially giving the system an almost non-existent night which could lead to stress or algae blooms, depending on your chemistry.

Does your tank get direct sunlight in the sun room? If so, how about setting the MH to run from about 3AM to 10AM but only run it once every 2 or 3 days? Let all that sunlight give you a free semi-cloudy day simulation.

 

[jessezm]

Unfortunately, glass filters out like 95% of the suns beneficial rays, and pretty much just transfers the heat...

 

[glxtrix]

you could get some reflective tint if youre concerned about it, not only will it help with light, but it'll cut down on heat transfer thu the glass as well. I always run my tank on reverse light schedule....well kinda reverse. My halides come on at 5pm and turn off at 1am. Def no need to have them on when I'm at work and cant enjoy looking at things.

 

[george]

jessezm;66537 wrote: Unfortunately, glass filters out like 95% of the suns beneficial rays, and pretty much just transfers the heat...

Um, this can't be right. If this were the case, every single light on the market except LED's would be 95% inefficient and glass would come with a 95% tint by default. Unless his windows have a treatment on them.

Regular glass is ~90% opaque to UVB and UVC rays (but not UVA) and Low E glass is about the same.

 

[jessezm]

I must be misinformed, or the person who told me that was exaggerating a bit... Still, I am made to understand that sunlight through the side of a tank is less than ideal...

 

[flyingarmy]

Wouldn't an instant switch of a reverse cycle on your tank stress the inhabitants? You would have to do this over a 1-2 week period slowly to insure they accept the change without much stress.

 

[blind1993]

well i kept a large hammer colony alive for 1 month useing sunlight comeing from the side of the tank. but i had major alage issues and i wanted the best for the coral so i sold it. so it doesnt filter out that much. but it sure lets bad sunlight in.

 

[george]

There is some reflection of sunlight off glass which makes it less-than-perfect. It depends on the angle of incidence to the glass. It depends on the refractive index of the glass.

The major difference with using natural sunlight is that the spectrum is not the usual 10,000K to 20,000K we use for bulbs, but more along the lines of 5500K to 6500K which has more beneficial wavelengths for algae than the higher Kelvin spectra. However, presumably the tank is already getting this incident light to a certain degree.

My idea was really intended just to cut the added heat of the regular MH lighting but still provide a "day" to the corals.

 

[lorenk]

I've got a window AC for my camper if you want to borrow it temporarily. Definitely not taking the Scotty out in this heat.

 

[dakota9]

Hey guys, thanks for all the cool advice. I changed the photo period just as I'd said I would. lights on at midnight last night, off at 8 this morning, tank was 78 degrees.

Left at 9am, got back home at 8;30 tonight, tank was 78 degrees.

Truly the only direct sun the tank is getting right now is morning sun, for an hour or two, and thats BEFORE the MHs are turned off. The direct evening sun they were getting was fixed temporarily by propping a large cardboard box on 2 chairs on one side of the tank.

When I got home, my corals looked to be in a dormant state, so that tells me the tank is dark enough.

Mainly, this was to escape the heat since its been so hot outside. Typically light is not an issue for me with the exception of the winter time when the sun is much lower in the sky. I go from about 2 to 3 hours of filtered sunlight in the summer time, up to 4 to 6 hours of sun in the winter time. While light is the problem in the winter, heat is not because of the lower ambiant temp.

The only algae outbreak I've had was in the winter, but I stand ready with my trusty scrub brush to battle it yet again, should the need arise......

 

[miktrav]

I'm doing a reverse photo period as well plus I have a fan blowing into my sump. My tank still hits 82 degrees with my air conditioning set to 78. I'm not sure what's transfering all that heat but I'm getting a chiller within the next few days. All I would need now is for my AC to go out and not have a chiller.

Michael