tank chillers?

[ga-peaches72]

Does anyone have to use tank chiller on their systems? My tank has started running 4 degrees hotter for some crazy reason. Any one have a way to fix this?

 

[victor626nj]

add some fans to the sump

 

[reefjunkee]

ditto on the fans.It`ll drop the temp at least 3-4 degrees.I run a fan and a chiller on my tank.The fan just takes a lot of the load of the chiller.

 

[ga-peaches72]

I have one in there it is one I picked up at Wal-Mart but so far it does not seem to be working. I also took a big bag and added some ice in it. That brought it down about 2-3 degrees. I usually run the tank about 80 but the past couple of days it has gotten up around 85-86 degrees.

 

[ga-peaches72]

How big of tank do you have? Also how big of chiller?

 

[victor626nj]

wow ok make sure the heater is not staying on i have a heater that will stay on if i leave it on 70 ...also what size tank and what kind of lights you have

 

[cameron]

Where the fan and sump are located, is it open to the rest of the house and not closed up? If it is closed up, a fan won't help much since it will saturate the air in the closed area and no more evap can be done. In that case, you will either need to vent the area or change the location of the fan such as up in a canopy if you have one.

 

[ga-peaches72]

Ok I have a 150 gal tank and a small sump I would guess to say around 10 gal. The lights are power compacts 96w 10,000k 72" long. The sump area is partly closed in but has a two inch gap at the back of the tank by the wall. I do not have a canopy yet. But it does have the three pieces of glass that it came with at the top.

 

[reefjunkee]

I have 2 4" fans pulling air out of the canopy and a cheap $5 clip on fan in the canopy as well blowing directly across the water.My chiller is a 1/3hp aqualogic.Tank is a 92 corner bowfront.

 

[reefjunkee]

IMO I would increase the size of My sump.At least 55-70 gallons.

 

[reefjunkee]

Oh and remoce the glass if at all possible.That traps a LOT of heat.That is probably Your main problem.

 

[ga-peaches72]

I would be kinda scared to remove the glass because I dont need any tile surfing fish or any cats going for a swim. That would make them something like a catfish (lol)

 

[gwhiz]

Replace the glass with egg crate (sold at HD/Lowes as ceiling light grid for florescent lights). It allows the heat to escape and keeps the aquatic pets in and the feline pets out!

 

[saltwater junky]

check your heater and clean your return pump real good. with that kind of light i dont see why it would raise your temp that much, so i would cross that off your list

 

[cameron]

Dump the glass tops as that is your heat problem and go with the egg crate mentioned above (you can find it in the ceiling tile section of HD/Lowes). A fan on a mostly close 10g isn't going to do much for evap cooling.

 

[schwaggs]

Point a typical room fan at the tank from across the room. Even without the water surface being open, the "wind chill" effect of moving air past the tank glass can cool your tank down quite a bit.

 

[ga-peaches72]

Thanks for the advice. I will try the fan first then if that does not work I will try the egg crate. What temp. do ya'll keep your tanks at?

 

[ralph atl]

there are 3 "schools of thought" on this, so you will get 3 different answers.
74-78
78-80
80-84 (this is where Eric Borneman & many other distinguished reefers/growers keep theirs at, so that's what I do)

 

[schwaggs]

I use the seasonal adjustment mode of the Aquacontroller so the temp of my tank is running around 75 right now but will gradualy increase to around 80 in the summer. The coral growth is pretty slow right now with the temp at 75 but so is the algea growth

 

[ga-peaches72]

I ran the AC all day while I was at work and had the fan on also and unpluged the heaters so I knew they would not come on. It dropped the temp down to 78-79 but now my nem's dont look good and some other thing I was given is looking very very sad. So now I need to know will they get to looking a little better after a few day at this new temp. Or did I do some damage by doing the drop so fast?