temp is out of control

[qasimja]

well ive been keeping the metal halides on longer and longer each week after upgrading my tank my corals are responding great yesterday i left the lights on for 5 and 1/2 hours and i look at the temp and its nearly 86 degrees my question is do those fans that blow across your water work? or am i better off getting a chiller my budget right now cant afford a chiller over 200 my wife has me on a short leach :sad:

 

[enderg60]

few fans will work wonders. also run your lights at night if you still need more.

 

[sra_chipmunk]

How far from the water are the lights? How many pumps do you have running in the tank? I know my mag 9.5 dosnt put out that much heat but I have a mag 7 that I use to mix my water and it get insanely hot. Takes the water change water from 70 degrees to 85 - 86 degrees fairly quick.

 

[dvara78]

Man fan keeps my tank at a steady 79.4 and kicks on when temp gets higher than that. So it works for me - and my AC is set to 85 during the day when no one is home. You need an ATO since more water will evaporate when the fan is on.

 

[qasimja]

well the light is about 6 inches from the water surface and i know its the light thats causing the spike because ive tested it without the light on the temp stays a steady 80 degrees

Edit: oops it stays a steady 82 degrees i keep it 82 because my house is very humid and its harder to keep it any other temp

 

[gmpolan]

Your tank should cool off a little more without the lights on as that will be the lowest your tank will get (pending the house temp). Are you running heaters or have any internal pumps that could be putting off more heat? I say this as some people's tanks are not ever higher than 78 to 80 with the lights on as that is more of the ideal tempature. The fans will help and is a great start to help with the situation but in turn will create more evaporation. Id probably look into why is the tank so warm without the lights on as that might help out as well.

 

[qasimja]

any recommendations on some fans? that i can use keep in mind i have no canopy

 

[enderg60]

if you have no top just get a $10 clip on fan, more air movement, less price and less hassle. I have mine plugged into my AC3 which turns it on when the temp gets over 81.

 

[darcurr]

Qasimja;673868 wrote:
Edit: oops it stays a steady 82 degrees <u>i keep it 82</u> because my house is very humid and its harder to keep it any other temp

If I read this correctly, and your house is at 82 degrees, this is the biggest part of the problem. Your <u>^</u> T is only 4 degrees. You won't be able to do much without a chiller or a lower ambient temp. It's very unlikely adding fans will change much no matter how much CFM you put across the tank.

 

[qasimja]

no my house isnt 82 degrees

 

[darcurr]

I was wonder how you could stand to sleep! Get the fans. The lower the temperature in the house the better they will cool the tank. I've had good luck with 120mm computer case fans. Microcenter has a nice selection too. Case fans use very little power, and there are near silent ones available. Just be ready for the evaporation.

 

[lilrobb]

darcurr;673956 wrote: If I read this correctly, and your house is at 82 degrees, this is the biggest part of the problem. Your <u>^</u> T is only 4 degrees. You won't be able to do much without a chiller or a lower ambient temp. It's very unlikely adding fans will change much no matter how much CFM you put across the tank.

This is simply incorrect.
Fans cool by evaporation, so even if ambient is over tank temp it would cool

 

[hnguyen]

LilRobb;673967 wrote: This is simply incorrect.
Fans cool by evaporation, so even if ambient is over tank temp it would cool

I agree. I have my temps se at 77.5 and last week I forgot to turn my chiller back on (hooked up to a controller) and the next day I notice my fan running and looked at my temps to see it was at 79 before the lights came on. My house was at 82 degrees at that moment. I run a combo of both chiller and fans since my chiller is under rated for my tank size. So even with fans it does cool.


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[darcurr]

LilRobb;673967 wrote: This is simply incorrect.
Fans cool by evaporation, so even if ambient is over tank temp it would cool

You are correct that evporative cooling is what fans do, but the effectiveness is related to ambient temp and humidity.

 

[lilrobb]

darcurr;674008 wrote: You are correct that evporative cooling is what fans do, but the effectiveness is related to ambient temp and humidity.

Actually humidity only.
Warm air can carry much more humidity than cold air, so the warmer the air the better the evaporative cooling works (given the same humidity)

 

[darcurr]

LilRobb;674010 wrote: Actually humidity only.
Warm air can carry much more humidity than cold air, so the warmer the air the better the evaporative cooling works (given the same humidity)

I stand corrected. I looked a relative humidity scale and 86F (30c) is in the knee of the curve (ie where there is a significant increase in the amount of moisture the air can hold). I guess I shouldn't rely on my memory so much. :doh:

 

[qasimja]

so if i put a fan over my sump would that be enough?

 

[hnguyen]

Qasimja;674023 wrote: so if i put a fan over my sump would that be enough?

Yea it should be. I have one over the sump of my frag tank. It keeps the temps at 80 with my MH on and my house is at 81.


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[sra_chipmunk]

Qasimja;674023 wrote: so if i put a fan over my sump would that be enough?

I dont think so. You sad you MH lights are only 6" from the water. Put your hand under the light for a few seconds and you will see just how much heat those lights are putting out. Now just imagine what 5 and a half hours of that is doing to the water. I wuuld recoment putting a fan or 2 to blow across the top of the water to help puch that heat from the lights away. This is the fan I use. I have 2 of them. They can be a little noisy but they move more air then any other fan I know. I have 2 of these hooked to my RKE and they come on when my temp hits 80*.

https://www.alliedelec.com/search/searchresults.aspx?dsNav=Ntk:Primary|592%2f-0260|3|,Ny:True,Ro:0&dsDimensionSearch=D:592%2f-0260,Dxm:All,Dxp:3&SearchType=0">https://www.alliedelec.com/search/searchresults.aspx?dsNav=Ntk:Primary|592%2f-0260|3|,Ny:True,Ro:0&dsDimensionSearch=D:592%2f-0260,Dxm:All,Dxp:3&SearchType=0</a>

I link the 2 fans together with this also so it minimizes the amount of useable electrical sockets I use.

[IMG]https://www.alliedelec.com/search/searchresults.aspx?dsNav=Ntk:Primary%7c592%2f-0078%7c3%7c,Ny:False,Ro:0&dsDimensionSearch=D:592-0078,Dxm:All,Dxp:3&SearchType=0&fromsearch=true&term=592-0078">https://www.alliedelec.com/search/searchresults.aspx?dsNav=Ntk:Primary%7c592%2f-0078%7c3%7c,Ny:False,Ro:0&dsDimensionSearch=D:592-0078,Dxm:All,Dxp:3&SearchType=0&fromsearch=true&term=592-0078</a>