Too Hot??

[Deucenbc]

I have been working towards setting up my first 20L reef tank. I thought I had the perfect place for it until my wife said, "you know its hotter in that room than any other room in the house?" To qualify this question let me give a bot more info. I have a blue and gold Macaw, I also am always cold and I take care of my mom, so I have always kept the house set at 80 both summer and winter. I have recently over time been lowering the thermostat in the house to 76 (this feels very cold to me even though i only lowered 1 degree a week over 4 weeks). While the house now says its 76 and yes it feels cold, the office I want to put the tank is not as cold. Now for the question. Outside of moving the tank to a different room or an expensive chiller, is there a way I can keep my reef tank in this room?

 

[bhodges82]

You could run a fan line at the tank on a timer to be on during the hottest part of the day. Also you would want to use led lighting for less heat and try not to have a lot of different pumps inside the water like powerhead, maybe use an ecotech vortech that way the heat isn't in the water.

Or make your own chiller out of one of those college refrigerators, coil a hose inside of it and have a controller for water through it when it's too hot.

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[Adam]

Or make your own chiller out of one of those college refrigerators, coil a hose inside of it and have a controller for water through it when it's too hot.

I thought about that too. But read on all the big sites that it doesn't work. You'd need a titanium coil and have it the freezer section. After the cost of the fridge and coil you've spent more than the cost of a chiller. If you've got a full size fridge with the water/ice dispenser you can see the results by making a few big glasses of water in the summer. plastic hose just it's good for thermal transfer.

I do agree, keep all of the nonessentials out of the water and have a couple fans ready to blow across the water when needed.

 

[bhodges82]

I thought about that too. But read on all the big sites that it doesn't work. You'd need a titanium coil and have it the freezer section. After the cost of the fridge and coil you've spent more than the cost of a chiller. If you've got a full size fridge with the water/ice dispenser you can see the results by making a few big glasses of water in the summer. plastic hose just it's good for thermal transfer.

I do agree, keep all of the nonessentials out of the water and have a couple fans ready to blow across the water when needed.

I do beleive that water flowing through a plastic pipe that's cold up several times over inside of a refrigerator will cool down the water that passes through it, if the flow rate is not too fast. Obviously this wouldn't work well for a large tank but for a smaller tank I think it's a viable option.

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[AquariumSchmo]

I know this problem all too well. I have two tanks in a room above the garage (my home office). All of that heat from below rises into the room. A cooler room would be ideal, but there are ways to beat it if you prefer that room.

Here's how I deal with the heat:
1) I have InkBird temperature controllers ($35 on Amazon) that turn on a fan when the temperature rises to 79 degrees. This evaporates the water and causes it to cool back down to 78 degrees. An auto top off controller is a must though to replenish the tank with RODI water. I will point out, my tanks are both small (20gal with 10gal sump and an 11gal frag tank)
2) Switched from T5's to LEDs
3) Added a USB computer fan to the stand to help with circulation in the sump area

Number one above was enough to solve the problem, but it is good to approach things from different angles.

Also, for my own personal comfort (though it helps the tanks as well):
1) Insulated the garage door with foam. The ceiling and walls were already insulated.
2) Added a portable air conditioner which is typically only on when I'm in the room

When we moved into the house 9 years ago, we also had a HVAC company add a return vent to the room

Hope that helps

 

[Eric_n_Ga]

I keep my tank ATO water in a bucket , conveniently located by the air vent. It usually drops the temp 1 deg every time the pump kicks on.

 

[vols22]

I run my tank at 82 in the summer with no problems. If it's hotter than that idk.

 

[Mom2Many]

I have had tanks many years ago, seasonaly fluctuate between 76 and up to 80 with no real effect on the tank inhabitants that I could see. Now that we have central air, my tanks stay at 76-78 very nicely. (except when my heater got stuck on recently...grrr)

 

[enderg60]

Up to 82 is no problem. If it hits 84 id look in to a fan or chiller.

Stability is more important than overall temp. Stable at 82 is fine. Swinging from 76 to 82 every day is not.

For a tank that size Id go with a clip on fan or hell any fan along with a auto top off.

 

[snowmansnow]

Use a fan blowing across the surface or into your sump



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