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Time to resurrect this thread from an early grave…..
Well, the hottest part of the summer should be ending soon. I have learned that there is no way to keep this greenhouse cool with fans alone. The fans do provide some benefit. I have consistently kept the water temperatures 5-10 degrees below air temperatures. But, with summer highs in the mid-upper 90’s, the fans can’t do it alone.
I have bit the bullet and added a chiller. It is a 1/6 HP Coralife unit that I bought new from another hobbyist. He won it as a door price, and was willing to part with it well below retail. The chiller is working out fantastic for this system, but it would not be practical for a larger system. I still feel like geothermal is the best solution for heat dissipation….at least from a reoccurring cost standpoint.
The chiller is almost tripling my power usage. I am pulling an average of 8KWA per day when the chiller runs heavy (90+ degree days), and pulling about 3KWH per day when it is not needed (less than 90 degree days). This is not too bad, but I am paying about 11 cent per KWA these days so I am looking at about $0.88 per day to run the greenhouse with the chiller on.
Coral growth has been hit or miss. I am having some “new tank issues� with ALK/CA levels, but I should be able to get these parameters fixed soon. That is holding back the SPS right now. One interesting think to note is that my colorful SPS turns brown in the greenhouse. And, my brown SPS is starting to turn colorful. There is a big difference between sunlight and PC lighting. All of the softies love the greenhouse. Xenia, Mushrooms, and Zoo’s are going nuts.
Almost time to buy a heater. I will keep this thread alive through major equipment changes and seasonal changes. We still have cold winter nights to learn about.
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