86 degrees/ should I be concerned?

bnhd3 · #1 07/04/2007, 03:36 PM

This summer I have been trying to keep my temp down. I know I need a chiller and I plan on buying one by the end of this summer. Most of the time I can keep my temp around 84-85 during the peak hours by using a fan on the sump. I have noticed it reaching 86 before. Is this too high? Everything in the tank looks well.

Andrew · #2 07/04/2007, 03:42 PM

I would buy a small fan or two from wal-mart and run them over the tank surface. Since you have alot of light, you could keep some of the heat down just by those fans. I also run a fan over my sump to keep it chilled in the summer but my tank stays around 78.

tsutherland · #3 07/04/2007, 04:30 PM

Get a 2 liter pop bottle and fill it with water and then freeze it. Presto cheap instant water cooler. The fans are a great help too, the bottles help out when you are around to put them in.

Icefire · #4 07/04/2007, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by tsutherland
Get a 2 liter pop bottle and fill it with water and then freeze it. Presto cheap instant water cooler. The fans are a great help too, the bottles help out when you are around to put them in.

It don't work, 2L vs 125G?

get 2 fan, bigguer the better

kkyyllee · #5 07/04/2007, 04:36 PM

dont let it get above 86 degrees

dc_909 · #6 07/04/2007, 04:45 PM

I am fine at 86 degrees. It got hotter one year and my frog bleached, but nothing died

SeanySean · #7 07/04/2007, 04:55 PM

I use a standup fan about 3' long that I can put between the lights and back this works really well, even if it leaves everyone else in my living room VERY hot

1F2FRFBF · #8 07/04/2007, 06:39 PM

You should be OK if you're not staying at 86 for any extended period of time. My tank's reached 86 on a couple of occasions and everything did fine. I do have a ceiling fan in the room, so I run that on days when it gets very hot and that helps keep the temp down. But you can also do as others have suggested and run fans directly at the water surface, or float some frozen water bottles in your sump to cool things down a bit if the higher temp makes you nervous.

Bebo77 · #9 07/04/2007, 06:49 PM

small fan.. try running your lights at night or invest in some t'5s.. i would not my reef get that high....

jeeperrs · #10 07/04/2007, 06:52 PM

i have a tiny fan I blow across my tank and it keeps the temp at 80, if it is not running it can get up to 85. I bought it at walmart for 5 bucks, that is a lot of fans for the cost of a chiller lol

benjonesn · #11 07/05/2007, 06:21 PM

Bouncing off 86 once in a while is ok. Most things can even withstand going quite a bit over that. Stylophora and Seriatopora are not among them however and will be among the first to not fair well over 86. I ran at 90 for a while during a thermostat malfunction, and although I had quite a few pieces start to bleach before I realized what was going on, everything recovered except the two mentioned above. I've since found Stylo's in particular like it cooler ~78.

poppin_fresh · #12 07/05/2007, 08:56 PM

The only problem with fans is that you might end up with a white film on everything in the room. It can be bad for wood if you dont keep it protected. I wouldn't use more air than necessary it will only compound the problem.

DSMpunk · #13 07/05/2007, 10:04 PM

Im with Bebo, try to keep your lights off when your house heats up. For me this is about 1:00pm to 8:00pm. So my light schedule is from 8:00am to noon and again from 8:00 until 10:00pm. It really helps.

Ti · #14 07/05/2007, 10:38 PM

Time to cool it off.

rbursek · #15 07/05/2007, 11:16 PM

all this stuff is tuffer then the books say, if you are going to buy a chiller why waitt till after the summer???????

spinninmidwater · #16 07/06/2007, 05:40 AM

i had similar experience. heat is a real problem here in asia. not wanting to spend so much to buy chiller, i tried the fans (many of them), the ice thing.
from my experience, tho little, fans help a little (it brought down 5 degrees F the most no matter how many more fans i used) which didn't help much when temp here in summer can spike up to 95F and beyond. also i had to keep an eye on it becuz on chilly days it brought the temp down a bit too low.
the ice thing worked but it required a long period of time to slowly bringing the temp down while adding a large trunk of ice at once will bring down the temp way too quick and thus even worse for coral.
with the above technique although i successfully kept temp under 86 most of the time but the temp swing was too big and hard to monitor and maintain and i watched my elegance coral slowly bleached to almost transparent. then i made up my mind and bought a chiller.
O man, it really makes a difference!!!
once temp stablized, my elegance started to turn better and gradually return the color. it makes the expensive chiller really worth it, IMO.
btw, from the incidence, i noticed some corals have better tolerance than others, eg. my torch coral didn't feel a thing whatsoever before and after... haha... so it depends i guess
good luck

Marsha · #17 07/06/2007, 06:30 AM

I live in Phx, AZ where the temperature yesterday was 113F. With the central air on 78 and a small walmart clip on fan ($8), my 72 gallon tank stays around 80 degrees. I keep a heater in the tank because I had it go as low at 74 degrees and that is not good either. Temperature spikes/changes add stress, stress can resultin ick outbreaks.