Reducing water temperature

[agent007]

Hi,
This my first post and I have not browsed through the site too much,
so forgive me if this question has been hashed to death but...

Do you have any ideas cooling systems for tanks?
I have a 75 gal tank, which is loated on an upstairs landing. I set it up
over the winter. Now the weather is getting warmer, the temperatue
up on the landing is rising and so is the water temperature - 83 degrees
right now. I think the temperature will hit 90 degrees easily during the Summer

Don't panic, I only have live rock in there now (fish are in a quarantine tank).

Can you offer some suggestions on what my best options are to reduce
the temperature of the water? Are canopy fans adequate enough to cool
the water temperature? Is there a more efficient solutions?

:confused:

Thanks in advance

[ahrpr]

open the windows (if its nice out) or get some air moving through your room (i.e. fan, air condition) You can buy some little fans from radioshack or what not and put them into your hood to suck the hot air away from the water or get some air moving across the water, also, adding additional flow (powerheads, HOB filters) cools, when the water moves it cools down.


I could be wrong though, im just a noob.

[bertoni]

Some fans pointing at the water should help a lot, although you might want to add an autotopoff system, since your evaporation will spike.

[agent007]

Additional powerhead makes sense - that's on my short list of things to get. It's hard to increase the air flow on the landing area.

So those 3" or 4" canopy fans might help then? I was thinking of directing
the flow on to the water, not suck the hot air out. I can try both ways to
see which works best. Any pointers on where I can get some quite fans?
I have the feeling fans from radio shack might make a racket.

Any other cooling ideas?

[Entropy]

[welcome]


Unless you can really provide a lot of air flow I think your best bet is to bite the bullet and buy a decent chiller. The chiller will make the room itself more uncomfortable, but it will keep the tank cool. Another option would be to plumb drain and return lines to a tank in the basement (if you have one) so that you could balance the hot water with cool water from below. That might be out of the question, but I though I would mention it.

[Putawaywet]

I'm with Rich

Don't even waste your time buying more powerheads to adress a heat issue as you will only end up adding yet more heat to your tank. Those things, espeically the cheap ones can get really warm. If anything, yank all the powerheads and switch everything over to external pumps.

Beyond that, anything that will increase air circulation in the area where the tank is located or better still, directs air across the water surface or sump works well also.

Bottom line, if you are expecting temps as high you speculate this summer you might as well resign yourself to a chiller.

Brett

[Hop]

What do you do in the summer to keep the house cool? AC or a swamp cooler or something. If your tank is going to hit 90, I would think you would have something to keep the house cool... This will help some and may assist in the determining factor of fans vs. chiller vs. larger water volume and relocating a sump.

Some other things that I do since I work nights most of the summer is to black out the room where the tank is and switch the light cycle, so that the lights are on during a cooler part of the day.

[Jimsmowen]

u cn buy like aportable air con and just sit it next to ur take it work but i just but like a milk bottle in my tank and it gets it down though i have about 5 bottles in my freezer

[agent007]

The house temp is about 77degrees now so I was surprised to see the tank temp at 83 degrees - with the heater disconnected.

Here's what I'm going to do:
- Leave canopy open on warm days - deal with the evaporation
- When house temp reaches levels where we need to crank up the house A/C. see if water temp goes down
- If water temp does not go down - crank up canopy fans and or sump fan
- If nothing else is working put frozen bottles of water in sump
- If all else fails - relocate the bloody tank to a lower floor. I'll loose the view from my living room but at least my fish will be alive!

Thank you all for you help. I'll post later in Summer to let you know how
things are going.

I really do need a powerhead, not for the temp issue, but for extra water current. Can you tell me which cheapies I should avoid and recommend any good ones?

Thanks again folks.

[Peccavi18]

a good powerhead is Maxi-Jet, alot of ppl on here use them, with no problems. -pecc