85 Degrees!

Blade_Runner · 05-30-2006, 09:01 AM

Oh Shoot,

I came back to the office after the long weekend to find that some Nimrod turned off the AC to save $. My 210 is at 84+ degrees. The corals are quite unhappy. The tank normally runs between 80 and 82.

Is it crazy to slowly add ice? I need to add a little fresh water anyway.

Jason McKenzie · 05-30-2006, 10:08 AM

I don't think you need to go slow. It's going to be a gradual decrease regardless of how fast you add the Ice. I've done it before but you need a lot of Ice to make a difference. Plus RO/DI ice is hard to find

J

Blade_Runner · 05-30-2006, 10:25 AM

Wow, no kidding. I've emptied the icemaker and see almost no change.

I'll live without the RODI on this. There are just softies in there. I'm more concerned about the temp.

Blade_Runner · 05-30-2006, 11:39 AM

Wow, no kidding about needing a lot of ice. I went to the corner and grabbed 2 more bags of ice. The tank is finally showing under 84 which was the max of the stick on thermometer. I shudder to think of how hot it was in there. It looks like 1 bag reduces the temp a little over 1 degree. I think I lost a large Colt. Everyone else seems to be perking up.

rickzter · 05-30-2006, 12:03 PM

Yeah, Ice isn't that effective for decreasing the temp quickly. I really see no long term solution to your problem as this is a tank in your place of work, where I'm pretty sure someone would get pissed if you brought in a chiller.

You know, I've heard from a lot of people that frozen gatorades last longer than ice and seem to get colder than water. You might want to freeze a couple of bottles of gatorade and put them in the sump. Worth a shot.

Diver_1298 · 05-30-2006, 05:37 PM

Yes, I had a similar problem with a stuck heater a couple of weeks ago. The mass of water is so great that you could dump in a lot of ice and it will still go very slowly down.

I hope everything turns out alright.

Ricktzer: when you mix certain chemicals with water it lowers its freezing point, ie salt, glycol etc..

Jim

rickzter · 05-30-2006, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diver_1298

Ricktzer: when you mix certain chemicals with water it lowers its freezing point, ie salt, glycol etc..

Jim

Well, there you have it! Use Gatorade instead of ice water.

Blade_Runner · 05-30-2006, 05:48 PM

Normally everything is fine. I own/lease the place and we have our own A/C. Some one just killed the A/C Friday night and it was 80-90 out all weekend. Hopefully, this was a 1 time event.

powdertang05 · 05-30-2006, 06:39 PM

ya sorry to hear that i use 4 1 liter bottles of soda filled with water and use plumbers tape so they don't leak when i just dump the water in the water changes and normally you want to go about .01 in salinity per day so that's not a great idea but with bottles of water frozen is the way to go if you don't have a chiller. PS why are you at that high of temp normally 78 is what is recommended? also i have used glass bottles and they work much better at chilling the water faster then plastic

sssnake · 05-31-2006, 04:36 AM

powdertang05 wrote:
" PS why are you at that high of temp normally 78 is what is recommended?"

I believe recommended temperature falls within a 'range' and not a specific number with caution being taken at the lower and higher parts of that 'range'.

Blade:
If access to the A/C unit cannot be restricted can you maybe post a sign not to turn off the A/C? If this is not possible perhaps it's time to invest in a chiller.