Keeping the Temp down

[Jason McKenzie]

Today I got back home only to find the Tank at 85F. Now I'm up in the Great White North and my friends down south or even Down under must have ways of keeping their tanks cool so I thought a topic on chillers or other methods of keeping a constant temp in the Aquarium maybe a good topic.

please share your thoughts

[Matt Rogers]

How about mounting some fans on the light blocker you made? cheaper than a chiller. may work. or remove your light blocker.

[Jason McKenzie]

I put a fan blowing over the sump. Seems to have worked. This morning the temp is 78F. Will monitor.

J

Heat raises so I put 2 4" computer fans in over the VHO lights which keep the tank at 78 to 80 degrees and before I did this it was 85 to 86 degrees.
I sealed the connections with silicone and have never had an issue in over a year.

[JOER0178]

IF YOU WERE THINKING ABOUT A CHILLER I RECENTLY SAW ONE IN A MAGAZINE FOR ~350 DOLLARS I THINK IT WAS 1/4HP. FROM WHAT I HAVE SEEN THIS SEEMS PRETTY CHEAP I DONT KNOW I DONT HAVE ONE YET AS ITS WINTER AND MY TANKS TEMP IS FINE. BUT I CAN LOOK UP THE INFO AND POST IT IF YOU WOULD LIKE.

[Iceman30]

If you are thinking chiller, look at the flow through. The drop in chillers seem easy, no pumps or plumbing required, BUT, I am a heating and a/c service and sales technician, so trust me on this. You only move heat around, you don't get rid of it. If you use fans, your house will absorb the heat, and in winter good, summer home a/c has to remove it. Also the evaporation of the water takes heat away, so an auto top off is a good idea to keep salinity levels in check, water will evap fast with fans blowing on it. With a drop in chiller, most only have like a six foot line, so chiller would have to be in cabnet or just outside of it. Your home a/c would have to absord heat of the tank, and the heat generated by the compressor, that heat comes out of the condenser coil on the unit, the fan that blows the air out of the chiller. With a flow through, if you have a crawl space, you can plumb under house, or garage, any where the heat can transfer out naturaly, like your a/c condenser that is outside of your house, get the heat out, so you don't pay 2x to remove it. Just a suggestion, but I am having to help a friend that put a drop in under a 200 gallon and now we have to use a 12" flex duct to get the hot air out from under the cabnet by cutting a hole in the floor under tank, a 12" hole in his floor instead of 2 say 1" holes for pvc.

I use fans, I used to have chiller on bigger system, now have 30 gallon sps, lps tank with 400 watt MH..only use 2 4" radio shack fans blowing from back of canopy on bulb and across the water, temps only rise .5 degrees when light is on, so it can be done without chiller.

GOOD LUCK AND GOOOO PANTHERS !!!!!!!!

[NUGIO]

Awesome expanation Iceman [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]
im in that boat right now with the chiller issue mine is that i have no more room under the tank.where it was orignly going to go.then the hot air inside the house issue came up and i thought where???I have no crawl space so *i thought to do what u suggested *2 1"holes through the wall to outside. mount the chiller inside a rubbermaid type garden storage box with a exhaust fan. that way no heat or noise and maint is a snap too.
what da ya guys think?

[NUGIO]

bump... definately gonna try the fan method first b 4 blowing a G 4 a chiller

[Phil5613]

I did maintenace on a house that used the Icecap thermostatic controlled and dryer ductwork to take heat out of the canopy and stand thru the wall and to the outside. They had 2 in and 2 out if the hood got to hot it dumped the heat and if the air outside was te right temp range it brought air in. I thought it was a sweet setup and cheaper then a chiller.

Fans dropped mine down from 85 to 79/80.
They were 4" computer fans. some day I will get one that is quite but I only have them on from 9 to 5 when it is the hottest.

I like the evaporation as I think that I am refreshing the tank water with fresh RO/DI.