"Heatwave"

My tank is sitting at about 88-90 this week.... should i freakout? everything has been ok so far. In terms of fish and corals. I have no ac in my house and there is no way i can afford a chiller.... so?

thanks!

 

You can put a frozen water bottle in the sump/fuge during the day to help lower heat. Also put a fan on pointed across the top of the water. Im surprised you havent seen any bleaching in the coral.

 

Another idea. Switch your light cycle to opposite so you MH's are only pounding heat down when its cooler outside. Might help you make it through summer with your livestock intact.

 

Floating bags of ice and running a small fan on side of tank, blowing across water surface helps lower temp. Also, I have my return pipes partially out of water on top of tank, disrupting surface, it cools the water a lot too. Having your return pipes elevated like that pushes more water across air stream from fan, 6 dollars at walmart, and really makes a difference for me. I posted same time as mikejrice, sorry for repeat info.

 

what type of corals do you have? What type of lights....you are going to see bleaching of any stonies if you dont get it down

 

I think running the reverse lighting schedule with fans might be the best solution, maybe even for the whole summer so you don't have to worry about anymore heat waves. I don't think you're going to be able to keep the temps down all the rest of the summer with just ice and fans, 88+ is pretty high. I've heard of fans dropping by 3-4 degrees but I think you'd want to go 5+ degrees down.

 

Everyone should choose this hobby just gotta clear the hurdles when your getting started. Most people cant afford a $500 chiller and there is always another way.

You should also get as much surface aggitation as possible.

 

Why post if you have no advice to help solve the problem?

But anyway switch your light cycle put a small fan blowing across the water surface and point a power head towards the surface to aggitate the water. You can also leave the cabinet with sump in it open, put a fan on that water surface too and put a frozen water bottle in there each day or as often as you can. If you can get it down to 82 ot lower that will be much better.

 

You can get an AC window unit.. used,, For 100.00 or so..
Just cool the one room..
Maybe raise your lights up higher..
Look in DIY , you can mod a used small frig into a chiller..

I would go with the window unit..

Good Luck, Larry

 

Several clip-on fans blowing across the surface of the water should cool it more then enough. Right now my tank is hitting a daytime high of 81ish with no AC and a ton of lighting. Be prepared to account for a big increase in evaporation with a fan setup though.
Getting a window fan unit to exhaust some of the hot, humid air from the room is also a big help in keeping things sane. I think I paid *maybe* $25 for mine and it works a charm. As Larry mentioned, a cheap window AC unit might also be

Gotta agree on wondering why the blatant negativity was called for. The OP is in Canada, if it is anything like northern NY high temps and long heatwaves aren't really a common thing. I am guessing that the idea of purchasing a $500+ chiller that might come in handy for a week, two tops out of the entire year is an unnecessary investment when plenty of reasonable cheap solutions are easy enough to pull off.