Water temperature??

Hi all, I have a 55 gallon acrylic with oversized wet/dry and the coralife power compact 4 double bulb system. My temp over the winter was always between 78 and 79 degrees. Now that's it's been warm out it's been all the way up to 84 degrees. I have fish and all types of corals, is this acceptable temps. I do run air conditioners in the summer, just not hot enough to use yet. What does everyone else do?

 

Well, 84 is a bit high. I know a good trick is to get a fan and just aim it at the top of the tank. I do that because sometimes my AC blows the fuse box...thats no good. Fans are under rated, just be sure to watch evaporation.

 

works for me

yes, a simple 5.99 fan from wallmart attached to my light canopy works just fine when it gets warm out. I plug it into my timer for my lights so it runs the same time that the lights do.

 

Thanks for responding, my power compact light has a fan built into it already. Are you suggesting additional fan(s)? My evaporation is already horrible enough, I run tank with no tops.

 

If the fan built-in to your lights is not doing an adequate enough job of keeping the temp down you are left with little choice. There's basically two ways to go about it:

1. Chiller ($$$$)
2. Fan

If you could afford a decent size chiller then by all means go for it. If not, then there is no choice IMO but to do the fan thing and top-off as needed.

 

+2 on Snakes suggestion. I have four fans that run on my system, two in the canopy when the MH's come on and 2 in the sump that runs 24/7. Evaporation is the only way you are going to cool the tank down any. Heck you can get a good chiller for $500 if you have the money.

 

The rising temps caught me by surprise as well. I went upstairs last night and found my BTA's not so pleased w/ the 84F water. I grabbed my trusty wally-world cheap-o fan and pointed it at the sump over night and got things back down to where they should be. You might try the same thing with the wet/dry you mentioned. But definitely look into an auto top-off unit. I made my own using the directions from Melev's Reef -- it gives me a lot of peace of mind. Good luck!

 

Thanks for the auto top off site, that looks really simple as I will make one this weekend. Thank you! As for the fans, I will try that before buying a chiller.