Everybody be prepared...

As it gets back to full swing summer and associated temps I'd like to remind everyone to be prepared for disaster. Today I had a near death experience. Here in Mad town it got to 93 today. Definitely unseasonably high to say the least.

Yesterday, I had to give in and crank the Air for the first time this year. It worked great all day and kept the house at an even keeled 74 without a hiccup. Tank temps stayed below 81 all day. I even got lucky and caught it early enough in my Sunday hangover to shut all the windows and kick it on before outside temp climbed past 78.

Today, I walked in from work at 6:00 and was relieved by the cool air.... Oh wait its not THAT much cooler than outside. Quick have a look at the tank. Everything looks alright but its reading 84.6 degrees. OH SNAP!!! I went to the A/C controller in the hallway. It was set to cool to 74 but was actually 79. Ran outside to see if the compressor was spinning. Oh snap!!! No compressing. Check the outside mechanical heavy load breaker deal. Its good. Run down to the indoor breaker. Its good. WTF!!! Grab a fan and aim it at the tank, turn off half the lighting and open the hood. Then I chilled for a second to collect my thoughts. Go back to the compressor and check the low voltage signal wire. Jiggle it around a bit and it starts kicking a bit but not a solid connection. Pull off the units panel and dig around and finally narrow it down to a simple wire nut that had worked its way loose from the vibration of startups and shutdowns. There are now a few extra zip ties and electrical tape around those connections.

Since 6:27 the compressor has been running full bore. At first I watched the tank temp like a hawk making sure it was hovering at the very least. Finally it began dropping and as I type its 83.1 degrees. House is currently at 75.

Maybe its not that exciting to you guys but it is a lesson learned. 1. Be aware of your ambient temp to tank temp ratio. It may not always be linear. 2. In the event of power failure or component failure be prepared to act quickly but not recklessly. 3. Turning the AC on and off to try to save money is really counter active if you don't turn it on before the house gets heat soaked in the late morning.

Good night everyone.

 

Thanks for describing one of my weekly nightmares! Ha I'm even trying to post a webcam pointed at my tanks temp just so I can check it as I please throughout the day. Working 6 days 12-10p leaves alot of time for things to go bad.

 

You can buy a couple of very cheap clip on fans from wal-mart and aim them at the tank and sump to control the temp.

Also a controller is worth every penny IMO b/c you can set it to turn those fans on at 81 degrees so the tank never gets above that temp.

 

i don't know how big your tank is but its always a good idea in summer time to keep some 2 liter bottles of frozen water in your freezer or the appropriate size for your tank, one summer all i had were bottles of cold beer in the fridge, and they worked great in a pinch to get my temp down.

 

lol

 

lol...

 

Absolutely. I should have been more prepared. My freezer is almost always stuffed though with all my renters BS.

Today, surprisingly the inhabitants all look just about tip top. Only an Acan was looking a little retracted but that could be from something else too.

I'm sumpless at this point. Its just a hopped up Biocube 29. But yes my next upgrades are ncreased hood airflow with bigger fans, more LED supplements, Vortech MP10 and ReefKeeper Elite

 

Normally I am not for the abuse of beer, but in the case of saving a tank I am for it! clever idea!

 

I wasn't a big believer in the impact that a small fan would have to my tank temp until recently. We have been having moderately warm weather in So Ca (in the low to mid 80s) and my chiller has been coming on several times a day to keep the tank in the 79 to 80 range.

As an experiment I added a small clip-on fan to my sump that blows directly into the skimmer flow. I have the fan set to come on a 1/2 a degree before the chiller (79.5). Surprisingly, the chiller has not come on in the past two weeks and the outside temp has been relatively the same if now warmer. I can actually see the temp rise stop when the fan comes on and hover at that temp without triggering the chiller.

I am now thinking of adding a second fan and hopefully eliminate the need for the chiller except during our hottest summer days. The evaporation has increased but not by much.

Anyways, I am now subscribed to the fan cooling method as it does work!

p.s I do also keep bottles in the freezer for the unexpected. This is a must in So Ca.

 

haha glad this thread popped up didn't know we were getting a new a/c today so its been off all day and my freezer packs are coming in handy, but man this is getting annoying running back and forth to the freezer