Advice needed about temperature swings

[madmax7774]

My tank starts the morning off at 79.9F by dinner time, it is usually, up around 82.5F and occasionally has climbed to 83.5F My question is, how much of a swing over th course of the day is too much?

I already have a fan on on my aquacontroller that kicks in when the temp hits 80.8F so the fan is on for a good portion of the day. I am reluctant to spend $800 for a chiller if I can avoid it, but I will if I have to. what does everyone else see in their tanks on a daily basis?

John

[dhoch]

Where is your fan blowing?

 

How many fans do you have?

 

How big is your tank?

 

Dave

[Almon]

what does everyone else see in their tanks on a daily basis?

John

 

My tempature is mostly dependant, I think, on the tempature of the environment that it is in, my basement. I have 3 tanks on the same system with a lot of surface area affected by the environment. In general, my basement is fairly cool at 75 or less, so, I have my heaters adjusted to 78 degrees. That keeps the temperature fairly steady, dropping some on a cold nights when the basement temperature may be 65 - 68.

 

The lights add some heat, but my tanks are closed with glass tops minimizing the heat exchange. Plus, the Metal Halide hood has a fan at each side of the hood to remove the heat.

 

On warm days like today, the temperature will rise. Today, it has risen to 80. In the summer, with A/C, it will sometimes rise to 82. That is too high for me and I have been seriously contemplating a Chiller. I have heard that using a fan on my open sump water will decrease the temperature. I am eager to try that as a cheap alternative.

[madmax7774]

1 heavy duty fan blowing across the top of the tank. the system is a 125G total

[dhoch]

Try a fan over the sump....

 

Fans are good for a couple of degrees usually...

 

Other thing you can do is turn off lights...

 

Dave

[flowerseller]

My temp swing so far today is from 79.9 to 82.9 but the night is still young.

You can also program your controller to turn your lights off if your temp rises past a set point.

 

If Temp > 85.0 Then XYZ$ OFF

 

Mine sent me an email today.

 

Removing the glass tops will increase evaporation and lower temp.

[dandy7200]

 

 

Mine sent me an email today.

 

 

 

Tool.

 

Seriously, I use the same code for my ACjr. If temp goes above 84 halides go off. I use 2 fans over the tank with 100g total water volume, this seems to do the trick. Today my tank temp has been around 81 with all the doors open to let in some fresh air. When it gets hotter my AC is on and fans still do the trick for me.

 

BTW, with this setup my halides never went off last summer due to temp.

[madmax7774]

good idea, I added the code to turn the halides off if the temp>84F

I am going to have to address the cooling situation thought. I guess I will I try an additional fan over the sump

[Alok]

I'm interested in the answer to the original question -- what's an acceptable temperature swing over the course of a day? This will be my first summer with this tank, and I want to know what is reasonable...

[davjbeas]

I tried the clip on fans. My temp swing was up to 84-85 degrees with dual 250watt MH. I went ahead and bought an inline chiiler. no worries now. however if the chiller fails, my controller will switch off the lights when at temp of 83 degrees is reached. I dont think above 81 degrees is acceptable for a reef. 78-80 degrees is fine. Just my experience. Others have had success with fans. I saw someone selling a good chiller drop in style in the for sale section.

Good luck,

 

David

[dhoch]

Alok,

 

THere are many sucessful tanks with fairly large swings (4-6 degrees)...

 

I try to keep things as stable as possible.. <1 degree of swing throughout the day...

 

Dave