1000 Gallon Build- Here we go- Lots of Pictures

[delmo]

Been a while since an update. Had some challenges that set me back. We had a heat wave and my ac had been shut off in my fish room causing the tank temp to spike. All fish are fine but I lost a few corals and some shrimp. Nothing catastrophe but still bummed. I have the temp stable at 81 degrees. If it spikes again, I'll have to look to adding a chiller which I was hoping to avoid.

I'll post some photos in a bit.

I have recently set up an App called IFTTT, (If this then that). I have it screen my email for an alert from Apex, with the specific search string that only a high temp alarm would have, then it turns my wifi AC Thermostat down to a specified setting, to over come the heat problem... It would connect to your home system as well, and can do do many, many other things too

 

[SPotter]

I see that all of your lines for the tank are under ground. Im not familiar with what the ground temps are in Arizona but is it possible the ground is warming your lines and causing heat issues for you?

 

[Socaltoaz]

I see that all of your lines for the tank are under ground. Im not familiar with what the ground temps are in Arizona but is it possible the ground is warming your lines and causing heat issues for you?

Pipes are about 3 feet underground so I doubt it's the ground heat but it's possible. Right now the fish room is at 64 degrees. I've been out of town for a few days but I'll monitor everything and see what I can do to get the temp down.

I had some lids on the sump and the tank that were there from the beginning. All are gone.

With the apex now installed I can properly monitor the temp and make adjustments. Frankly I've been running blind. Yes I know - I should have gotten the apex a long time ago. Don't rub it in.

 

[ADVRESOURCE]

Fluke makes a laser, digital, hand held temperature meter. Great for point and shoot temp readings. Quick way to see what's hot. With fans blowing you wil get a lot more evaporation, salt creep, and humidity...even in Arizona with dry heat. Your tank is in a very open space so humidity may not be that noticeable.

 

[ADVRESOURCE]

Do you test for alk, ca and mg much? Stony corals and coralline algae need and deplete fast which can have negative effect on coral. Do you dose?

 

[Socaltoaz]

Fluke makes a laser, digital, hand held temperature meter. Great for point and shoot temp readings. Quick way to see what's hot. With fans blowing you wil get a lot more evaporation, salt creep, and humidity...even in Arizona with dry heat. Your tank is in a very open space so humidity may not be that noticeable.

Good idea but I'm fairly certain that the 6 pumps in he sump aren't helping.

2 return, 2 skimmer pumps, 2 reactor pumps. That's the only thing I can think of that is causing temp to go up.

 

[Socaltoaz]

Do you test for alk, ca and mg much? Stony corals and coralline algae need and deplete fast which can have negative effect on coral. Do you dose?

Yes- I do dose. I'll run some updated tests later today but according to apex- ph is 8.3. Temp 83.2 - I'll get updated Ca and ALK readings later today.

 

[SPotter]

I googled soil temps in southern Arizona and looks like the ground gets pretty hot.

 

[Socaltoaz]

I googled soil temps in southern Arizona and looks like the ground gets pretty hot.

Well that sucks. There goes the whole geothermal cooling idea.

 

[SPotter]

Well that sucks. There goes the whole geothermal cooling idea.

That's exactly what I thought!!!! I'm no scientist but I thought you had to go doe close to 100' for geo thermal cooling to work but I could be wrong.

 

[Socaltoaz]

From what I inderstood, even going down a few feet would offer some cooling capabilities.

Regardless, I made a few adjustments and temp is now down to 82.9.
Dropping slowly but surely.

My apologies to the poster who first recommended fans and I dismissed the idea so quickly. Fans might actually do the trick. I'm convinced that I need to kill the return pumps out. That and fans will solve the issue.

 

[Happyschneider]

Please make sure your readings are correct. Digital thermometers are notoriously unreliable when not properly calibrated. I have no experience with apex probes but make sure they are reading correctly before you try to compensate for something that is not correct.

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[ADVRESOURCE]

Do you know the temperature differential between your sump and display tank?

 

[Socaltoaz]

My Apex is only at sump. I'm going to get a laser temp Guage as suggested earlier. We have one at the office. My temp reading is now 82.9- dropping slowly but surely after h adjustments from this morning. Gonna let it settle for a few days to establish baseline before making any further changes.

 

[1jwampler]

If the humidity in the sump area is below 50% you may want to consider a dryer fan, they move tons of air and aren't subject to the moisture failures of other fans.

I put a 6" on my 150 and leave the house at 80+, when at work and as long as the humidity is below 50% I can bring the tank down to 76 with just evaporation. It's a little noisy but I'm not home. Here is a link to the 8" http://www.suncourt.com/product/TF108-CRD;jsessionid=CB69A312E5A86DAAF2CAB7A799593220

Uses about 1 amp compared with a chiller at 6 amps or so and an added bonus is a couple of gallons evaporation allowing more kalkwasser to supplement calcium.

I would have to think a couple of 8s would make a dent on a 1000 gallon if you can stand the noise.


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[Socaltoaz]

Do you need to vent it to the outside? Noise is not an issue. Sump room is in the garage.

 

[1jwampler]

I do not have mine vented to the outside. The best way is to point the fan at the water surface where you have lots of agitation, use a flexible hose to draw air in from as low as possible and as far away from the tank/sump as easy to do, mine blows directly on the tank under the canopy and draws air from the floor behind the tank


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[1jwampler]

Just noticed sump room in the garage may be adding to your heat load unless your garage is air conditioned, if possible and you have a basement you may want to draw air from the basement


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[ADVRESOURCE]

My evaporative fan is over the tank. Ground temp in az is high at only 3 ft. Check temp at sump vs tank. Chiller would have to be at tank if temp delta high between fish room and tank. Otherwise, winters could be an issue. Az gets high temp difference between summer and winter.

 

[1jwampler]

The fan (intake hose) being lower is not an attempt to get significantly cooler air, it's just to insure that you don't pull the air you just blew over the tank (now very humid relative to the rest of the house) from being blown back onto the tank. The cooling from the fan is evaporative, so it doesn't matter how hot the air intake is, just how much water is in the air. So, with AZ being dry this should work pretty good, when the water evaporates it takes heat with it, but, blowing moist/damp air over the tank doesn't leave much capacity in the air for new water, so as far away from the tank as possible and lower (even a degree cooler) results in air blowing over the tank that can suck up moisture, dropping temperature.


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