A Reef Tank in the Desert - +/- 1,400 gallon system

Dan I think your tank need a Gem Tang. Aqua Touch in town have a Gem Tang for sale
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I hate to even offer a guess what they are asking for it!

Thanks geemanaz! But, not at this time. I have been looking for a couple of Black Longnose Tangs and eventually, I will get a pair of Gem Tangs too. Just, not yet!

I appreciate you thinking of me!
 
I hate to even offer a guess what they are asking for it!

Thanks geemanaz! But, not at this time. I have been looking for a couple of Black Longnose Tangs and eventually, I will get a pair of Gem Tangs too. Just, not yet!

I appreciate you thinking of me!
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Fish Room Emergency

Fish Room Emergency

This morning, as I do all mornings, I walked into my Fish Room around 5:30 AM to check on things before I headed to the office.

Something wasn't quite right. It was more humid in the room than usual and the temperature on my tanks was reading 79.2 degrees. Normally my main tank is at 77 and my Seahorse Tank is at 75 degrees.

Cool air was blowing out of my A/C unit, but not real cold air. I had the window opened a few inches so I shouldn't really have a humidity issue. As soon as I got to the office, I called my a/c guy to come out and check things during my lunch hour.

I was already planning on coming home during the day as my LFS was having 400 gallons of Catalina natural sea water delivered to my house after they filled up their tanks. When I got home, the temperature in the fish room was 85 degrees and my tanks were at 81.6. The refrigerant levels of a/c were fine but the compressor or some other component of my mini-split was fried. The problem??? This is the unit I purchased in Mexico to save a few thousand...my a/c company spent the entire afternoon trying to find the replacement parts in both Tucson and Phoenix. They had no luck whatsoever.

I temporarily disconnected the Seahorse tank from my main system and my chiller had the temperature of that tank down to 74 degrees within minutes. I lowered the house a/c's down to 75 degrees and placed a few fans in the hallway blowing cool air into the fish room.

Sometime tomorrow I will have a new mini-split a/c system installed in the fish room. It has been a costly lesson having to purchase two a/c systems in a one year time period. I will see if my buddy can't bring the unit back to Puerto Penasco with him the next time he goes down to Mexico. Hopefully, they can fix the unit for cheap and I can have a "back up" system if this ever happens again. :(
 
Sorry to hear about the A/C. At least it went out before it got really hot down here. My AC went last year and I was using a high powered fan directed at the water surface and had DFS cold packs I was rotating from my freezer into the tank. Do you have your Apex warning you when temp raises above a certain value? Are you getting the same brand A/C, I'm curious about what you get, and if your A/C guy recommended something specific.
 
Dan,

Sounds like you caught that one quickly.

Evaporative cooling works well in a situation like that. You can set a couple of box fans on top of your tank and sumps blowing straight down on the water surface and you would be surprised how much cooling power that can produce.

Also might be worth investing in an extra Apex temp probe to measure the fish room temperature and alert you when the room temp rises.

Dave B
 

Sorry to hear that Dan, glad you caught things before it got any worse though.

Its a good thing you caught the problem before it became to serious for the tanks. Hope it all works out for you.

Joe

Thanks guys!

I think that I am okay and that I caught things in time. The A/C guys told me that I must of had something burn out pretty bad as the refrigerant was a nasty color.

Hopefully this new unit will work out well!
 
Dan,

Sounds like you caught that one quickly.

Evaporative cooling works well in a situation like that. You can set a couple of box fans on top of your tank and sumps blowing straight down on the water surface and you would be surprised how much cooling power that can produce.

Also might be worth investing in an extra Apex temp probe to measure the fish room temperature and alert you when the room temp rises.

Dave B

Thanks Dave. I am going to get a few fans for the summer months that I mount along the wall above and to the sides of the tank. My A/C unit has a descent de-humidifier that does a good job of removing the moisture. I am not really worried about the room temperature, the tank temp gives me enough notice. I might invest as a backup, if I can find a decent used one, in a large chiller that will turn on in the case of these emergencies.

Regards,

Dan
 
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Mitsubishi's are known to be very reliable so hopefully u are going to be OK Dan!

It appears to be working very well! When I got up this morning, the temperature in the fish room was 68 degrees. I just checked my Apex online and the water temperature is 76.8. :)
 
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