chillers, any alternatives?
- Thread starter dwagner11
- Start date
If you have glass canopy can remove and replace with egg crate or just leave open if you do not have any jumpers in your tank.
Get some clip on fans. Blow across the surface of the water. Evaporation rate will of coarse go up.
Get some clip on fans. Blow across the surface of the water. Evaporation rate will of coarse go up.
TrojanScott
Active member
80-81 degrees is no big deal at all. If you're staying in this range, dont' worry. Mine runs 83 at times, no problems. Save your money, enjoy your warm tank.
ben&bobbi
New member
ok, i was going to start one of these myself, so i will keep this one going!
i have a 75 gal, and can't get certain people to understand that the house temp needs to stay near a certain temp - so i have a closed house to compete with.
i have tried a couple cheap PC 120mm x 25mm fans - not impressed, really don't move much air.
yesterday i tried placing a solid frozen 2ltr bottle of water in the sump - it was liquid at tank temp in well under 4 hrs. not sure how long it took, but at 6pm it was frozen and before i went to bed at 10 - tank temp!
Rep from Orion fans told me to turn my fans on an angle instead of blowing straight into the front. my fans must blow in because they spray the wall down with salt water blowing out!
Here's a thought, but not sure yet, but i was thinking of this.
getting a transmission cooler (car nut here), a power head and a clip on fan. pumping water from the sump, through the transmission cooler with the fan blowing through it and returning to the sump. i figure this is basically all a chiller is.
i have a 75 gal, and can't get certain people to understand that the house temp needs to stay near a certain temp - so i have a closed house to compete with.
i have tried a couple cheap PC 120mm x 25mm fans - not impressed, really don't move much air.
yesterday i tried placing a solid frozen 2ltr bottle of water in the sump - it was liquid at tank temp in well under 4 hrs. not sure how long it took, but at 6pm it was frozen and before i went to bed at 10 - tank temp!
Rep from Orion fans told me to turn my fans on an angle instead of blowing straight into the front. my fans must blow in because they spray the wall down with salt water blowing out!
Here's a thought, but not sure yet, but i was thinking of this.
getting a transmission cooler (car nut here), a power head and a clip on fan. pumping water from the sump, through the transmission cooler with the fan blowing through it and returning to the sump. i figure this is basically all a chiller is.
lewismw
New member
if you have enough fans you should be fine. take 4 - 4" 120v fans and mount 2 on each end of the canopy. one set of 2 blowing across the water towards the other two which will be sucking air out. this will generate a great amount of air flow over the surface of the water thus cooling it,...unless you keep your house around 90*. :lol:
skeeter_ca
Active member
, I did this in my previous home. My house had a wooden foundation. I ran a hose under the house to my backyard (insulated) buried 150' of pvc pipe 5' deep, which then came back under the house to the aquarium again. used a small powerhead to run water through constancely so it wouldn't go stagnant and had a temp contoller turn on a large powerhead when temps got above 81. Worked great,but was a ----- to install.aquadw
reply
reply
thanks for all the feedback, but does anyone have any solutions other than installing a car cooling system, or one with so many fans that instead of fighting water temp. I am fighting evaporation? Not trying to be cruel, but this is very frustrating, I just can't seem to "keep" the water temp down. I can fluctuate it, but then it just raises again. I'm guessing this is not very beneficial to the livestock in the tank. But does anyone know if it is acceptable to run such a high temp? Everyone talks about "ideal" water temps, but few if any go into detail about adverse affects of high water temps.
reply
thanks for all the feedback, but does anyone have any solutions other than installing a car cooling system, or one with so many fans that instead of fighting water temp. I am fighting evaporation? Not trying to be cruel, but this is very frustrating, I just can't seem to "keep" the water temp down. I can fluctuate it, but then it just raises again. I'm guessing this is not very beneficial to the livestock in the tank. But does anyone know if it is acceptable to run such a high temp? Everyone talks about "ideal" water temps, but few if any go into detail about adverse affects of high water temps.
BeanAnimal
Premium Member
Evaporation is one of the most efficient ways to cool your tank. If that does not suit you, then a chiller is your next step. JBJ makes some decent cheap units from what I understand.
I run my reef at 82 degrees, and in the summer it is more like 84. Natural reefs reach temperatures well above this. However, one thing to consider is that you don't have a natural reef, you are just mimicing one. At higher temperatures oxygen is harder to keep in the water. Therefore you need to have good turnover and good aeration. A skimmer certainly helps, as does water flowing over the baffles in a sump.
You just don't have many choices when it comes to removing heat from the tank. The chiller wil save you money as compared to trying to float 2 liter bottles in your tank all day. The 2 liter trick is kind of for emergencies when the tank hits 86 and the power is out.
Bean
I run my reef at 82 degrees, and in the summer it is more like 84. Natural reefs reach temperatures well above this. However, one thing to consider is that you don't have a natural reef, you are just mimicing one. At higher temperatures oxygen is harder to keep in the water. Therefore you need to have good turnover and good aeration. A skimmer certainly helps, as does water flowing over the baffles in a sump.
You just don't have many choices when it comes to removing heat from the tank. The chiller wil save you money as compared to trying to float 2 liter bottles in your tank all day. The 2 liter trick is kind of for emergencies when the tank hits 86 and the power is out.
Bean
you might want to try an iceprobe, it is a 50 watt thermoelectric cooler(electric operated, not compressor operated so its quiet). If you have an acrylic sump you can drill a hole in it and install this, it has a temp controller and will lower your tank maybe a degree or two. They sell them on ebay for like 135dollars, but make sure you are getting the cooler and controller not just the cooler.
bergzy
New member
get some eggcrate, cut it to size to fit over your sump, put the biggest vornado fan you can fit into your available space and turn it on!
you will be surprised how effective evaporative cooling is!
i have a medium sized vornado blowing directly into my sump and it is enough to keep my 350g+ system at 78 degree's.
i am a little more fancy as i have the fan attached to a temp controller.
i live in southern california where the temps on some summer days can get close to 100 degree's. also, my equipment is in the garage which gets pretty hot. if my fan can not keep up with evap cooling, then i let my chiller take over which is set at 80 degree's on another temp controller.
i think a vornado fan would be more than sufficient for your 75g esp if everything is located in your home and you have reasonable ambient room temp.
but...what do i know!
you will be surprised how effective evaporative cooling is!
i have a medium sized vornado blowing directly into my sump and it is enough to keep my 350g+ system at 78 degree's.
i am a little more fancy as i have the fan attached to a temp controller.
i live in southern california where the temps on some summer days can get close to 100 degree's. also, my equipment is in the garage which gets pretty hot. if my fan can not keep up with evap cooling, then i let my chiller take over which is set at 80 degree's on another temp controller.
i think a vornado fan would be more than sufficient for your 75g esp if everything is located in your home and you have reasonable ambient room temp.
but...what do i know!
Mr James
Premium Member
I taught my fish to pant, you know, like a dog does. Works like a charm. Now the corals on the other hand, well, I used a couple of fans in the hood and one over the sump, as well as keeping the house at a cooler temp. I later bought a chiller, the fish were exhausting themselves.
Reefmaniac1
Active member
You'd need between 5 and 7 of them to really be effective on that size tank. 135*5 = $675. He'd be just as well off to buy a chiller.
hahaha, thats what i did and it works like a charm, i also have 2 fans sucking in on my acnopy and one blowing out, as well as 2 120mm fans blowing across the surface towards the exhaust fan. then under the tank in the sump i have another cheap target fan blowing over the top of my fuge. if my tank gets too hot i turn off the protein skimmer... if it gets way too hot, i turn off the powerhead inside. the mag 9.5 should be enough circulation anyways inside my tank. Oh, i also keep my house at 76 to 77, and my tank usually doesn't go above 80. at night i turn the fans to their lowest setting and it stabilizes around 79.1 sooo... its justa matter of finding what works, whether its re routing your ac, adding some fans, or getting a chiller. There are no shortcuts when it comes to these friggin tanks. I know... i've tried... you're probablly best off just getting a chiller. I'd have one, but i have no $ and no more space.
BubbaPhish
New member
A fairly cheap but most labor intensive to set up would be a geothermal loop. If you set it up right it could also act as a coil de-nitrater. Do a search on geothermal cooling for aquariums. If I am not mistaken Dr. Mac uses a geothermal loop setup at his shop in Maryland.
I would bury it deep as possible UNDER the house as most crawl spaces have fairly stable temps year round. You could power it with a fairly small powerhead, them all you would need is a couple of hundred feet of small diameter flexible tubing.
But then again evaporative cooling is hard to beat, and fans from Wally World (walmart) are pretty cheap. Biggest draw back to fans is having top off water.
Bubbaphish
I would bury it deep as possible UNDER the house as most crawl spaces have fairly stable temps year round. You could power it with a fairly small powerhead, them all you would need is a couple of hundred feet of small diameter flexible tubing.
But then again evaporative cooling is hard to beat, and fans from Wally World (walmart) are pretty cheap. Biggest draw back to fans is having top off water.
Bubbaphish
thrlride
Aka lemmywinks
How hot do you keep your house and what type of lighting are you running?
My tank has twin 250 halides and when the house is at 77 the tank is running 79.
Check your pumps too, if they are hugely inefficient this will add temp. My pair of SEIO 1500's would keep the water at 83 until I replaced them with Tunze's. It dropped to 78 overnight.
My tank has twin 250 halides and when the house is at 77 the tank is running 79.
Check your pumps too, if they are hugely inefficient this will add temp. My pair of SEIO 1500's would keep the water at 83 until I replaced them with Tunze's. It dropped to 78 overnight.
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