Cold/Temperate Water Reef

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8938266#post8938266 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Fishboy1230
Im contimplating setting up a 50-100 gallon Coldwater reef. What size chiller would you recomend? Also is 3/8 glass thick enough to stop sweating? Thanks
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If you want to completely eliminate sweating in all weather....then you'll need 1" (including the sump). I have a dive buddy who has a 60gal tank with 1/2".......most of the time it does not sweat.... but, when the temp gets above 90, it starts to sweat. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we seldom have humidity.....which isn't the case for NJ. Go with the 1"....or no less than 3/4' (I bet you'll still get some sweating with 3/4" though). Another trick is to blow a fan across the tank walls on those troublesome days to stop sweating....but, if your humidity is real high....even that may not help.

As for a chiller, somewhere from a 1/4hp to a 1/2hp will be fine.
 
Same reason a glass of ice water will sweat. It has to do with the dew point of the air in the room and the temperature of the outside surface of the tank.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8984390#post8984390 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by lucifersreef
why is that
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The problem is in the temperature difference between the ambient air and the water. Glass is a poor insulator......acrylic is a good insulator. Some folks with glass tanks have placed sheet styrofoam on three sides so that it will only sweat on the front panel.

It's just like AcroSteve has said.....a glass of ice water on a hot day will sweat.....the same water in a styrofoam cup will not. Humidity also plays a role.....but... the insulating properties of the tank is the most important factor.
 
I just want to argue a little against the idea that you can't keep a coldwater tank without acrylics. It's a very good idea to get acrylics if you live in the US where you can get it cheap. But in my country there is little tradition for it. So you can't really get acrylics tanks. I have kept cold water tanks for years and sweating was never a real issue. I used a glass tank with 8mm (1/4 inch) glass. And I live in a wet coastal climate and don't use air conditioning. Though the room was well ventilated and not subject to moist air from tropical tanks. The sweating didn't start until I tried to reach realistic winter temperatures and got below about 10C (50F). But when the tank was that cold I had the lights off most of the time anyway (changing seasons is part of the charm in northern areas). In the summer it never happened.

There is a big difference between a glass of ice water and a slightly chilled temperate aquarium!

Humidity is a *big* issue. If you keep the tank in a warm room with tropical tanks and lots of lights, a glass tank will sweat a lot even at only a few degrees below room temp.

So go ahead and get acrylics, but don't let it stop you if you can't get any.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8988047#post8988047 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by norskfisk
I just want to argue a little against the idea that you can't keep a coldwater tank without acrylics. It's a very good idea to get acrylics if you live in the US where you can get it cheap. But in my country there is little tradition for it. So you can't really get acrylics tanks. I have kept cold water tanks for years and sweating was never a real issue. I used a glass tank with 8mm (1/4 inch) glass. And I live in a wet coastal climate and don't use air conditioning. Though the room was well ventilated and not subject to moist air from tropical tanks. The sweating didn't start until I tried to reach realistic winter temperatures and got below about 10C (50F). But when the tank was that cold I had the lights off most of the time anyway (changing seasons is part of the charm in northern areas). In the summer it never happened.

There is a big difference between a glass of ice water and a slightly chilled temperate aquarium!

Humidity is a *big* issue. If you keep the tank in a warm room with tropical tanks and lots of lights, a glass tank will sweat a lot even at only a few degrees below room temp.

So go ahead and get acrylics, but don't let it stop you if you can't get any.
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All good points.....but over here....acrylic is as available (or maybe even more available) than glass. Also...I'm not quite sure what your climate is like in your part of Norway....but, many of the folks over here live in VERY hot, humid areas....like anywhere in the South or on the East coast where there will be many 90+ F days with 90% humidity.....or in just very hot areas like anywhere in the Southwest where daily summertime temps exced 100 F. Even in my neck of the woods (the Pacific Northwest), I can expect a few weeks of over 100 F temps a year.

For the folks over here, acrylic is cheap and readily available....there is no reason to make things hard on yourself.
 
steveweast:
Sure, if you can get acrylic, do. I just want to say that sweating shouldn't make people worried. Because you will be able to solve that problem if it occurs. There are numerous ways to do it like using a dehumidifier, AC unit, moving the tank to another room, soap on the glass, see if you can rise the temperature slightly, or just accept a little seating now and then.

bojangsjang:
It's completed now, only need to glue a decoratice frame to the front. I had water in it for an hour a few days ago. No sweating of course.
It was hard to make the double glazing! The hard part was cleaning the glass! There turned out to be an oily film on the glass between the panes. So I had to take it apart and buy a new outer pane. But I finally made it. Plenty of tips in the article thats coming soon. I wonder if double glazing gives significantly more optical distortion than single layer glass. I don't have a big tank for reference now so it's difficult to tell. I must visit some shops and study their tanks.
 
You guys gotta stop with these threads, it's making me really want a cold water system. Unfortunatly being in Indiana I can't just go collect anything, unless the corn fish is cold water! I'm really excited to see what stuff you guys keep getting, keep up the great work.
 
Jon, do you have a link to your tank build.

What kind of macroalgae are you interested in? I am currently in the process of collecting and stocking Fucus sp. as the backbone species for my 75G. tank.
 
Hi,

Link is coming soon, but I am very busy these days, so it's going a bit slow with the picture editing. also I need to spraypaint some details on the outside the tank before it is finished. I don't know exactly when I will get the time for that.

For those who want to see the tank with content I must disapoint you because I am going to sell it after it's done. This tank was only a test project. The plan is to start building a new 260 gallon in March. After that is done I will set it up, probably around May. Then there will be a blog that is updated a few times a week with pics to show growth and status reports. So I hope there will be some good entertainment there :-).

I live by the sea in a coutry where there are practically no restrictions on collecting for private use. Also there is the old "all men's right", meaning you can go anywhere. No private property stopping you. So it is nice that way.

There are about 300 species of macros around here, with about 100 different discernible "shapes". Then some are not attractive or hard to find so there are a few dosen to choose from. But that is plenty. I plan to start with a live sand bed, I love those, have a dissecting microscope to look at all the critters in. And then some macros under 320W of concentrated T5. I will use CO2, probably dose nitrate and trace elements. Also want to keep lots of filter animals, plan to have 2 refugiums one for phytoplankton and one to keep live zooplankton that is continously dripping into the main tank.

Fish.. Love them but they are the small pieces of candy on top of the cake. It's creating the world that they live in that is challenging ;-)!
 
When you guys say that when temp. reach ~ 90-100F the tank will likely sweat., but is that 90~100F indoors or outdoors? Thanks
 
My example was for a buddy's tank in his garage....so...the actual ambient air temp that was touching the tank was probably around 85 - 90 F.
 
Can you sell and ship it.

Can you sell and ship it.

Would it be legal for you guys to ship out some of the very interesting cold water stuff you find? I'm sure you could make some nice side money selling the stuff. I know I would be interested when I start a cold reef down the road.
 
My Washington State collection permit clearly states that the permit is for personal use only. While it would be hard to trace, I would not want to push that envelope. Maybe others might...or maybe some other folks have a commercial permit.
 
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