Cooling Water without a Chiller

[FishPharm]

I'm thinking of alternative ways to cool water other than buying a chiller. I just hooked up an inline 40 gallon breeders tank to my main display. It will be used as a frag tank that will be lit on a reverse cycle opposit my display. Without heating the 40 gallon tank, do you think its possible to cool the main display during the day with the additional volume of water unheated? The 40 gallon would have a seperate heater set at a low point so if the temp drops, it will kick in. My thinking is if the additional water volume isn't heated by the metal halides it should help keep water temps down a bit. I should mention the water turnover in the 40 gallon tank is about 10x/hr. Do you think this is a reasonable assumption?

 

[FloridaShock]

Maybe try doing water changes with cooler water.

 

[lanxang]

if you have a fan blowing over the 40gal, it would cool even better.

 

[szwab]

fans do wonders either over the tanks or the sump.
have them blow across the tops to be most effective.

 

[FishPharm]

I do have one fan over the sump as well as inside the large canopy above the 180g display. Last summer, I had difficulty maintaining temp. It sometimes would rise to 86 degrees on very hot days. But at that time I was still letting the tank mature with only live rock. So this was not a real concern at that time. Now I have to keep things much more stable because of my stonies. So with the upcoming warmer months approaching, I was looking for ideas to keep things cool. Next year I will add a chiller.
The surface of the 40 gallon tank is exposed and open, so yes a fan is very doable. I will definitely add this to the mix. Thanx. No doubt a lot of toppoff will be needed from this solution, but still workable. Any other thoughts?

 

[mm949]

Bigger fan like a 20" box cools my tanks 5-10 degrees...

 

[jman77]

Fans...... It that doesn't work.... make a swamp cooler. Deltec makes a swamp cooler for a nice $ tag. You can DIY one for little money and tie it into your current setup.

 

[FishPharm]

Thanx all for your input.

 

[cthetoy]

One 12" flan blowing across my sump can cool my 150G reef by 8-10 degrees. It depends where you live also. I live in a low humdity envorment so the fan effect evaporation is more efficient. During humid days I can only drop around 5 degrees with my fan.

 

[Giovanni]

Fans and keep the AC in your house low. The AC will reduce the humidity as well as the temp and allow the fan to work better.

 

[bkwudzjeep]

Fans work wonders.......or you could do what some of us did during the hurricanes. During the short power outage (thankfully this one was short), I had a frozen water bottle that I had in the freezer and put it in the sump. This is not a very recommended way, but you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes.


I only had one pump running off my car battery and an inverter. The other hurricanes, my neighbor was nice enough to let me borrow some of his juice from his generator for a few days.

 

[bertcmg]

Below is a cut and paste of my response in diffferent thread, I thought it would be relevant since you want to reduce heat load as well

hope it helps



I have 3 250W DE's + PC atinics + Chiller+ Heaters

Ever since I staggered the lighting schedule, my bills are significantly lower.


12 PC on

12:30 MH No 1 ON

3:30 MH no 2 ON

4 PM MH No1. OFF

6:30 MH No3 ON

7PM MH No 2 OFF

10 PM MH No 3 OFF

11 PM the PC atinics turn off

I believe the saving come from the following


1. Total MH "ON" time is much lower since each MH is on only 3.5 hours.

3X 3.5 hours = 10.5 hours as opposed to 3X 7-8 h = 21-24 Hours a day


2. The heaters don't need to come on during the the entire light period because of the heat from MH's

3. The chiller seems kick-in a whole lot less because the of the reduced heat load

I have not factored in the savings from the streams because I had them before the lighting change.

You mention that you want don't like the look of equipment / powerheads, maybe you should consider the tunze deco rocks if you choose to go that route.


hth

Bert