Cooling your aquarium

[behlke]

Summer is upon us and it is time to look at cooling the aquarium. There are three main ways to do keep the temperature down in the aquarium. The first is to blow air across the surface of the water to increase the amount of evaporation. The same exact principle that we use when we sit in front of a fan to cool down. The second is a chiller. This device uses coolant to cool the water that is pumped through it. Same process as a refrigerator. The third, for emergency use, is to place bags of ice cubes in the aquarium to cool it off, just like a glass of water.

The use of fans to cool the water is probably the most common means of controlling the temperature in an aquarium because it is far easier and cheaper to point a fan at the aquarium. However, I cannot find any information on how effective evaporative cooling is in an aquarium. Will the fans lower the temperature below the ambient room temperature? For example your house does not drop below 80 degrees will the fans be able to keep the aquarium at 78 degrees?

When are fans not enough and people should think about chillers to cool their aquariums?

Thanks.

Later,Adam

 

[oscarinw]

In my opinion, the use of fans depends on the temperature of the air you blow on the surface of the water. If your room temperature is similar to the water temperature or too close, your cooling will not be noticeable.

 

[animalkingdom]

I dont know about the limits of evaporative cooling, but you can go really really far with it..

 

[TimeConsumer]

Evaporative cooling can be used to bring the temperature of water below ambient in specific circumstances. When you start adding in the heat generated by pumps and lights it is very unlikely that you will be able to drop the system below ambient temperature using fans alone.

 

[MrClam]

Yes, evaporative cooling can bring the temperature down below ambient. Think of sweating with people. If evaporative heat loss was limited by ambient temp, people would quickly overheat and die if the temperature outside was over 98.6. The process of evaporation actually draws heat out of a person (or a tank) in order to overcome the energy threshold for changing the state of water from a liquid to a gas.

I have no idea how far you can push this to cool a tank (battling heat input from pumps, heaters, lights), but by adding more fans or dehumidifyers to facilitate evaporation you will continue to decrease the temperature of the tank.

 

[Paul B]

I built this evaporative chiller. It cools my 100 gallon tank about 3 degrees. It was designed for a much smaller tank and if I really needed to cool my 100 gallon tank I would have to build a bigger one for that.

 

[kclewis]

I would be careful of the ice method. Rapid changes in water temp caused by the addition of ice can be just as bad as high temps.

 

[kclewis]

Paul B your DIY stuff always strikes up curiosity in me. Do you have any plans for that cooler? I would imagine the crew in the nano forum would love to see them.

 

[SaltwaterSensei]

i had built an algal turf scrubber that acted somewhat as a swamp cooler, this was in the late 90's on a 75 gallon tank (about 110 twv) that was able to keep the tank below ambient. It worked similar to Pauls DIY cooler but air was blown over the algae matt while water was sprayed from above with a pvc spray bar, I used two 4" computer fans. In 100 degree weather it was able to hold the tank at about 80. But it went through top off water like crazy.

 

[xtlosx]

I solved this problem when we upgraded from a 60 cube to a 150G... Just moved the tank to the basement, and it goes from ~79.5F -> 81F like clock work no matter the time of year

 

[TimeConsumer]

I'm convinced Paul is a mad scientist. I love the use of a coffee filter on that chiller.

 

[postshawn]

Also to take into consideration is what type of lighting you have and how big of a light. Often times lighting is one of the most common reason for high temps in tanks. If you can cool the lighting you can cool the tank most times. LED lighting gives off much less heat then the other options. But the fans at the top can cool the water surface and also blow away the heat from lights. Fans above or on the sides of the lights can help to extract the heat too.

 

[Paul B]

Do you have any plans for that cooler? I would imagine the crew in the nano forum would love to see them.

The picture tells it all, water flows over the plexiglass and a fan blows in the opposite direction evaporating the water and cooling it.

I love the use of a coffee filter on that chiller.

That coffee filter is a worm filter as I am using it on my blackworm tank there.

I'm convinced Paul is a mad scientist.

You have no idea :uhoh3:

 

[tatuaje08]

How about the #1 most logical way to keep your tank cool.....use your air conditioner. Smh....

 

[DeepThought]

In Louisiana, it's getting in the 90s pretty often and it will soon be getting up into the 100's later on this Summer. With me running the central air and a window unit in the living room, my tank is still getting up to 83.9*F during the day.... I think I'm going to consider adding a fan to my setup. Apparently it's a necessary evil this time of year.

 

[tatuaje08]

Is there something wrong with your ac?

 

[Lionfish666]

There is a forth way. Hook a temp controller to an air conditioning unit + the tank fans.
Keeps the humidity (the real killer to evaporative cooling) and the ambient temp down

 

[alpineroush]

I live in Arkansas and have A fan blow across sump and four in the hood. 2 pulling in 2 pulling out

 

[JeffBowlin]

In my opinion, the use of fans depends on the temperature of the air you blow on the surface of the water. If your room temperature is similar to the water temperature or too close, your cooling will not be noticeable.

I think it's the humidity of the air blown accross the surface of the water that limits evaporative cooling, not temperature.

 

[ca1ore]

In my opinion, the use of fans depends on the temperature of the air you blow on the surface of the water. If your room temperature is similar to the water temperature or too close, your cooling will not be noticeable.

Evaporative cooling is not about the temperature of the air but its humidity! My folks used one (aka Swamp Cooler) on their home in Phoenix and it worked fine in very hot weather as long as the humidity was below 45% (I think?).