Heat issues in my BC14

[Jasontkd]

I am having trouble keeping my Temperature consistant in my BC14. I have an eheim heater that works really well. However, with just the heater, I am either getting too cold at night or too hot during the day. I can't seem to dial it in right.

If I set it to keep the water temp above 77 at night with the lights off, the temp jumps up over 81-82 dring the day. I really don't want this big of a swing, ideally, i would like the temp to stay around 78-79 all the time.

I don't have a sump, and I don't want to open the lid and add a fan (kind of defeats the purpose of the biocube in my opinion).

Is a chiller my only oprion, or am I missing something obvious?

 

[Ginu]

You can try some fans during the day to move the hot air form above the surface of the water.
I've noticed that by opening the feeding door you will drop the temp a little. This is a 14g so the volume is quite small so I would definitely try to do something to try to stabilize the temp.
Big letdown of adding fans is the water evaporation which can be a pain especially in a small aquarium when the smallest water parameter can make a huge difference.

I found out that its best is to run either LED lights or a chiller. In my case since i have a MHI in a AIO cube I chose the chiller and its running beautifully (sits at 78-79 all day long).

 

[reefsahoy]

Use led's. Forget the chiller! Youll save $ in the long run

 

[Ginu]

Use led's. Forget the chiller! Youll save $ in the long run

Its true, on my freshwater I'm running a Marineland Double bright and the thing runs cool at all times. Obviously there are issues one can complain about the Marineland fixtures, but overall it does a very good job and it keeps the tank really cool; I can't say the same about the MHI light over my cube though

Eventually I'd like to purchase a Radion and call it a day

 

[Jasontkd]

I have been looking at the RapidLED retro kits. I want a dimmable one, but I don't know what additional I would need to run it. It says it will require external hardware to control the dimmers. I have no idea what that would be.

 

[Jmoney619]

Your heater may need to be upgraded. Also, lifting the feeding lid should help

 

[Tschupe]

I have been looking at the RapidLED retro kits. I want a dimmable one, but I don't know what additional I would need to run it. It says it will require external hardware to control the dimmers. I have no idea what that would be.

I use a reef keeper lite with the ACL unit to control mine. There may be cheaper options though.

 

[reefsahoy]

I have been looking at the RapidLED retro kits. I want a dimmable one, but I don't know what additional I would need to run it. It says it will require external hardware to control the dimmers. I have no idea what that would be.

Save yourself time, energy, and all the headache. Get the AI sol blue Nano with the controller for $380- 5% or $ 361 shipped if you subscribe to tbaquatics.com. You'll love it on a nano! Clean, simple and no junk to hide! Just remember the led is way more powerful than MH or T5's, so start at a lowerpower output around 25% total output. You can adjust light output for color and intensity, dust to dawn, with storm mode, and night light too all under one hood while running cost about the price of 2 night lights without a chiller. You even get shimmer! And to top it off, your home ac won't even notice that your lights are on!

One of the nice features are that the is no light spillover the edges of the tank too and the light doesnt shine in your eyes either. I tried the rapidled version and id do the ai 100 time over that option. If you are concerned about evaporation, i lose about 2 quarts a week, or simply put a glass lid on.

 

[Jasontkd]

Save yourself time, energy, and all the headache. Get the AI sol blue Nano with the controller for $380- 5% or $ 361 shipped if you subscribe to tbaquatics.com. You'll love it on a nano! Clean, simple and no junk to hide! Just remember the led is way more powerful than MH or T5's, so start at a lowerpower output around 25% total output. You can adjust light output for color and intensity, dust to dawn, with storm mode, and night light too all under one hood while running cost about the price of 2 night lights without a chiller. You even get shimmer! And to top it off, your home ac won't even notice that your lights are on!

One of the nice features are that the is no light spillover the edges of the tank too and the light doesnt shine in your eyes either. I tried the rapidled version and id do the ai 100 time over that option. If you are concerned about evaporation, i lose about 2 quarts a week, or simply put a glass lid on.

Thanks for the input. I do not want an external fixture though. I really want to maintain the look of the biocube. I bought it because I wanted a tank that was clean and completely contained. That is the same reason I don't want to leave the feeder lid open or add a fan and prop the lid open.

 

[ange062]

Use led's. Forget the chiller! Youll save $ in the long run

I still have to run a chiller with my LED's... LED isn't a temperature control solution IMO, they still put heat in the water and there are still other variables at play (like ambient house temp, heater accuracy, evaporation rates, etc).

Though I think a chiller is overkill for this. I would look at a fan for evaporative cooling. And IMO that's not a huge swing. Even with a chiller you are only going to be +/-2degrees of accuracy at best.

 

[HaKs310]

If your ambient temperature isn't in the high 90s or something crazy like that, LEDs will be more than adequate.

Go with the RapidLED kit. For the controller you can just go with the potentiometer and adapter $15. Ther PWM controller they have, $60. Or go with an arduino based controller, which can control lots more than just the LEDs $60.

 

[reefsahoy]

I still have to run a chiller with my LED's... LED isn't a temperature control solution IMO, they still put heat in the water and there are still other variables at play (like ambient house temp, heater accuracy, evaporation rates, etc).

Though I think a chiller is overkill for this. I would look at a fan for evaporative cooling. And IMO that's not a huge swing. Even with a chiller you are only going to be +/-2degrees of accuracy at best.

Yes, i hear ya. But i run my led and my house temp is 79. My water temp never gets above 77 and a low of 75 while using a heater. My tank is open top rimless. If you use a hood then yes, i can see the temp rising.